Our Urban Legends project got put on hold for a bit, but it is still something that I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with. I’m especially excited for the story about Michigan’s version of ‘The Jersy Devil’! Some of you guys let me know that you’re as intrigued by UL as I am, and I feel a little guilty for letting it get so far behind.
So, as a peace-offering, I’d like to share these 45 Insanely Creepy And Bizarre Stories That Will Make You Check Your Locks At Night. The list was compiled by Michael Koh at THOUGHT CATALOG, and just like every other compilation… we have to wade through some crap to find the magic mushrooms!
It’s 2:00 am and the meteor shower is in full swing, you can feel that there is something magical in the air. Grab your hot chocolate, get comfy, and switch your Kindle backlights to night mode. Let’s see if we can make it through all 45 stories before checking under the bed for monsters!!
::Challenge Accepted!::
For context: My neighborhood back then was pretty safe (it still is) and we had a security alarm, but only left it on at night. I had gotten home from school, and had spent an hour or so on the computer (so it was around 3 or 4 pm) and I was home alone (my dad was at work, my mom and brothers were grocery shopping.)
The desk that had the laptop was next to an archway which led to the dining room which had a wine rack (which my siblings and I never touched, fearing we’d somehow break the wine bottles) and a wardrobe/cabinet thing which had other alcohol in it (like vodka and sake) which my siblings and I also never touched since we thought alcohol was gross. The cabinet wardrobe thing was right next to the archway closest to the laptop.
So I was playing on the laptop and glance at the dining room, and notice the wardrobe cabinet door is wide open. I think nothing of it, until I glance at it again, look down and notice a pair of bare feet. The cabinet door closes and a woman is standing there, mid to late twenties, and I distinctly remember her looking pretty and she had red-ish hair. She notices me looking and smiles at me, and stops rummaging through the cabinet.
I had just gotten a puppy who was very fluffy and adorable- and social. When she stopped, I notice she’s holding my puppy, saying how cute he is and how she wishes she had a dog. I agree with her, and then I ask: “Are you one of my mom’s friends?” because sometimes they babysat my siblings and I.
She responds no, while cooing over my puppy. There’s a silence, and she puts him down and he wanders over to me and lays down. She walks away and I cautiously follow her, and notice at the steps of the door she was using to leave were several bottles of different alcoholic drinks. I thought that was weird, but since I rarely went into the cabinet, I didn’t recognize the bottles as ours.
I thought that was weird, and went back to playing on the computer. My mom and brothers come back, and my mom asks me how my day was and I tell her about the lady. My mom kind of freezes, trying not to freak out, I think. I didn’t tell her the lady took anything because I didn’t know that stuff was ours. She asks how she got in, and I tell my mom that I think she got in through our garage door because that’s how she left. I mention she had some alcohol bottles with her. My mom (which, to me at the time, was acting weird) tells me with a serious/freaked out look on her face to lock the garage door next time and don’t let strangers in, etc. (she knew I didn’t let the lady in, but I guess she was freaked out that someone was in her house with her kid)
Later, like a few days, my mom tells me who the lady was. Apparently our next door neighbors had a twenty something year old alcoholic daughter and she came to them asking for alcohol and money, and they said no, so she came into our house to get her fix.
A year or so later, when someone was asking me about my dog, I suddenly thought about that and got freaked out about how easily she could have taken him from me.
Tl;dr: Lady walks into my house while it’s unlocked and I’m home alone and 9 years old, takes some alcoholic drinks from the house, could have also taken my dog or other valuable stuff. Ask if she’s my mom’s friend, says no, takes the alcohol, leaves. Turns out she’s the neighbor’s alcoholic daughter.
My mother is the oldest of 5 children – she has 3 sister and a brother, who is the baby of the family. One weekend in the cooler months of the fall, my grandfather decided to take the whole family – my grandmother, my mother, and all my aunts and uncles, so seven people total – into the woods for target practice with a rifle. My mother grew up quite poor and they didn’t always live in the best neighborhoods, so my grandfather wanted to teach the kids how to defend themselves with the rifle if need be.
Like I said, it was later in the fall, so the trees were bare and there were lots of leaves on the ground. The wooded area was just off a dirt road, so this was a fairly rural area they were in. Since it was so far off the beaten path, my grandfather became startled when he heard the roar of a car engine so deep in the woods. My mom remembers the car as being a blue Ford Galaxie.
Despite the fact that my grandfather had a gun, he totally freaked out and told my grandma and the kids to hide under a pile of leaves in the woods. He hid with them. The man in the driver’s seat got out, dragged a woman’s body out of the car, and just dumped her there in the woods and drove away. After my grandfather was sure the man had gone, everyone came out of hiding and the woman sat up and stared them straight in the face. My grandfather asked the woman if she needed help. She said no, she would be fine. She didn’t seem to be injured and obviously didn’t want help – she hadn’t put up a fight with the man when he was dragging her out of the car (she must have known him?) – so my grandfather cut the shooting lesson short and decided to rush the kids home to safety.
Well, on the trail back to the dirt road where my grandfather had parked their car, they passed the man in the blue Ford Galaxie driving out of the woods. My mom looked over and noticed that he had a huge machete laying across the front seats right beside him. My grandfather made sure that the man could see that he was carrying a rifle, but everyone was careful not to give away what they had just seen. The man struck up small talk with my grandfather, asked him how he was doing and what they were doing out in the woods. My grandfather explained that he had just taken his family out for some target practice with the rifle. The man told him to have a nice a day and continued driving.
The next day, my grandfather went back out to that spot in the woods. There was not a body there. However, he did find the woman’s wig, her purse, some Kleenex, and a pair of eyeglasses. He collected the items and took them home. According to my grandfather, that area of the woods was known for having shallow graves and being a dumping site for bodies. My mother became hysterical when he walked in the door carrying that stuff, she started screaming “He killed that lady! He killed that lady!” My grandfather ended up taking the items to the police station, but my mom doesn’t think anything ever came of it – she never heard anything else about it after that.
Well, she did hear one other thing about it, I guess. Early the next morning, my grandmother called my mom when she arrived at work, just before the kids left for school. She told them not to take the bus that day, that she would come home and pick them up and drive them to school. When my mom asked why, my grandmother said, “Because that car is waiting for you at the bus stop.”
We both fall asleep sort of on the coach and suddenly she wakes me up panicing. She’ll telling me that the guy behind her keeps feeling up her back through the gap made by her reclining her chair. I told her (in my half asleep state) he probably did it by accident and to go back to sleep. About 20 minutes later she’s repeatedly whispering my name to get my attention. Straight away I look at the gap between our two seats and his hand is there. I put my head in the gap and stared at this dude dead in his eyes and made it clear not to touch her again. I then put her seat forward, and positioned myself so I was covering the gap between the seat.
Now I’m wide awake. As he was sat in the seat directly behind me and it was dark outside, I was able to see his body in the reflection of the window without seeing his face, meaning he couldn’t see me watching him. I stared at him for about 20 minutes before thinking he must have got the picture by now. I turn and put some music on and give my friend a headphone so she feels better.
Some time later, I feel a pull on my seat. Straight away I look in the reflection and see this dude’s holding onto my seat and is peering over the top of it. I lean forward and he catches my eye in the window. He sat down straight away and tried to style it out pretending he was adjusting the overhead aircon. I put my head between the gap and stare at him for about 20 seconds so he knows not to try anything again.
At this point my friend is getting really stressed and upset. I talk loud enough for him to hear and reassure him that I won’t let him do anything again, and put myself back covering the gap. About 20 minutes later she freaks out again. She starts shouting at this man and I see that he has moved seats and has put his hand on the outside of the two seats. This time I’m not having it anymore and turn around and tell him to leave my friend the fuck alone, raising my voice. He just leant back and pretended to be asleep. Unfortunately some guys on the coach were drunk and were being loud so no one heard us shouting to offer help.
About another hour into the journey, we all had to get off the coach because of a mix up and get a taxi back to our home town. We stand up and get off the coach away, after staring at the man and making sure he wasn’t behind us. We told the coach driver what had happened and requested he didn’t put us on a coach with him, but the man had gone at this point. I ended up getting a taxi back with one of the drunk guys on the coach and his girlfriend (both of which I knew, small world.)
My cousin, who was staying with us at the time, had gone down stairs a little past midnight to have a midnight snack. When she went back upstairs she tried opening the door to her room and noticed it was locked. The lights were on and she heard people behind the door. She tried banging on it, but to no avail. She quickly ran to my parents room and alerted them, but by the time they had gotten the door open the room was ransacked.
Later, my mom had found footprints right outside her bathroom window and a broken watch. Now we have high walls that surround our house and the way to get to the roof would be to scale a tree and hoist ourself onto the roof. From the vantage point of outside my parent’s bathroom you can see the upstairs hallway and anyone who walks up and down it. That means the entire time someone was watching my family. This burglary wasn’t spur of the moment. It had clearly been planned. Someone had been watching and observing our house for a while.
Outside for a cigarette, I notice a drag queen pacing back and forth in front the vending machine. A few minutes later I got up and went to buy myself a bottle of water. I turned around just in time to see the drag queen sauntering up. “You having a bad night honey”? I politely motion that I’m on the phone. She’s persistent and I eventually hang up. The drag queen (her name is Chris) Asks me to join her for a cigarette. We chat for a while then she asks me to join her for a drink. My option of hanging around the airport isn’t looking like much fun. Get drunk in Cincinnati with a drag queen? Beats trying to find a spot to sleep on the cold floor.
Over a drink, Chris starts to talk about how she would just love it if I would join her at a nearby casino. I decline. She tells me its only a half hour drive away. I again tell her that I would prefer to just stay around the airport area. We continue chatting and after more insistence that we head to the casino, something makes me change my mind. The problem with all of this was that from the beginning my gut was telling me this was not a very good idea for many obvious reasons.
We get in the vehicle and start to drive, I’m keeping an eye on where we are going and am immediately alarmed when I realize that we are getting farther and farther away from the city. In fact, we are now on the highway (its 12:30 at night at this point) and there is no one on the road except some truckers. I start to get a little creeped out and ask some questions about the casino. Where is it? Are there signs? I am assured that it’s not much farther at all and that there will be some signs coming up at any moment. We keep driving. It’s getting more secluded and I still haven’t seen any signs for this casino. Now at this point I am more then a little scared. I am sick to my stomach. We take an c “exit” and are all of a sudden plunged into complete darkness on a road with no street lights, not traffic no NOTHING! Just farm land. We are in the middle of nowhere. I am in the middle of nowhere in Ohio with a drag queen who has asked me to go to a casino which I am not even sure exists. I am about to puke. I reach in my bag and dial 911 on my phone and hold my finger over the call button ready to press send at any second but I’m not even sure if I’ll get reception. The only thing I can think over and over is “what have I done?”
I could barely even talk at this point. I needed to get out of the car ASAP!! I ask her to pull over so I could pee. “But it’s just a bit further”. No, I really need to go now.” She pulls the car to a stop and I grab my purse telling her I’ll be right back. I go down a hill and take off running down into farmland. I can hear animals and I am so scared I can hardly even see straight. I press myself up against the side of the hill and wait for about a half hour until I think she is gone.
I walk for a bit until I come to some kind of community down a dirt road. The first house has a TV on and a rottweiler guarding the house. I keep walking and come to the last house around the bend. The TV is on. I knock on the door and peek through the screen. There is a man with a serious mullet asleep on the couch. I knock. He kind of sits up then sits back down and turns off the lamp. WTF!?! I knock again and say I need help.. nothing. All of a sudden he bolts up does a double take at the girl standing in his doorway and runs outside. He can hardly contain himself “Oh my god, oh my god,” I give him the short version of my story leaving out the part that my companion was a drag queen. He invites me in. I immediately find out that this guy is a taxidermist. He offers me juice (just water please) milk (just water please) kool-aid? sunny d ? coffee? tea???? MOUNTAIN DEW!!???!!! I see the disbelief in his eyes that I refused mountain dew so he cracks one himself and chugs the entire thing in about 30 second flat. He cracks another one, and in a few minutes I watched this man consume three mountain dews.
He starts to tell me again what a nervous guy he is (could it have anything to do with the mountain dew?) and how “this sorta thing happens on TV and he just cant believe this and he is just so glad I’m ok.” I ask for a ride to the airport. He agrees except that he has just had a bunch of beers. That’s ok we have time for him to sober up. He talks to me a lot for the next little while showing me pics of the biggest fish he ever caught and some taxidermy, a mounted squirrel that he shot with a BB gun. He showed me the fishing rod he had been in the process of patching with crazy glue and dental floss, and he told me how he hates the city (his friend once brought him to a bar where there were men dressed as woman…. This made me silently congratulate myself that I had left out the drag queen part in my story)
Despite my better judgement I ended up passing out in the lazy boy after he set an alarm. When it went off a few hours later the closing credits to an X-Files rerun was playing it’s eerie music on the television. I woke him up and was soon dropped off at the airport just in time to catch my flight home.
Whenever I tell this story it feels unbelievable even to me. It’s so ripe with clichés and the best part of the story? The helpful redneck told me at one point in the evening that there really was a casino in the area.
Update! Three other things happened that I didn’t mention in the original post.
1) Chris originally mentioned that we would go to the casino “in town” because it was more “lively” then the one that was further away. When we turned off onto the dirt road she said we were going to the one that was further away because it was “quieter” then the one that was “in town”. So, there was a lie in a tense situation.
2) Before we made the turn as we got further away 5 from the lights of the city she started getting strange and aggressive with me. She kept cagely asking me if I judged her like everyone else.
3) She had told me she was a flight attendant from Florida with a layover. When we got to her car it had Ohio license plates and she excused this by saying it was a loaner from a friend.
Then the weirdest part of the encounter started. Everything before was your typical socially maladapted flirt experience. Then the guy started telling me how he had a guitar in his car, he could play it for me. I said, “Sure! You should go get it. I’ll wait here.” I was hoping this would be my opportunity to get away. Nope. The guy started insisting I go with him to his car. “I’m not really into that idea, I’d rather stay here. You can go get it and bring it back, though.” He was like a dog with a bone. He REALLY wanted me to come back to his car with him. My college is a commuter school, the parking lots are huge and spread out. It could very easily be the case that his car was in an empty area. I’m glad I had enough sense back then to turn him down. But I felt stuck: he wasn’t going to the car without me, and he kept waiting for me to come. I couldn’t seem to ditch him. He was becoming visibly upset and agitated every time I told him to go to his car by himself.
I decided to use every girl’s last resort. I headed to the women’s room. He seemed ready to follow me. I had to give him a look like “WOMEN’S ROOM” to make him stop in his tracks.
Women’s restrooms are like little glowing safe havens! I stayed in there for maybe twenty minutes before my friend saw my text and called me back. He told me I should just hide out. I told him I’d call him back. Luckily for me an older woman, most likely a teacher, was in the bathroom, overhearing our conversation. She emerged from a stall looking pissed off. She asked for a description of my creeper and walked out of the bathroom. After a couple minutes she returned and gave me the go ahead, the guy had gone. I never asked if he had just given up or if she told him off for waiting outside. After all that work, I find it hard to believe that he gave up after 20 minutes of me hiding in the bathroom. That lady is my hero if she told him off!
For the next few months I varied my route around school. I’m very careful about not keeping the same habits because I’ve been creeped on in the past. I never ran into the creep again. I always look back and think how weird it was that he tried to get me to go back to his car so urgently.
Inside I found my collection of Internet conversations left after the dust had settled in a nearly year long stalking incident I saved it to have as proof if I ever needed to get the law enforcement involved. It all happened in High school, I was a bit of a ladies man. Like most guys that age I was not interested in being tied down to a single girl. It all worked fine, I was always very clear that we could have fun together but I would not have a relationship that stretched beyond that.
But then love struck, the old dog was in love. It chocked many, with my reputation no one thought it was the real deal. Sadly that made it easy for my stalker to make her move. I still had contact (Non sexual) with my exes, most of them was and still are great friends to this day. We would take a drink or coffee together when I was in town and do all sorts of regular friendly stuff. I often got approached by girls in school who wanted to catch my interest and often got treated something in the cafeteria. I was pretty used to this, thankful but I still didn’t pay it much thought. I was social and polite to anyone who wanted to hang out with me and my friends.
We had this tiny group of friends that always kept together in school and we would frequently get a new member that wanted to hang with us and have fun.
We had earlier that year adopted “Sara” into our little circle, she was a somewhat socially awkward girl. Very tense and always needed approval by her surroundings and friends. But she was nice and fun at a start, so we took her in. I was a little extra nice to her in the start since she had trust issues and often went to me when something was wrong. I often helped her out or spent time with her since we had classes together and she often came with me and my friends on our spare time to drink coffee, visit a bar or older friends with apartments on the weekends to party. I knew she had started to fancy me a bit, but so did a few others and I had made clear that I was taken and not interested. She still persisted in giving me treats and food whenever she could and often brought me a cup of coffee for the bus ride to school that we shared every morning.
I accepted it since I need my morning coffee and I feel it’s very impolite to refuse.
Then rumors started circulating that we secretly dated, and my girlfriend got harassed by people who felt sorry for Sara who had told them that we wanted to be together but that she wouldn’t let us and I was afraid to tell anyone because I was moving in together with her and therefore couldn’t break it up. The web of lies she had created behind our backs was so complex I can’t believe it. I lost a few friends in this process since she had them all fooled. When the truth came out it was to late to fix many of the wrongs it had caused. It all happened both quickly and slowly, I had begun to suspect that something was wrong with Sara and stopped accepting her treats and just pretending to drink the coffee she brought me. I tried to avoid her and not encourage her in any way.
But odd rumors just kept appearing, that we been to party’s together, had meet and had sex in secret. And that I played with her feelings. I asked a friend to pretend to be a stranger and befriend her online, she quickly feel for it and they started talking more “intimate”. She had this secret online profile where she would stalk mine to discover what I was up to. She would tell this fake friend of hers the most weird things she conjured up in her head. I was supposed to once have given her a rose, she took it home and when she placed it in water it sprang rots instantly. It was because I had realized my true feelings for her. She invented fake meetings, and often told her “friend” that I was there or been there or that she soon would go to see me.
Of course I was together with that friend at most of those times and could be vouched for that I had not done any of those things. Sara had even started to make love potions, she apparently stuck some potion she made containing a herb and some hair from me in the coffee that she offered me on the buss. Thankfully I had stopped to really drink it a few days before the first dose. I have a lot of pages on this and need to read through them because 10 years is a long time to remember back to. This got longer and more messy then I thought when I started typing so I’m ending this soon. I hope it’s not to messy and hard to comprehend since I just blurted this out. It all ended with a few lost friends, but she didn’t go nuts and try murder me or my girlfriend thank goodness. It’s something I never want to experience again.
This guy’s house was creepy as hell anyway because it was very old and literally had a graveyard in the backyard. We’re listening to music and kissing but I get this weird feeling like somebody is watching me. I tell him about it and he just brushes it off. We go back to kissing but I’m so not in the mood anymore. I’m still totally freaked out and I’m getting a little annoyed that he’s treating me like a child. I just feel that something isn’t right.
I start looking around and that’s when I see her. There is a girl clinging to the window with her face pressed against the glass! And she looks pissed! I scream and just freeze up. I’m standing in the middle of the room pointing at the window, hyperventilating , and grabbing on to him for dear life. At first he thinks I’ve lost my mind but then he sees her.
Instead of comforting me or calling the police, he starts running toward the front of the house where the front door is! I try to grab him and pull him back. He pulls away and opens the door. This girl comes in like a whirlwind. She’s yelling and breaking shit while I have hidden myself behind a couch in the smoking room.
I have no idea how long this screaming and smashing of furniture goes on. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die that night. I hear what sounds like a frying pan being thrown at something breakable and the front door slam. I seem to be in an altered state of consciousness because, the next thing I know, is the guy is back and is dragging me outside. The minute we get to my car I start throwing up and just kind of jump in and lock my door.
On the drive back to my house, I find out the girl was his ex. They had recently broken up and she knew he was seeing someone else. She was supposed to be at work and not spying on him.
Two years ago I studied abroad in Paris, and was going to visit my friend at her apartment one night. As usual I took the metro, and I had to make a line change. As I squeezed my way onboard, I kind of bumped shoulders with a young (late 20s, early 30s) African male. I just said excuse me and grabbed onto the hand rail on the ceiling, thinking that would be the extent of our interaction.
Well I was wrong, because as the metro got moving the man struck up a little conversation with me. It started innocuously enough, with him asking if I was American and what I’m doing in Paris. I politely told him I was there for the semester to study abroad, and the questions became a bit more personal. He asked where I was studying, living and what I was doing that night- he even asked where I was headed.
At this point I was thoroughly sketched out, and I began trying to answer the questions as vaguely as possible. I hoped that my curt responses would deter further questioning/communicating, and it sort of worked. I finally got to my stop, and exited the train. Now, there were two exits to leave the metro station, and for some reason one of them was a lot more crowded than the other. This was one of the dumbest things I have ever done, but I decided to take the isolated exit out. In retrospect I should have probably stayed with the crowd and tried to lose him, but I wanted to be sure he was following me before I did something.
Sure enough, my new pal was about 5 feet behind me, following me. I ducked into a bar right by the metro exit, and the dude fucking came in with me, trying to chat again and asking more about where I was headed. I just sort of stood by the bar waiting for him to leave, and then he said he had to go step outside to make a phone call- sketchy. After he left, the bartender came to me and asked if I was okay and if I wanted that guy to be there. Relieved, I filled him in on everything, and he told me he’d get him out of there. The bartender and another patron told the guy to gtfo (nicely) and I texted my friend asking her to come meet me at the bar because I didn’t want to walk alone. She came to meet me and everything turned out just fine, but it was late and dark and I was in a foreign country so this was pretty unnerving.
10. MattyT7
I went on my hike today a little later than usual, starting up the mountain at about 6:30. I had gotten off work a bit later than usual, but that hadn’t discouraged me from going on my hike. I love nature. I view my hikes as blessings, as opportunities to really take in the beauty that this world offers. I began the usual route, left at the giant rock, and continuing straight for a while before making another left at the large oak. However, when I reached the oak, there was caution tape stretched from another tree to the oak, effectively blocking off the path so that you were forced to make a right.
I had never taken a right at the oak tree, and I did not want to today. I am not familiar with the path and may get lost. That thought process is what led me to disregard the caution tape, and proceed left anyway. It was then already rounding 7 o’clock. The sun was setting, but I had experience hiking in darkness, and did not even hesitate in continuing on my hike. Besides, I always bring my lighter, and swiss army pocket knife whenever hiking, so I was not all that nervous.
I started up the left of the oak and marvelled at the gorgeous vegetation I was surrounded by. The wildflowers, the trees with their blossoming branches, and the insects scuttling around. I was in heaven. As I continued on the trail, I approached an unfamiliar scene. This trail normally continues up and up the mountain, to its highest point. One way up. One way down. However, as I looked ahead, I saw a fork in the trail. One way leading left, the other leading right. I had never before seen these two paths. Faced with a decision I was unfamiliar with, I could not decide whether to go right, or left. I was not ready to end my hike, so I just decided to make it easy and go right. That was probably the biggest mistake I have ever made. I should’ve turned back at the first thing I came across. After maybe a minute of walking on this stray trail, I saw something coming up on the path. As I neared the object, I noticed it was a compass. However, there was what appeared to be blood spattered on the glass casing along with many scratches. The needles were going back and forth, as if running out of control. Instead of turning back, I picked up the compass and placed it in my sweatshirt pocket. I continued on the trail, with nothing worth mentioning appearing for about 15 minutes. Then I saw it.
Up ahead in the distance, I saw what appeared to be a golf cart with a large yellow bucket next to it. I came closer and closer, and realized how incorrect I actually was. I can now say it is what looks like a poorly put together shelter, presumably housing a homeless person. When I passed the shelter, I got a good look on the inside. I saw a few scattered sheets of paper, a candle, what looked like some roots, and a few poorly made small brown dolls. I had no interest in exploring the small shack, and continued on my hike. 20 minutes go by. I am nearing the top of the mountain. The sun has completely set but it is still slightly bright outside, loads of visibility.
I reach the top of the mountain, and relish the view. I can see the entire city, with a 360 degree view of it all. Nature is gorgeous. I’m getting ready to make my way down and back to the bottom to my car. Then I see him.
A man with a thick brownish-gray beard, slightly balding, and a little bit overweight. He is visibly shaking and mumbling to himself. I assume that this is the homeless guy which lives in the shack I had come across. Not wanting any trouble, I attempt to pass him, making no eye contact and looking directly down towards the ground. But when we are directly next to each other, he reaches out and grabs me. Looking directly into my eyes, his eyes are crazy and bloodshot. His lips are quivering as he makes out a few words.
“Return what is not yours.”
He then reaches into my sweatshirt pocket, and grabs the compass I had picked up along my hike. I reach for my pocket knife, only to find that it is not there. I pull out my lighter and stupidly flash it at him like it is some sort of deadly weapon. He frowns down at me, loosens his grip, and begins yelling nonsense at the sky. The last thing I remember hearing from him is, “Hot Tamale! Hot Tamale! Wrongdoing and sin! Meet your maker! MEET YOUR MAKER!”
I sprint, not run, SPRINT, as fast as I can while maintaining safety. I run past the two stray trails, past the caution tape and big oak, past the large rock, and finally reach the foot of the mountain. Reaching into my pocket, I grab for my car key, and find that it is missing. In heavy panic, I start freaking out. I’m not going to go back to the mountain, but I don’t have my keys. I decide just to go to my car and call Triple A or something. When I reach the car door, I notice something. My car keys are inserted into the slot on the handle. On the ground, my pocket knife lays, undamaged and intact.. What was written on the window spooked me the most. It had been carved into the glass.
“I Return what is not mine.”
11. SergantSniffy
A few years ago a small part of my neighborhood was inhabited by meth heads. A few different occurrences happened during a short time spand such as my neighbor being shot at with a pellet rifle by one of the meth heads while biking towards school.
However one occasion really struck out of the ” ordinary ” While waiting for my sister and her friends to arrive at our house before we went swimming in the lake (I was about 9 years at the time) While we were waiting one of my sisters friend noticed a man in our driveway who shouted he needed help. He was soaked in blood, his own blood. There were stabs all over him and the blood was gushing out of him. We recognized the man as one of the meth heads and my mom who is a nurse helped him into safety in our garage. As time passed with my mom in the garage helping the meth head, we had called the police and ambulance. Shortly after we could hear a faint shouting, as the individual got closer to our house we could make out what he was shouting ” I’m going to kill you Kim!! ” Several times he was shouting this with a snarl in his voice, with blood gushing from his bald head and a screw driver in his hand. He was searching for someone, and we were in his way for his prey.
As the police arrived they quickly managed to arrest him and the fellow meth head in our garage. We later learned that the reason this all had started was because they had not agreed how to share 10$ which resulted into one smashing a wine bottle in the bald guys head, which the bald guy responded to stabbing the meth head several times with a screwdriver.
Needless to say, I didn’t go swimming that day.
12. Hades83
This is actually my friends story. But I was almost a daily guest at her house so I think I might be able to tell it like she would. She lived at her parents house. We were around 17-18 years old and they had just moved into a big house from a small apartment. They had a dog who was extremely well behaved but sometimes in the middle of the night he would start growling and barking. One early morning, my friends dad followed the dog to the kitchen where he saw a young man trying to get in through the window. The man got away before the police got there. But the growling and barking didn’t stop. And sometimes we could all hear weird sounds, like someone was walking on the roof of the house or something. Her dad would often have a look up into the attic and saw nothing so he blamed these sounds on the weather. Changes in heat/cold and humidity making the wood crackle. This went on for a few years. A few nights a week the dog would growl and they would hear what sounded like footsteps. I spent some nights there and one time my friend woke me up just to make me listen. Years later, a few years after my friend moved out from her parents place, her dad was doing something in the attic when he found a tiny little door in the far corner. He had never noticed it before because this corner of the attic was really dark. He opened the tiny little door and what he saw in the beam of his flashlight really freaked everyone out. He saw a dirty mattress, some burnt out candles and candy wrappers. It’s been years since she told me about what her father saw but I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Someone had actually been living in their attic. Maybe the guy who tried to climb in through the window? Creepy as fuck.
13. purged6
[In Puerto Rico for a vacation…] About half a block from the house I see someone on the other side of the street looking through a car. I didn’t think much of it, since he had the door open, I assumed it was his car, nothing suspicious, and kept walking. I was maybe a half block past him when I glanced back and noticed that he was standing next to the car, curbside, and he seemed to be staring at me. He was wearing a white shirt so even though he was in the shadows I could still see him. It seemed a bit creepy, but I figured he probably lived there and just didn’t recognize me and was seeing what I was up to.
I kept walking and made my way down to the beach about another block and a half away. There was a small patch of some odd grass, just before some rocks, then the beach. I stopped on the grass, I wasn’t wearing shoes and it felt nice on my feet, and stood under the palm trees for a moment sipping my beer, just kinda looking around, taking it all in. That’s when I happened to glance back the way I came again and notice a man in a white shirt standing near the end of the street. I stood there for a moment, trying not to let him know that I had seen him, or that I was feeling uneasy at his presence in any way, and he just stood there as well. I was sure it must be the same man as I hadn’t seen anyone else on the street on my walk down. I continued to sip my beer, and he continued standing at the corner. He was standing completely out in the open, but it just seemed odd that he was just standing there. I didn’t really want to look directly at him so I couldn’t really tell what he was doing. At this point I was becoming fairly uneasy. I’ve never been worried about walking around at night, but I had never been in a place quite like this either. The road that ran along the beach had a few street lights, the nearest one was just up the beach a bit so I decided to make my way towards it in hopes that whatever this guy was up to it had nothing to do with me.
I walked back to the sidewalk, as I figured it was better to stay where it was somewhat lit, and made my way over to the streetlight, all the while trying not to let on that I am aware of this man’s presence and getting a bit freaked out. I got to the streetlight and stopped. I took out my cell phone to try to seem as casual as I could and glanced around and didn’t see him anymore. I breathed a sigh of relief and figured I had just been freaking myself out for no reason and decided to call my gf to tell her what had happened and that I was on my way back. I called her and started walking back towards our street telling her about this guy creeping on me and then I see him. At the end of the street there was an abandoned house. It had no roof, doors or windows, just walls, and I could clearly see someone in a white shirt standing in the doorway. I stopped in my tracks.. oh shit.. he’s still here I said. He was far enough away that he couldn’t hear me, but when I stopped I saw him take a step back, into the dark house, so I could no longer see him. At this point my gf was getting freaked out as well, so I turned around and started heading back towards the streetlight. There was another street up just a bit and I figured I could take that and loop back around to the house. I tried to walk as normally as possible as to not let on that I was scared. When I got to the corner I turned left and looked back and could see the man was coming down the sidewalk towards me. He didn’t appear to be running, but he must have been walking fairly quickly because he had definitely gained some ground on me. I turned the corner and once I was behind a house and out of sight I told my gf that I was hanging up and going to run. I ran as fast as I could and didn’t look back. Of course, unbeknownst to me, one of the houses on this street had some rather large dogs, which, once aware of a person running by in the dark, began to bark wildly scaring me even more.
I made it back to the house, unlocked the gate and quickly locked it behind me. I looked around to see if anyone had seen me but there was no one in sight. My gf was pretty freaked out so we locked the doors and shut the blinds and called it a night. I didn’t have any more run-ins with any late night creepers the rest of the time we were there, and all in all we ended up having a great vacation. It still gives me a little chill recounting this story though.
14. D_b0
Years ago in NC, when I was a child, there was an area not far from my house that had large sand hills and a forested area surrounding it. Me, my older sister (Jo) and4little sister (Rae) would go out and play there, and sometimes a friend of my sisters’ (Bri).
Anyway, Jo was telling me about how Rae was there listening to music and I guess was writing in her notebook. Jo went to go get her and let her know that dinner was ready but when she walked through the forested area into the sand hill part, Jo said she saw Bri wearing a pink dress walking up to Rae from beind. Jo called out to Bri saying hey, hoping to talk to her for a bit. Rae didn’t here this because of headphones, but when Bril turned around, Jo realized that it wasn’t Bri, but actually a full grown woman staring her in the eyes.
Jo was a little shocked at first and didn’t know how to react. But when the lady saw Jo, she turned and ran back into the forest and out of sight. Jo then ran up to Rae, who had no knowledge of what just happened, and told her as calmly as possible that supper was ready. They walked back together and Jo kept looking back to make sure nobody was following them.
15. MaskedRawR
First of all, I am a male who was around 20 at the time and with a male friend too.
So, me and my mate were at a very busy bus station outside of central London waiting for a bus. We had quite a wait and having spent most of the week together and being very tired me and my friend were quiet for a change.
I’m idly looking around when I notice an Asian man in his late 20′s/early 30′s staring at a teenage girl. I think very little of it at first as it’s hardly uncommon to see older men lusting for teenage girls. Though I sneak a glance at them a few more times. This guy is staring, I mean, burning a hole into the back of her head staring.. I point it out to my mate and he also found it odd. The bus arrives after 15 minutes of this and we stand on the bottom deck, coincidentally with the weird guy and the girl. As people shuffle down the bus as others get on and off, this guy get closer and closer to the girl until he is literally SMELLING HER HAIR!
At this point my mate is adamant he’s going to say something, but for some reason I felt it would be a better idea to stay back and see if he/she gets off the bus without the other. We were going to the end of the line so in theory it was a good idea. After only 10 minutes into the journey this girl rings the bell and gets off.. then the creep get off with her. Making a judgement call we decide enough is enough and get off with them, even though we have another 50 minutes of journey to go until our destination. The teen crosses the road rather quickly just dashing past traffic and this guy is still behind her, following at about 5 feet.
My friend decides he’d had enough but not wanting to cause a potentially dangerous fight we run upto the girl and quickly stop her to ask “for the time”, at this point the stalker guy walks past us whilst my friend warns the teen about what we’d just seen and asks her if she knew him. We point her, ever so slyly, to his direction and she says she’d never seen him before. Whilst my friend did all the talking I felt the girl was very eager to get away from us and seemed FAR more concerned by us than the creep, which was understandable IMO. I’m sure most girls would be apprehensive being told by two 20 year-old men that she was being stalked at around 10o’clock at night. Anyway, the next bus stop was a short walk away and again by coincidence the girl is getting onto the same bus as us. Whilst waiting we see the creep again watching her, getting closer and closer each time. My mate exchanges a glance with the teen who has now been snatching awkward glances in our direction probably thinking we were actually following her with an agenda. So one last time we walk upto her and warn her that the creep is back and to be careful. Even I felt it was time to speak up and try to drill it into her head that this guy was fucking weird.
So we’re on the bus now, after another 5 minute wait and again this creep join us, still watching her, though now giving me and my friend dirty looks. Only 2 or 3 minutes into the journey, the girl rings to bell and get off the bus.. the creep follows suit. Once again my friend leaps up to get off the bus when I stopped him and said “We’ve told her twice now, mate. She clearly doesn’t give a fuck about him. She’s more worried about us.” He protests but the doors close and the bus begins to move. I look out the window and she’s put some earphones in, glanced behind her DIRECTLY at the creep.. and walk on, down a side-road with no pedestrians, cars or lighting.
A few weeks later a serial rapist/murderer was arrested for raping at least 3 or 4 women and murdering 1 of them. He was an Asian man of 28 who had stalked girls home a few days in a row and would attacking them once he learned their routine. I don’t know if it was the same guy or what happened to the girl.
I might have been able to do more, but felt continuing pursuit of this naive girl and her potential stalker could only lead to trouble. (She probably would have fucking shit herself and legged it had she seen us again, and we’d have been nicked)
16. StrawberryBlondeish
I’m a 26 year old girl that lives alone in a basement apartment with my dog.
Last Easter (my dog was only about 3 month old at the time), I took her out to do her thing before going to bed. This was around 1:30 am. We went to the yard, pitch black (street lights are kind of far away so the only light out was from peoples windows. She’s doing her thing, and I’m talking to her. I look up and look into my neighbours yard (no fence, just 2 medium sized trees are between our yards), and I see this tall man. I’m guessing around 2 meters tall. The guy is around 3-4 meters away from me, and just stands there and stares.
All the sudden he starts walking from the yard towards the street. I do the same (my front door was open, didn’t want to risk anything). When I come to my door, I see the guy. He stands in front of my neighbours house and he just stares back. I stood there for about 2 minutes, just trying to see what the fuck he was doing. Than he start walking up the stairs of the house and it looks like he’s going in. At that point I decide that I just have a creepy neighbour and go in to my apartment.
I sit down on the couch and continue watching the Tv. Than I start seeing someone blocking a beam of light that comes in through my curtains. And again it gets blocked …. was like someone was walking in my yard. I mute the TV, but hear nothing (the weather was very cold so the grass was crispy). I stand up,and lift my curtains up (note that I live in a basement), and there he is. Our faces were too close to each others, on the opposite side of the window. I managed to keep my cool and stared back. The guy just stood up and walked slowly away in the crispy grass (went to my neighbours yard again).
I freaked out and called the cops.
And now, maybe 1 month ago, I’m watching Tv with the dog. All the sudden she starts growling, hairs on the back go up and teeth showing. There he was again, same window.
Now I always have the curtains down, have a security system and always take a flash light with me to the yard if its dark.
17. mikefthrowaway
I was in about the 4th or 5th grade and finally old enough to walk home by myself from school like a big kid. It wasn’t a very long path, but I felt a sense of pride in it, as if every single one of those footsteps were tiny bridges bringing me closer and closer to my ultimate independence. Looking back now, it’s eerie to think how close my first steps of freedom were to making me run for my life. It was the mid 90s and we had just moved to Miami, Florida. Shortly after we got there, news broke out over an abduction, rape and murder of a boy only a grade older than me. His name was Jimmy Ryce. It was the first time I learned that there were bad people around who did bad things.
I’ll never forget how much my parents and teachers stressed me not to talk to strangers, how to dial 911, and other hints, tips and tricks to help keep me safe after that. I think it’s safe to say I was a bit more cautious and aware of my surroundings than I would have been otherwise had it not been for Jimmy. Well on this particular day when I was walking down the avenue home from school, I noticed something strange that caught my attention. The same old junky car sitting at the stop sign in front of me was sitting at the last two stop signs behind me. As soon as I would cross the street in front of the car, the driver would zip around and the block and be at the next stop sign, once again waiting for me to cross the road.
But after about 3 more blocks of this, I turned down the last street to my house and he drove away. I remember thinking it was weird, but I figured that he have been lost or something. Just a strange coincidence. I didn’t think too much about it after that. Fast forward a few weeks later and it’s Friday. I’m super excited for the weekend and my best friend Luis is walking home with me so we can play video games and watch movies after school.
Well as we’re walking home together, I noticed that same old junky car pull up to the stop sign. Words cannot begin to describe the speed at which my brain re-calculated the previous event, which I had almost forgotten, and refiled the thoughts I harbored of him “probably being lost”, and replaced them with the “oh my god” as I realized I was possibly being targeted by this person.
As soon as I noticed him I tried to play it cool. I didn’t want him to read my face. I told Luis not to look, but gave him the run down that the same car ahead of us at the stop sign had followed me one time when I was walking home, and that we needed to make a plan. As we crossed the street I tried to nonchalantly draw my eyes over to the drivers seat to see the face of the man inside the car, but his tints were so strong that I couldn’t see anything but the silhouette of a man facing directly at me.
I’ve read a few times before that when someone points a gun at you and you’re in their cross-hairs, your body can somehow sense it, even miles away. I suppose it’s the same way you can feel it when someone is looking at you in a room. Now I don’t think this person had a gun pointed at me, but my body could feel his eyes watching me while I crossed the road in a way that gave me feel terribly uneasy. The only way to describe it was feeling like a big hungry alligator was really mad at me and I didn’t know why.
My skin was crawling as he turned around the street and pulled up again in front of the next stop sign. I could tell by the way he drove that his attitude was different this time. The first time it seemed he was trying to be inconspicuous and just blend in, this time I think he knew that I knew what was happening, and he drove with more bravado, and would inch the car closer to us at the stop sign to intimidate us whereas before he would stay fairly well behind the white line. It felt like he was getting himself pumped up for something.
We were totally freaked out, but we were still trying our hardest to play it cool and act like we didn’t notice. While he drove around the block to meet us at the stop sign at the street my house was on, we planned to write his license plate numbers down. As the car pulled up to the stop sign, we made a right instead of crossing him, and Luis pulled the pencil and paper out of his backpack and I read him the plate numbers real quick.
He definitely noticed what was going on, because he peeled away from the stop sign to go back around the block again. At this point he wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. It was time to run.
As soon as he turned the corner we bolted all the way to my house as fast as we could move. I don’t know if I said anything to Luis, or if we were communicating telepathically to each other, but somehow we both knew we had to get inside my house before he could see which house we were going to. Anyway, i’ll never forget this, but as soon as we were crossing the final street two houses from my house I looked down the road to see if he was there and I saw him turn a sharp corner super fast about 300 ft away and just saw him flooring the car so he could intercept us.
Before that moment I had only seen him pulling up to the stop sign, but this time I was seeing just how aggressively he was actually pursuing us and it was scary as fuck. Luckily enough we were fast and able to unlock the door and get inside just before he pulled down our street. I stared out the peek-hole and watched his car slowly drive around a few times before he finally disappeared. I called my mom and told her to come home because we just got chased my some weird man and she rushed home and we told her everything. Thankfully, my mother works in corrections, and as soon as we told her the story and that we had his license plate numbers she was able to send a few police officers she worked with over to visit the guy.
I don’t know if I’ll ever really know what happened, but she told me that the cops found the location of the owner of the vehicle and decided to go have a chat with him “off the record”. I didn’t know it at the time, but I found out years later that she went with them. She said he was some thirty something year old guy living with his parents, and that he denied everything, and his parents were surprised, but that the cops thought he was a fucking weirdo and didn’t believe anything he said. They told him they were going to be watching him cause they know what he was doing and that if I ever saw him again they were gonna personally come back for him and they scared the shit out of him.
I never saw him again.
18. MrAndersmith
One Saturday night when I was twelve I had stayed up until 1 AM watching a movie on TV. The movie had ended when I noticed headlights out the window. I opened the curtains to see a red pickup driving slowly (maybe 5 mph) with the brights on and some big, frustrated looking dude with a tank top on searching thoroughly for something. At the time I thought his pet of some sort had gotten out and he was looking for it now, so I dismissed it and went to brush my teeth. After brushing my teeth, I looked out the window again to see a figure dash past the window, came back, stopped, then approached the window.
It was a twenty-something dude with a neckbeard and messed up hair in just whitey tities looking frantically at me. He told me to let him to use the phone and I just looked at him, and laughed while telling him no. He then got really panicy and started banging om the window and screaming for me to let him in. I was really scared at that point because he was hitting the window so hard I thought it would break so he could come in. My dad came out of his room to see what was going on. He yelled at the window dude, but he wouldn’t leave. After a little bit the same truck came down the street and the window dude bolted. He never came back and there has been no other creepy incidents since that day. I still have nightmares of the window dude actually breaking the window and coming in to kill me.
19. micky21098
Let me start off by saying that when this happened I lived in a very safe neighborhood, the kind where nothing ever happens. So at the time I was about 9-10. I was walking home from school with a few friends. The group we had was about 5 people. The walk is only a mile and a half, so we weren’t very far from home. It was a Friday and all of us were going to hang out at my friend Amanda’s house. About half way through our walk home, a car passes us. We didn’t notice because tons of cars passed us, we were walking on a fairly busy street. Then it passed again. And again. After it passed the next time, my friend Alyssa, who was closest to the street, freaked out and told us. We looked behind us and saw it coming again. Now we were really close to Amanda’s house, and we ran. We didn’t care about crossing the street and getting ran over. We just booked it. And the car was following us the entire time.
Now, we were walking onto a suburban street lined with houses. Not a main road that leads somewhere, no, you only drove that street if you lived there. The car followed us onto that street. And then onto the next one where my friend lived. As we reached the house, it was no more than 15 feet behind us. We got into the house and screamed for her mom to come help us. A very concerned mother came out and we told her very quickly what happened. She called the cops immediately. We gave a description of the car, a white 4runner. Turns out the cops had gotten multiple calls about this car, and were already looking for it. I don’t know if they ever found it.
20. ckuhzzoolahan
When I was about 16, I used to visit my high school boyfriend every weekend. He lived in the neighboring town (about 30 minutes away), and we would usually stay together at our friend’s house. For a little background, I’d met these friends through my boyfriend and they’d all come from pretty low income families so I was pretty used to spending most of my time hanging out in the sketchier parts of the town. That whole city has somewhat of a reputation of being unsafe; there are many very poor neighborhoods, barely any jobs due to it’s rural location, and it’s well known for it’s meth users.
So one Friday or Saturday I show up to my friend K and D’s house. They lived in a VERY tiny mother-in-law unit in an alley, but would still have a lot of friends over so it was easily crowded and people who stayed the night usually slept in close quarters. So as soon as I get to their house that day, I notice that everyone is a little unsettled. It’s about 2 or 3pm, and my friend J recounts to me the weird events of that morning. So apparently the night before they’d had a little get-together. It had been D, K, J, my boyfriend, our friend C, and a guy we had somewhat recently been hanging out with who had brought a few friends. D and K were pretty laid back and didn’t mind when people brought their friends over, even if they hadn’t met them before, and it happened often. So everyone gets drunk, smokes some bowls, hangs out, and eventually everyone passes out in the living room. When morning comes, my friend J, now sober, opens his eyes and sees something strange. There is a man slumped against the heater on the wall, apparently sleeping. J goes through his mind, trying to remember which one of the friend-of-a-friends this was, but he couldn’t place it. He had never seen this man before. He described him as pretty normally dressed, hispanic, and possibly a bit older than all of us. He’s still groggy but also a bit paralyzed, not sure if he’s freaking out for no reason, or if maybe he’d just gotten too drunk and forgotten meeting the guy. He turns over quietly to the couch where our other friend C slept, and managed to wake him quietly.
“Dude…who is that?” he asked quietly, and gestured to the other side of the room, which, being such a small house was only about 6 or so feet away.
“…I don’t know.” With it confirmed at least between the two of them that this man was a stranger, they began to get pretty scared. Before either of them could do anything else, the man got up from his spot by the heater and walked over to the kitchen counter. He took a few cigarettes from someone’s pack that was left out, and walked to the front door. He then turned to C and J.
“I’ll be back later.” and he left. Eventually when everyone had woken up, the two of them told the story and asked anyone if they’d brought over a guy of that description. No one had, but someone, I can’t remember who, had noticed the guy there before everyone had gone to sleep, but assumed it had been one of the random friends brought over. However no one recalled interacting with him.
As J finished telling me this story I was SO incredibly creeped out and really wished someone had told me this before I’d come over, because if I had known I wouldn’t have come. For whatever reason, probably because I’d already asked my parents to drive me all the way there and because I knew if I went home I’d just be worried sick about my boyfriend, I stayed the night anyway. I triple-checked the locks and as we hung out and later as I slept in the living room I was on alert for anything; footsteps in the alley gravel, creaking of the porch. I was pretty freaked out but everyone else had laughed it off by the night time. But nothing happened. Morning came and days and weeks and months passed and the man never returned. Nobody ever figured out who he was, and now it’s just a weird, funny story between friends. But sometimes I think back to it and wonder what he wanted. If he had been so high or drunk that he’d gone to the wrong house, why did he act like everything was normal and say he’d be back later if he had obviously realized by morning he was in a strange place? I guess I’ll never know.
21. GreeneMachine1
I live in Calgary and was on my way home from a job interview today when this happened (it went great, fingers crossed!). I left the building and immediately went to the nearest stop for the train. Now, for those unaware, Calgary has a pretty sizable homeless population and it’s not uncommon for them to “ride the rails” to seek refuge from weather or to just pass the time, so I’m used to dealing with these types of people. In fact, when I moved here I found it strange how these people were so friendly. Most of the homeless I’ve run into here were generally really nice people and never do the whole “Got some spare change? no? fuck off” and will often just strike up a conversation.
So here I am, sitting on the train, when I notice this guy sitting across from me. I notice that he is flipping people the bird in a not-so-subtle way. Like, resting his hands on his lap flipping the bird. Now, at this point I’m not about to say anything, but he begins cursing and swearing randomly. There were children on the bus so I said something to the effect of “hey man, there are kids on here”. Big mistake. Buddy turns and looks at me and does a throat slitting motion at me and says “I’ll fucking kill you, kid” to the shock of everyone on the train. I’m no coward but I’m not about to argue with this obviously mentally unstable individual. Whatever. So I just sit back and watch the show. The guy continues the throat slitting motion, but now it was like some kind of nervous tick. He kept rubbing his face and then making the throat slitting motion at no one in particular and straight up blubbering gibberish. He got off the next stop and just fucking smashed one of the windows in the train with his hand and looks at me through the door and started spitting out obscenities and threats (I couldn’t really hear him over the commotion of people exiting the train). At this point I was thinking “fuck this guy, I’m never going to see him again. I will concede that I can be a smartass at times and what I did next may not have been the brightest move, but it felt great.
So buddy is outside the train hollering and cursing and calling me a bitch, etc, so I got an idea. There’s about a 10-15 second delay before the train departs after the doors lock. The doors lock and buddy is still going nuts so I just look at him through the window, flip him off and mouth the words “Fuck you, douchebag” Buddy goes absolutely fucking bananas and starts kicking the train while it’s locked down and tried to keep pace as it started pulling out of the station.
Maybe a little atypical of the average story on here but I certainly hope this fellow and I do not meet again.
22. Thralls_balls
A few years ago, I was travelling back home after spending a weekend in London, visiting some friends. The last leg of my journey involved me taking a connecting train from Birmingham New Street. A huge station, always bustling with commuters, this particular day was no different, even for a Sunday. My previous train from Euston had been crammed full of people, so I was thankful that when I boarded my train at Birmingham, it was relatively quiet. The seats were all unreserved so I chose the first pair of seats I came to, right near the exits. I popped my headphones on and stretched out, ready to just zone out for the 40 minute journey home.
About 5 minutes before we were due to depart, a large man carrying a huge duffle-bag walked into my carriage and sat in the seat next to mine, placing the bag across his knees. My initial thought was to be a little disgruntled. There were plenty of empty seats in the carriage, so why had he chosen the one seat which was next to somebody else? Also, why hadn’t be put his bag on the luggage rack? They were empty, and it would have made it easier for both of us as now, I was all squashed over next to the window, with his arms resting on top of his bag, elbows facing outwards.
Maybe he was only travelling for a stop or two. Maybe I was just overly grumpy and unreasonable from a day of hungover travelling. I decide to just continue my plan to listen to podcasts and zone out – albeit, in a more squished up manner than I had originally intended.
The train sets off, I am trying to ignore being jostled up against him as the train makes its natural jolts and movements. I don’t like strange people being in my personal space, but this is public transport so it happens and you just have to cope with it.
Seriously though, of all the places this enormous guy could have chosen to sit, why did he did next to me? What was in his bag that deemed it impossible for him to put it on an empty luggage rack? Was it my imagination or was his left elbow making uncomfortably regular contact with the side of my my right boob? No. don’t be silly. It was just due to the positioning of his arms, and the movement of the train. Ignore it.
I tried to anyway. But once I had this realisation, every single brush against that area of my body was amplified. At this stage, I was still convinced that I was imagining things, but as the train headed under a tunnel, the pitch black turned the window into a mirror, of sorts. I glanced at the reflection, and what I saw immediately made me feel sick and scared and helpless. The man was smiling, and moving his elbow in small but visible circular motions against my boob.
Immediately, I coughed, and shifted my weight so that I was further away from him, crossing my right leg over my left and folding my arms in-front of me to create a futile little barrier against him. This seemed to put him off his task, and he moved his hands underneath his bag instead.
A few minutes pass, a few more stops to small, local stations are made. I start to relax a little, convincing myself that it was all just a misunderstanding. However, part of me is still hyper aware of what he is doing, and so when his left hand starts to touch and tickle my right leg, I’m just filled with a kind of clammy, disgusted horror that this is happening.
I always imagined how I would cope if something like this happened to me. In my head, I would grab the guy’s hand and say something sassy and devastating and the guy would crumble and run off in shame, and everyone in the surrounding area would cheer and high-five me for being so assertive and ballsy. Yeah, this wasn’t happening now. As far as I could tell, we were alone in the carriage. I am a tiny girl, and I am crushed up against a train window while a physically intimidating guy is touching me up and having a lovely old time of it. What if he doesn’t let me off at my stop? What if he follows me? Please let somebody walk by and see what is happening and let them help me.
Eventually, I didn’t have to worry about either of those scenarios. His stop came, he removed his hand, lifted up his bag, stood up and smiled at me.
‘Thank you.’ Is all that he said before he exited the carriage.
I felt sickened and sad and angry and pathetic. This is the day when I realised I’m not as assertive or strong as I thought I was.
23. AuchnotOuch
A couple years ago before I joined the military, I was a performer at a well known theme park/animal sanctuary/water park in the US. After a long hot day of dancing, I went back to my apartment to get cleaned up for a date with a guy I was interested in at the time. He came to pick me up and we went to the mall to go have dinner and a movie.
After the date, we got in his car and began to leave the parking lot. We pulled up to a stop light that just turned red and was notorious for taking an eternity to shift colors. So we sit and wait and he asks me about my day at work (he also worked at the theme park), and I did the same to him. While we were talking I saw some movement to my right outside the car and glanced in the direction and saw a tall lanky woman with wire like grey hair jumbled in a huge knot of nastiness. It was dark so I couldn’t see her face and just thought it was a homeless woman and felt sad for her.
I returned my attention to my date and started to say something when all of a sudden I heard my side’s door click open and the woman from outside was trying to get in. For being all skin and bones, she was quite strong and I struggled to pull the door in. She had one hand on the door and in her other hand was a medium sized kitchen knife whipping at me. She managed to cut my face, very minor, but nonetheless terrifying. As I struggled I looked at her face; It was the scariest part. She was obviously very malnourished, possibly struggling with drugs. Her face looked more like a pure bone skull than a flesh covered one. Her skin was wrinkly, making her appear elderly, but no way she could be with her strength. Her eyes were bloodshot to the point where her pupils blended with the rest of her eyes. But the weirdest part was the color of her skin. It was grey. It resembled the color of ash, but not in the dry skin kind of way. Her expression was a mixture of desperation, rage, and hunger. It was obvious she was seeing red, and my life could be in jeopardy.
Realizing this, my brain released even more adrenaline and I managed to finally pull the door shut. My date was frozen with fear and I had to scream at him to lock the doors and hit the gas, regardless of the stop light still being red (he had an older car, no automatic locks). So he hits the gas, and I kid you not, the crazy bitch held on to the door handle and was dragged along side us for maybe 30 or so feet. I told my date to make a left turn up ahead sharply to swing her off, and he did, and she went flying off. I looked in the mirror and saw her barrel roll to a stop. My date stopped the car for a moment, trying to compose himself. We both looked back and somehow she managed to get up within a few seconds and she just stood there staring at us. Finally, she slumped her shoulders in defeat, turned around, and slowly paced away from us, seemingly unharmed.
My date drove forward and we were both silent the entire way home. We ended up staying with each other because we were scared. It was completely terrifying, and really the first time I ever felt that scared. But I couldn’t help but feel bad because she was obviously desperate for some kind of nourishment or resource.
To add to the creepiness of the incident, the mall we went to had an urban myth that supposedly there are zombie like “people” that stalk the property. I doubt it was a zombie, but probably was a homeless woman in need of drugs, food, or money. Either way, her face and bloodshot eyes haunt me to this day.
24. InferiousX
My roommate and I were out on the town together. Something that happens about every 6 months or so. We were walking back to his car, debating on whether or not driving was a good idea. When suddenly, this tall “bro” looking guy kind of steps in between us. He asks, “Can I walk with you guys?” We’re like “Sure man, we were just thinkin we need to call a cab.” In complete odd stroke of coincidence, a cab then comes around the corner, and stops for us. Which was weird, because no one had called for one. The cab picks up another couple and we’re off to the races. The couple gets dropped off first, then our house is the next closest stop. Eric (the bro) gets out of the cab at our stop with us. He tells the driver that his house is just a couple blocks away and that he’ll walk. We pay the driver and I wander inside.
I take a leak, get out of my bathroom, and Eric is sitting in the giant bean bag in our living room about to pass out. I look at my roommate like “WTF”. He says that he just asked if he could have a glass of water, and when he turned around, Eric had made himself at home. Now keep in mind, although I’m calling him Eric now, I didn’t even know this dude’s name. I wrote it off and figured “Well, it’s just another party dude that partied a little too hard. We’ll just let him sleep then kick him out in the morning.” So we let him pass out.
I wake up early the next day, and am moving about the house getting ready for work. Eric wakes up like 2 hours later. Now normally, I’d expect someone in this situation to be like “OMG where am I? I was sooooo drunk last night. Thanks man, see ya later” But no. Not this fucking guy. Not Eric.
Eric gets up, uses my bathroom, grabs himself a glass of water and starts watching Netflix. I want to say something, but I have a long day ahead of me already taking up space in my mind. The audacity of this guy was something else. Not since I was like 8 have I seen someone make themselves at home like that in a strangers house.
My roommate then asks if I can give him a ride to his car. I say sure, and offer to take Eric home on the way. He says that he wants to go with my roommate. WAT…..ok “sure man.” My roommate says.
As I’m working that day, I get texts from my roommate that they ended up hanging out all day at a Country Club pool and drinking cocktails. My roommate doesn’t know a lot of people in this town so I figure it’s good for him to hang with someone, even if he is kind of a douche.
Well 5:45PM or so, I hear my roommate come home. And Eric’s still with him. They are going to a resort in a small town over an hour away and through the mountains. At this point I’m kind of wondering WTF my roommate is doing spending all day with some weird dude he just met but whatever. They go to the resort that night.
As the evening progresses, my roommate is sending me more and more text messages. He’s becoming more and more annoyed with his new buddy as the night goes on. He eventually ends up ditching him at like 3 in the morning and driving home. I was well asleep several hours before that.
I wake up the next day, and my roommate was telling me how much of an asshole this guy had turned into as the night went on. As he’s telling me this story, I hear the doorbell ring. It’s Eric.
“Whasup, brah?” he says to me somewhat giddy as he stands there with his Big Gulp.
This dude was abandoned 70 miles away and ended up right back on our doorstep 7 hours later. I was getting the “I think we fed a stray cat” feeling.
Thankfully, my roommate was getting ready to drive out of town to go work and I had to leave for work as well. Eric asks for a ride to the bank from my roommate. He says “Sure…” in a not so enthusiastic way and off they went.
About 7 hours later, I’m home alone and I hear my doorbell ring again. I open the door, and Eric just walks in and starts raving. He claims that he “forgot” about his drunken disorderly in public ticket he had gotten recently and he needed to pay the fine by midnight or else he’d have a warrant for his arrest issued. He asked if my roommate was coming back and I told him no. I knew what was going to happen next…. He asks me if he can borrow the money to pay the ticket until tomorrow. I tell him flat out no. I just don’t have it. He starts to kinda argue with me a bit more. I shut him down again and tell him ultimately that I don’t know him and it’s not my problem. He leaves in a huff with my roommates number. I had foolishly given it to him before I knew what the fucking problem was.
He blew up my roommates phone but my roommate never answered due to my warning him not to answer his phone tonight from any strange numbers. The roommate said he got at least 5 calls and a few text messages.
Fast forward even more. It’s midnight. DING DONG GUESS WHO? Fucking Eric. Again. This time, he claims he left his house keys in my roommates car and he just now noticed he didn’t have them. He needed a place to crash and that my roommate said it was ok. My roommate told me that he was full of shit and that he didn’t have any strange keys in his car.
I told him that I thought he was full of shit, but from the looks of him, he looked drunk and like he was going to tip over at any minute. I told him that I know these kinds of games and that he could stay one more night, but I was getting him up at seven AM and he wasn’t welcome back. Once I gave the ok to stay, he took off his shirt and was passed out again in the bean bag within minutes. I drug his ass out of bed around 7:30AM (I slept like complete shit with some strange weirdo in our house AGAIN) and took him to the bank. I told him “good luck” and drove off as he walked into the bank.
Here’s the kicker. My roommate called me this afternoon and said he had Googled this guy’s full name. I didn’t know it until he told me. The first two links that come up are forums where people describe this guy doing the same kind of shit all across the country. He’s apparently been abandoned by his family or some craziness and does this shit all the time.
25. bassrose
I was hanging out with a few of my girl friends. That night me and my (at the time) best friend Sabrina were with our friends Britney, Alyssa and Beth. It was about midnight, maybe a bit later and we were hanging out at this elementary school literally right across the street from my house, walking around and chatting when we started to notice a white van had been following us. We hid in the playground of the school, and the van slowly circled the school a few times then disappeared for a few minutes. We were in an average neighborhood and not too concerned with it, and being silly teenagers decided to start walking around again.
The van appeared again, and this time, the men in there (maybe 4 or 5 of them) started to yell at us and it quickly became apparent they either were not sober or not in their right minds. We ran to my house, and stayed in there for about 30 minutes before deciding it was safe to leave again, thinking no way did were those guys still around.
When we exited the house I immediately noticed a white van parked right down the street from my house, but it was off and looked like no one was in it so my friends wrote it off as being a different car. No sooner than the words left their mouth the car turned on, instantly blaring music and the men hanging out the window, yelling at us. We immediately took us running (why not back into my house, I’ll never know) and hid throughout the neighborhood for a little bit. We decided to go back to the school, and about a block away we heard the giveaway sound of that loud music and men yelling, and we started running again. Somehow in their mad rush one of my friends accidentally knocked me over. They didn’t notice I wasn’t with them and took off towards the school again. I managed to get up and throw myself behind some bushes just as the men came close enough to see me. After I couldn’t hear the car, I called my friends (who had gotten to the school somehow and freaked out when they realized I wasn’t there) and met up with them where we stayed in a well lit area of the school, by a circle drive, thinking we were in safe place. Wrong.
Surprise, surprise, the van comes speeding across the circle drive and this time, the entire group of guys jumps out and starts chasing after us. We run for our freaking lives and behind us, we can hear the guys yelling after us, trying to say that one of our moms had been looking for us and if we got in their van they would take us home. Obviously we’re like “fuck that” and hauled our asses until we finally lost them. We stayed low for a few minutes then decided to call it a night (which obviously should’ve happened much earlier in this story). We decided the coast was clear. Britney and Beth went to their house while me, Sabrina and Alyssa went back to mine.
We all later laughed about that night but I don’t think any of us quite realized how close we were to being gang raped or whatever else that group of men had in mind! I didn’t hang around the school late at night too much after that.
26. AnErinWithAnE
It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon, summertime in Louisiana. I had decided to escape the heat by staying inside to watch a few episodes of It’s Always Sunny with my dog, Kingsley in my lap. The sun was shining through my windows, which in this complex took up half the living room wall, floor to near ceiling. I had blinds, but had decided to adjust them so some natural light would come in.
Now, the neighborhood wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t the best, but you definitely didn’t leave anything outside, and you always lock your house and your car. I had seen my share of shady activity, so regardless of the time of day, my doors and windows were locked. It had also come to my attention that my ex had done drive-by’s of my new place, and not wanting to be caught off-guard, I was constantly checking that I had locked everything.
A beat up car pulled into the parking lot, which i could see out of my peripheral, across from a grassy area in front of my building. I guess I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but I didn’t recognize the driver who stepped out.
Until he walked in front of my window, staring directly inside my living room.
The bushes in front of my windows were maybe waist-high on me (I’m 5’4″), so this man was clearly staring. RIGHT AT ME. As in, we made eye contact. No blinking, and there was no mistake — he saw I was inside, by myself.
From what I saw between the blinds, he was EASILY 6 feet tall. Heavyset, bald, with dark eyebrows and a goatee. He wore a short-sleeve button up shirt over a dark t-shirt and jeans. I had never seen him in our complex before.
Kingsley’s head shot up, ears perked, his fur standing up on his neck. He was a friendly, playful dog, and loved meeting everyone. But when I felt a low grumble from his stomach when he bolted up off the couch, I knew this wasn’t a stranger he wanted to meet. My heart raced and I felt my palms tingle with anxiety. My cellphone was in my pocket, within easy reach. Kingsley sat in my lap, now growling, his paws nervously twitching. The door was locked, no way he could get in, right?
…WRONG.
When I heard a key in the lock, I remember feeling many things at once- my heart stopped and jumped in my throat. My scalp felt like it was on fire, but my hands felt cold. Who was this guy?? Why, of all fucking things, did he have a key to my apartment?? I didn’t have a gun. The front door was 6 feet to my left, the kitchen at least 15 to my right; I didn’t have time to run and grab a knife, especially since I didn’t know whether this guy was armed or not. I didn’t have a baseball bat, and I doubt throwing my nearby shoes would deter a home intruder of his size.
The door cracked open. I panicked. Kingsley let out the loudest bark I had ever heard and in one leap was snarling at the door, his teeth bared, ready to attack. For the split second the door was open, I saw the man’s eyes widen and he shut the door.
AND HE KNOCKED ON THE DOOR. I shit you not, this man KNOCKED on the door. After he had already opened it, with a key he somehow had.
Kingsley was busy, jumping at the door, letting out vicious growls, not acting at all like the giant goofball I knew him to be. I jumped up after him, grabbed his collar, and with the other hand grabbed the doorknob and opened it just enough for Kingsley to poke his head out. “Can I help you with something?” My voice shook. Anger and fear coursed through my veins.
“I’m here to pick up my mail. I’m expecting a package. I used to live here,” the man said, matter-of-factly, as if this was something I should have known. What the fuck? “You don’t live here anymore. I LIVE HERE. I don’t have your mail” Seriously?? Our mailboxes were at the apartment main office. “I was EXPECTING a package from FedEx. I WANT my package.” He took a half step forward, seeming impatient, angry, expecting somehow that I would have his mysterious mail and invite him in? NOPE.
Actually, 3 days prior, FedEx did come by with an envelope, but as the name on it wasn’t mine, I told the delivery guy and never accepted it. Still, did he really expect me to believe that the FedEx guy left him a package in an apartment he no longer resided in? “They came by with something a few days ago. But it wasn’t mine, so I made them take it back.” I responded. His face went red and his fists clenched.
PANIC PANIC PANIC
“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?? THAT IS MY PACKAGE AND I WAS EXPECTING IT!!!” He exploded, waving his arms, as if I was to blame. Kingsley leapt up, nearly dragging me out of the door. I yanked him back. The man continued his rant. “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING SO FUCKING STUPID! NOW I HAVE TO GO TRACK IT DOWN MYSELF! DO YOU KNOW WHAT A WASTE OF TIME THIS IS??” I was frantic at this point, I didn’t know where this dude came from, why he still had a key to this place, WHY, when he saw me in the living room with a dog, he tried to come in, and WHY of all things was he freaking out over a stupid envelope.
“LOOK man, I don’t have your package, just call fucking FedEx and take care of it yourself!” The words sounded better in my head; out loud they sounded shaky and fearful and I knew my lack of courage was a terrible disadvantage in this situation. “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS SHIT!!!” He was completely red, flailing around in rage. “YOU GOTTA LEAVE!” I yelped, trying with all my might to keep a hold of poor Kingsley. “I’M GOING TO CALL THE COPS!” I finally shouted out, figuring this would deter the now furious stranger in front of my door.
For a split second, his eyes widened, and he took a step back.
“I’ll be back.” He gulped, and turned around. I froze, and Kingsley let out a few growls. I patted him and shut the door, locking it, unlocking, then locking it again. I put him on a leash, grabbed my keys and hurried to the front office. I told them what had just happened. I let them know the police would be notified, and demanded they change the locks, and install a chain, NOW. No way was I waiting for the psycho to come back. He never did.
To this day, regardless of where I live, I keep my car, windows, and doors locked, and I double check when I leave the house and go to bed. Thanks asshole, it’s been three years and the paranoia persists.
27. AScholarlyGentleman
So, I work as a waitress now, but I used to work as a bus person (all at the same restaurant), and the building we’re in is next door to a bar in a bad part of town, so we get our fair share of drunks stumbling in.
One day, this older man, probably in his late forties or fifties, came in. We have a wait to be seated policy, but he just kept walking right through towards the back. Two of the tables in that area had small children, one was an infant and one was about two or three, and as he walked by he stroked them both on the head without asking the consent of the parents or even looking at them.
I let my floor manager know what was going on (being fourteen, I had been explicitly told not to interact with the drunks and creeps that came in). When he asked the man if he could get him anything, creepy guy pointed at me and said “her.” Floor manager escorted the man out, and told him that he was no longer welcome in our restaurant.
28. Moal
Once, when I was 5, my dad decided to buy a puppy.
He, of course, was ill-prepared for a puppy. So on the way home, he decided to swing by Walmart to pick up some puppy-supplies. My two sisters (7 and 8) and I were instructed to sit outside the Walmart with the puppy, since we obviously couldn’t bring him inside.
As we’re sitting on this bench playing with our new puppy, a man approaches us. We had received several comments from people entering and leaving the Walmart, usually remarking about what a cute puppy we had. But this man sits down on the bench next to my oldest sister, and starts talking to us.
He’s kind of strange looking. Tall, skinny, probably in his 40s. Has a short red beard, balding head. He’s asking us if this puppy is for sale. My oldest sister tells explains to him that, no, this is our new puppy. But the guy decides to continue sitting here and talking to us. At first, we just sort of assumed that he was just being friendly. But it turned weird really fast.
He then tries getting my oldest sister to go out into the parking lot with him because he has some “old puppy toys” that he wants to give to us. My sister is getting kind of scared at this point, and this creep is unrelenting. He’s insistent. My sister was the sort of child who wanted to please adults. She’s trying to be polite, saying, “Our dad is buying dog toys, but thank you.” But this guy keeps saying, “Aw, come on! It’ll just be a second.”
Finally, our dad (big scary hairy Iranian man) comes out the doors and gives this creep the glare of death. Creep immediately bolts. Cue my dad chastising us on the car ride home not to talk to strangers.
29. mcstanky
It’s about time i relate my experience from the night of July 3rd. For a little back story: in my town (as with probably every other town in America), we have a big firework show on the 4th of July. But, a couple other towns have their fireworks a day early for some reason. I should also note that my area has very dry summers, and storms are highly uncommon.
It started as a normal night at my best friend’s house. My other best friend and i were staying the night, and we were all just chilling out with some bong rips and pizza and Netflix. Around midnight, my friend Aaron started to doze off (he’s always the first to pass out). Once he’s gone, James (the one whose house we were at), looks at me and says “Wanna hit it again and go on a walk?” Of course i said yes. We used to take stoned midnight walks all the time through his neighborhood, but he had just moved, and i wanted to get to know this new one.
And so we set out around 12:30 in the morning. Immediately i knew something was amiss. There were no stars in the sky–no moon either. That’s usual. We live near the coast, so there’s always fog. But it wasn’t fog. It was too high, and we were on the top of a mountain. No these were clouds. Odd.
We hardly noticed the first few flashes. He was on his phone, and i was semi blinded by the back light. Soon, we were picking up on them.
“James, dude, did you see that?”
“Yea, was it lightning?”
“I dunno. I mean, it looks like it, but it’s coming from a concentrated point in the clouds as opposed to just the dull flash we’d normally see, you know?”
“Yea, I noticed.”
“Plus there’s no thunder.”
“Maybe it’s really far away.”
“No man, it’s been going on for like five minutes and I haven’t heard shit.”
It was kind of creeping me out, not being able to hear the thunder. But soon, i kind of just forgot about it and we kept walking and enjoying our view. After a particularly bright one, i heard a helicopter flying low to our left, which kind of worried me because the only helicopters that fly in our town are medivacs (my dad used to work for one). There were also some cracks and booms of people setting off illegal fireworks. But that was nothing compared to what happened next.
I dunno how long he had been following us before I noticed. James was checking his phone again, when i noticed our shadows cast on the trees ahead of us. The light causing this was from a rather powerful LED flashlight.
“Dude, did you see that?”
“What?”
“I think someone’s following us.”
At first he didn’t believe me. He just thought it was some passerby behind us who spotted us and just moved on. But, after the flashlight was shined over us three or four more times, he believed me. We went about another half of a mile before deciding to call it a night.
Knowing we’d have to pass our follower, we crossed the street, and started heading back the way we came. After a hundred feet or so, we saw the flashlight shining from around the bend. When he came around the bend and saw us, the light went straight back to us again. As we came closer and closer, my blood started really pumping and I got really nervous. I’m sure James felt it too, but we both just kept our eyes forward. When we were about even with him, i made sure to shoot him a quick glare from my peripherals. We were prepared to bolt, but everything ended uneventfully.
Maybe a mile back to his house, the lightning started picking up again. Still with no sound, still eerie. I pulled my phone out to check the time and to make sure i still had battery. It was around 1:15 now. I put my phone away and looked up at James, who was still on his phone. And that’s when my blood chilled. The flashlight was back, shining our shadows on the trees ahead of us.
“James….”
“What?”
“The light’s back…”
He was silent for about a minute after that. I whispered his name a few more times, not sure if he heard me. I quickly realized he’d heard me perfectly fine. By now, the flashlight wasn’t just glancing around like it usually had been. It was fixed on us, only leaving us when we went around another bend. It took me a couple seconds to realize James was in a full sprint, seizing this temporary moment to escape. I quickly followed suit, and we didn’t slow down for the entire quarter of a mile back to his house. Thankfully we did not spot the flashlight the rest of the way home.
Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, we decided to smoke a joint calm our nerves before going to bed. I don’t know what we were thinking when we went out to smoke on his balcony overlooking the street. About halfway through smoking, we saw it again. I think he saw it the same time I did, because he looked at me with horrified eyes for a split second before putting out the joint and ducking below the railing. Thankfully, his railing is solid wood, so there’s no way we were visible.
We waited there, terrified as we heard the footsteps in the street. The flashlight even glanced over his house and onto the next a couple times. We waited until the footsteps were well out of earshot before going inside to finish our joint in his room.
30. Kposh23
I used to live in a one bedroom house alone, in a neighborhood that wasn’t the best but wasn’t the worst. I was watching a movie one night and started falling asleep on my couch. I heard my wooden front porch creak and looked out the window expecting to see a raccoon or possum. Oh no. Turned out to be a tall man, dressed in black with his hood pulled up over his head.
Flicked all the lights on, screamed, called the police. They couldn’t find anyone in the area. Cops said he was probably watching me for awhile, since I’m blonde and living alone. Landlord let me break my lease and I moved out the next day.
Thank God for lifetime movies keeping me awake, who knows what would have happened if I would have been asleep in bed.
31. lollydot
I am female. This incident happened when I was in college; I was 20. I lived in a big city where I went to school but I still used my car more than public transportation since I needed to transport a lot of materials back and forth from my apartment to campus (sculpture major.)
One weeknight I had been working late in the studio and decided to stop at the 24hour drugstore chain on my drive home to pick up a few things (tampons and chocolate.) It was pretty late, probably 2am, so there wasn’t any other customers in the store but there were two male cashiers around my age.
After I had been there about three minutes, a new customer entered the store. He was male, late 30s, kinda jittery looking. He noticed me and started following me around the store in a really obvious way. I was trying to ignore him, get my stuff and get out of there. He came up to me and started doing this “psst” noise like he was trying to discreetly get my attention. I kept ignoring him. Then he said “fuck you bitch” and left the store. I figured, whatever… Weirdo.
As I paid for my stuff I had this overwhelming gut feeling to ask the cashier if he wouldn’t mind walking me out to my car since that jittery guy had creeped me out. The cashier said it was cool and we make our way out to the parking lot. So I’m feeling more at ease about half way to my car and I turn to say thanks to the cashier for his help when he grabs my shoulder and says, “that guy is under your car.”
Sure enough, that fucking jittery guy was UNDER my car. The cashier shouts “what the fuck are you doing, I’m calling the police!” The jittery guy starts scrambling out from under my car and cashier guy and me run back in the store and he immediately calls the cops. It scared me pretty good. He ran away before the cops got there.
I sometimes wonder what he would have done to me if I hadn’t asked the cashier to walk me out. Grabbed my foot? Stabbed me with something? Just let me run over him?
32. RegentOfTheMask
This happened to me at January during summer break. By the way I live in Melbourne and there are people in the city that can freak you out day or night, anyways continuing with the story. I was helping out at a Starcraft II tournament my friend was hosting at a local internet cafe and seeing as it was his first time and things didn’t go as smoothly as expect it ran overtime. It was about 11pm and everyone was sort of knackered. He told me that his sister was going to pick him up and that he would stay there and wait and thinking back I should have waited and gotten a lift home but being the dense 16 year old I was I told him I would catch the train back home.
Now I was in the city, I would also like to point out that the “zombie” wasn’t the only creepy encounter. I accidently walked past the street i was meant to cross the road at so I had to turn to this other street which connected it back to the path. Now I was walking along the sidewalk near the stores and they were all closed and on the other side i could see an old woman with a shopping cart filled with junk just yelling and screaming gibberish. Now I always had the attitude that I can’t let something just scare me or threaten me in any way, so I just paid no attention to her walked away.
Now i was at a really quite sidewalk, too quiet for the city especially but I could still hear the distinct crowd of clubbers nearby. Then I realized there was someone behind me, i did a slight glimpse back and saw him sort of stumbling while groaning. I thought it was just some drunk dude and kept walking but then I knew something was off. His stumbling turned into a power walk and he began to half pant and half laugh. Needless to say I was sort of scared so I started to speed up. I started power walking to jogging and I noticed he too picked up the pace and taking no time to stop I ran, and this part scared me the most. He started running and gave out some sort of scream (kinda like a zombie hence the title) and i could see his shadow behind me getting larger. At this point I said fuck this turned around and just Kicked in the air and miraculously it hit his stomach and he collapsed.
Hyperventilating and still quite scared I see he was some guy around his mid 30s in a suit and he was frothing at the mouth. He looked like he was on some sort of drug. Disgusted I ran all the way to the train station and just cooled down. On the walk home I just kept looking behind me because of all the paranoia. Thinking back if I had not kicked him, he would’ve caught up and something bad would’ve happened.
33. MauraGrace
This happened when I was in college. I lived in Isla Vista, the student community at UCSB, notorious for being a party school. It fully lived up to its reputation. I like to party, but holy shit! These people were off the wall. As such, there were a lot of people who put themselves in dangerous situations, drinking to excess, not being careful, not locking doors, etc. It had a very isolated and insular vibe, and anyone who was hanging around who wasn’t college-aged immediately looked out of place and strange.
One night after having a few drinks, I came home to my small house where I lived with 2 other girls, probably around 2:30am. We were all serious students (I was probably the least serious, actually), and when we partied it was not your typical UCSB mega-rager. More like a small get together with friends. We would often have a few people spend the night, sleep on our furniture our in our beds as the case may be.
That night my roommates had had a few people over who 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. He just had this weird energy to him. He was lying down, but it was 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 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 fucked up or 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 fucking 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 fucking 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.
The police in Isla Vista are generally used to peeling drunks off the sidewalk and breaking up brawling frat bros. This was really serious and strange and I think the dispatcher got the sense from my tone how terrified I was, and she stayed on the phone with me. 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 shit 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.
34. Mr_Stink_Finger
When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike almost daily to the local library branch a few blocks from my home.
One day when I was about 8, I rode down to the library like I normally did, parked my bike by the bike rack near the back entrance to the building, went in and browsed for whatever an 8-year-old boy would read, checked out a few books, and left the library.
When I came out, there was a man standing over by the bike rack. I didn’t think anything of it, so I went over to get my bike so I could go home. As I went to get on my bike, he said, “Hi, my name is John.” Then, he asked me, “What is your name?” I was a stupid kid, so I said, “__.” He said, “I work with your mom, you know.” “What is her name again?” So I said, (again, stupid kid here) “__.” He said, “Oh, she wanted me to show you something in the woods.”
In hindsight, and upon many years of reflection upon this incident, the guy sounds like the most inept kidnapper/pedophile in history. It’s like he was reading from the script of “How not to Abduct a Child.” However, it was 35 years ago, and the most education kids got about this kind of thing was, “Don’t talk to strangers.” My parents were great, but this was just not something people worried about all that much. The abductions of Etan Patz and Adam Walsh definitely did a lot to change the perception, but that is an entirely different subject.
Anyway, I was a bit creeped out when he said that my mom wanted him to “show me something in the woods,” and my “This is weird” radar went up. I politely declined the invitation to the woods and hopped on my bike to pedal home. As I turned away, he grabbed the bar on the rear of my seat (it was a Schwinn 5-speed with a banana seat. Not sure what you call the bar) to keep me from peddling away.
Now I was scared. I jumped off the back and re-entered the library. I made my way to the circulation desk and asked if I could use the phone. The woman at the desk told me that the phone was not for public use, so I left the library again from the back entrance (the front was always locked).
Happily, my bike was still there and the creep was gone. Thinking nothing of it, I jumped on my bike and set off. About a block from the library, I noticed a brown car at a stop sign on a side street. I looked again, and I saw the creep behind the wheel. I realized many years later (and not at the time) that he knew my route home, which means he must have followed me from my house to the library. Whenever I think of this now, it gives me a sick feeling knowing that he could have taken me anytime he wanted on my way to the library. I was probably saved by something as random someone walking a dog or grabbing their mail, and he didn’t want any witnesses.
I pedaled faster once I spotted him, and he pulled out onto the main road (I was on the sidewalk) and followed me closely. When my bike sped up, he sped up, all the while screaming and pointing at me. By now, I was screaming, too, and moving pretty quickly for an 8-year-old on a 5-speed carrying library books. (No; I never thought to drop the damn books.)
I quickly turned onto a side street, and he was moving too fast to make the turn as well, and I saw him turn onto the next side street. The side street I turned on led to my street, but there was a hill that I could not yet pedal up between my street and I. I got about midway up the hill when I had to get off and walk my bike. He was parked at the very top of the hill, just staring at me.
I literally walked right past him, and I will never forget his stare or the hate in his eyes. I have no idea why he let me walk past him, why he didn’t grab me, why he didn’t kill me.
I got to the top of the hill, got back on the bike and pumped my legs to get home. At this point, my house was less than 500 feet away. He turned his car around and followed me again. I got to my house, dropped my bike and screamed for my grandmother (she watched me while my parents worked.)
The creep sped past my house and turned down the next side street. I never saw him again. My parents called the police, and I remember answering the policeman’s questions while I was standing on a chair, as I was too small to look the cop in the eye. I remember that the creep drove a Plymouth Duster-type car, that he was balding and about 25-30.
I don’t know if he was ever caught, or if he ever hurt any children, his name or anything. All I know is that I have never gone back to a library (sounds silly, but true), and for the next few years I walked and rode my bike constantly looking over my shoulder, and that I am unbelievably protective of my children.
I don’t trust anyone easily, I don’t trust anyone with my children, and my first reaction to a helpful teacher, coach, etc., is, “What is his or her motive or true intention?”
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about that day, and I wonder not “Why me?” but “Why not m
35. bompompom
When my (then-boyfriend) Tim and I were eighteen, we used to drive all over town until late at night, not having anything else to do. We were going quite fast on a deserted road in the middle of town. The thing about streets in AZ is that most are on a grid pattern, with poor lighting and the land is mostly very flat, with nowhere to hide. We came to a stop light right next to another car eventually, and of course our windows were rolled down and we yelled at the couple next to us in their coupe, who were rowdy and obviously drunk or on something else. The man driving revved his engine, and we laughed and revved ours.
The light turned green and we both sped off, side by side. It was all fine until the other couple yelled something unintelligible at us and swerved behind us, uncomfortably close, like they were trying to bump us or run us off the road. My boyfriend swerved around a corner and they followed us for miles as we caught every green light. Finally we made it to where we planned to lose them – an old road that follows a dry river, which is very curvy and actually has steep hills. The other car gunned it behind us as we sped up, but we managed to get some distance. When their headlights were lost in the dip of a hill behind us, my boyfriend slammed on the brakes and pulled into the gravel yard of a house along the road, behind a large decorative boulder and some cactus, and we killed the lights and sat in silence. The other car roared past us and continued looking for us.
There’s a lot of sketchy people there, and a lot of crime. I don’t yell out the windows at anyone anymore, I keep everything locked tight, and I don’t play games with strangers who might be psychotic, sore losers.
36. Beeknight
Ok, I’m 16 now and this happened in the fifth grade so I’ll try to remember as best as I can. Me and my two cousins (We’ve been good friends all our lives) were exploring deep in the woods near my house, and we we had a cell phone with us.
While we were far in the woods we got a call from a number we didn’t recognize, but I answered it anyway. I said Hello, and in a raspy, whispering voice, (A little like Ghostface from the Scream films) the man on the other line simply replied “What’s your name?” I’ve been drilled with the stranger danger talk a million times over so I just said “What?” and this time he replied with “Where do you live?” I hung up.
At this point I told my cousins what he said and we were all pretty freaked out so we headed back out of the woods. He called again, and I answered, because I was just curious. He said in a slightly annoyed tone, “Where do you live? What is your name? I want to know because I want to be your friend.” I had him on speaker this time, and all my friends heard and were freaked out. I never take anything seriously, so even though I was scared I just joked and I said to him “My name is Joey and I live in Miami Florida.” (My name is Logan and I do not live in Florida.)
I then hung up and we hurried home. We described the whole thing to my Dad and he was really angry. He called the guy back, and all that was on the other line was heavy breathing. (This is what my dad told me.) My Dad just yelled into the other line that if he called again we would call the police and told us we would be fine, and nothing like this has happened since.
37. Camp_Koala
So, little bit of back story, I was 22, living in a new state,I am around 5″2, and female. Where I worked I was generally off in the corner of the building working by myself. My shift was from 10pm to around 7am.
It was around my first break, I decided to work through it because, I had a lot to do and didn’t want to leave a lot for day shift to worry about, I noticed a guy, he was older then me,probably late 20′s-early 30′s had been walking around my area for a while looking around, I decided he probably needed help, I asked if I could help him find anything and he asked where the adult diapers were so I showed him and that was that.
The next day he was there at the same time, this time however, he came straight to me and started to talk, I kept working so I didn’t fall behind in my work, the conversation was generally normal he was here from out of town working he never specified for what. Then he started talking to me about of all things periods!
Obviously,by this point I am weirded out. I am a pretty friendly person so, I tried to change topics and finally said I needed to get something from the back,when I came back he was gone.
Next day same deal, here he is, this time he decides to tell me he was born with both male and female,I am just standing there like, alright I don’t know why that would be something I need to know about you since, I don’t know you…I don’t even know this guys name! Then, he asked me what stuff I use because, he “has a heavy flow.”
About this time I excused myself to the back room to find one of my bosses,I was mainly uncomfortable with the fact that this person I don’t know is telling me things that are very personal and asking me personal questions in an attempt to almost bond with me in a way.
This went on for almost a week. I was always on the lookout for this guy so I could go to the back and not deal with him,one night though he seen me on my way to the back, I tried to loose him he followed me the whole way to the back room.
He finally left me alone while I was working when one of the bosses finally got there to talk to him, told this guy he was making me very uncomfortable, and I had to work not socialize.
I even quit going outside to smoke because I was a little scared he’d be out there waiting. Which even after he left me alone,still scared me as the hotel he was staying at was near where I lived and I walked by myself to and from work.
So, that’s my creepy story,never seen him after that,I did however find out he was related to a co-worker,was not born with both parts,and just generally insane.
38. missionnowhere
I knew this guy , Tom , for a few years. Tom and I were the same age , 22. He was a ladies man , a player. We were just friends , though he tried being “more” on several occasions.
One night , while over Tom’s apartment with a few friends , we’re watching a movie. Tom offers everyone a drink. He told me that he had a “special one” for me. I assumed he meant that he just put more alcohol in mine. Cool. Apparently there was more than just that in it though. I remember after having a few sips feeling odd. I excused myself to use the bathroom. I felt lightheaded and disoriented. I had only had one drink before those few sips so I definitely wasn’t drunk. After splashing my face with water , I decided to ask one of my friends for a ride home.
When I walked out of the bathroom , Tom was waiting for me. He pulled me into his bedroom and started undressing me. The rest is a bit fuzzy but I remember him feeling me up and telling me it “was finally going to happen.” I told him “no” but was too out of it to really fight back. I guess one of our friends noticed us gone and came to look for us. He came in and ended up stopping Tom. Our friends know I’m not into him at all. I guess they threatened to call the cops on Tom but he insisted that I “came on to him.” Luckily , my friends were there to save me. They took me home.
Tom later apologized and confessed to slipping something in my drink. None of us really see him anymore. We stopped going around after this incident. He blames me for losing quite a few friends.
39. sacaco
I was sitting at home one night around 9pm when my best friend calls to tell me she is home alone and is really creeped out by some noises she is hearing. She also thinks she has seen a figure walking around outside. This was very unlike her. I agree to make the 10 minute drive to come keep her company. She lives out in the country, and her backyard area is basically a forest. On my way, she calls to say she just saw a man looking directly in her window. I haul ass.
Her garage is attached to the house and has large windows facing the driveway. It is always open and has a (usually unlocked) door into the rest of the house. As I’m pulling in, my headlights shine into the garage, and I see a man walking around in it. I am totally calm because I assume it’s her dad or brother who’s gotten home. I get out of my car and stroll up to her front door, calm as an idiot cucumber. Before I can get there, she comes running out of the bushes with a fucking knife. I (still calmly, for unknown reasons) ask, “hey, is your dad home or something?” She immediately flips the fuck out and demands why. Me: “…I saw a man in your garage” (aaand now it all clicks) “WAS THE GUY????” Her: “Right as you were pulling up, I heard someone trying to open the garage door, so I ran outside! Your headlights must’ve scared him off!”
We get in my car, and I call 911. She calls her parents who rush home. Her parents get home right as the cops get there, and suddenly her old-ass neighbor emerges from the bushes, shotgun out. Apparently, her parents called him right after she called, and he was waiting to shoot the fucker dead. The police searched the house but didn’t find anyone.
Fortunately, this has a happy ending. A few days after this, they find the guy who did it. It was some weirdo who actually lives in a house directly through the woods behind her house (which is nearly a mile away). He has a long history of pedophilia and various petty crimes. At the time this happened, he was on parole, which doubly-fucked him. He had apparently creeped on quite a few neighbors who knew who he was and just thought he was weird. I just wonder what he would have done, knowing my friend was home alone. Very glad my headlights scared him away.
1. Marscy
So this happened when I was about 9 or 10- probably 9. This isn’t relevant, but I’m a girl. I thought nothing of it at the time, and only really realized the creepiness a year later.
For context: My neighborhood back then was pretty safe (it still is) and we had a security alarm, but only left it on at night. I had gotten home from school, and had spent an hour or so on the computer (so it was around 3 or 4 pm) and I was home alone (my dad was at work, my mom and brothers were grocery shopping.)
The desk that had the laptop was next to an archway which led to the dining room which had a wine rack (which my siblings and I never touched, fearing we’d somehow break the wine bottles) and a wardrobe/cabinet thing which had other alcohol in it (like vodka and sake) which my siblings and I also never touched since we thought alcohol was gross. The cabinet wardrobe thing was right next to the archway closest to the laptop.
So I was playing on the laptop and glance at the dining room, and notice the wardrobe cabinet door is wide open. I think nothing of it, until I glance at it again, look down and notice a pair of bare feet. The cabinet door closes and a woman is standing there, mid to late twenties, and I distinctly remember her looking pretty and she had red-ish hair. She notices me looking and smiles at me, and stops rummaging through the cabinet.
I had just gotten a puppy who was very fluffy and adorable- and social. When she stopped, I notice she’s holding my puppy, saying how cute he is and how she wishes she had a dog. I agree with her, and then I ask: “Are you one of my mom’s friends?” because sometimes they babysat my siblings and I.
She responds no, while cooing over my puppy. There’s a silence, and she puts him down and he wanders over to me and lays down. She walks away and I cautiously follow her, and notice at the steps of the door she was using to leave were several bottles of different alcoholic drinks. I thought that was weird, but since I rarely went into the cabinet, I didn’t recognize the bottles as ours.
I thought that was weird, and went back to playing on the computer. My mom and brothers come back, and my mom asks me how my day was and I tell her about the lady. My mom kind of freezes, trying not to freak out, I think. I didn’t tell her the lady took anything because I didn’t know that stuff was ours. She asks how she got in, and I tell my mom that I think she got in through our garage door because that’s how she left. I mention she had some alcohol bottles with her. My mom (which, to me at the time, was acting weird) tells me with a serious/freaked out look on her face to lock the garage door next time and don’t let strangers in, etc. (she knew I didn’t let the lady in, but I guess she was freaked out that someone was in her house with her kid)
Later, like a few days, my mom tells me who the lady was. Apparently our next door neighbors had a twenty something year old alcoholic daughter and she came to them asking for alcohol and money, and they said no, so she came into our house to get her fix.
A year or so later, when someone was asking me about my dog, I suddenly thought about that and got freaked out about how easily she could have taken him from me.
Tl;dr: Lady walks into my house while it’s unlocked and I’m home alone and 9 years old, takes some alcoholic drinks from the house, could have also taken my dog or other valuable stuff. Ask if she’s my mom’s friend, says no, takes the alcohol, leaves. Turns out she’s the neighbor’s alcoholic daughter.
2. coldbeeronsunday
This happened circa 1971 or 1972, when my mother was about 14 or 15 years old. The incident occurred in a heavily wooded area near Montevallo, Alabama (close to Birmingham).
My mother is the oldest of 5 children – she has 3 sister and a brother, who is the baby of the family. One weekend in the cooler months of the fall, my grandfather decided to take the whole family – my grandmother, my mother, and all my aunts and uncles, so seven people total – into the woods for target practice with a rifle. My mother grew up quite poor and they didn’t always live in the best neighborhoods, so my grandfather wanted to teach the kids how to defend themselves with the rifle if need be.
Like I said, it was later in the fall, so the trees were bare and there were lots of leaves on the ground. The wooded area was just off a dirt road, so this was a fairly rural area they were in. Since it was so far off the beaten path, my grandfather became startled when he heard the roar of a car engine so deep in the woods. My mom remembers the car as being a blue Ford Galaxie.
Despite the fact that my grandfather had a gun, he totally freaked out and told my grandma and the kids to hide under a pile of leaves in the woods. He hid with them. The man in the driver’s seat got out, dragged a woman’s body out of the car, and just dumped her there in the woods and drove away. After my grandfather was sure the man had gone, everyone came out of hiding and the woman sat up and stared them straight in the face. My grandfather asked the woman if she needed help. She said no, she would be fine. She didn’t seem to be injured and obviously didn’t want help – she hadn’t put up a fight with the man when he was dragging her out of the car (she must have known him?) – so my grandfather cut the shooting lesson short and decided to rush the kids home to safety.
Well, on the trail back to the dirt road where my grandfather had parked their car, they passed the man in the blue Ford Galaxie driving out of the woods. My mom looked over and noticed that he had a huge machete laying across the front seats right beside him. My grandfather made sure that the man could see that he was carrying a rifle, but everyone was careful not to give away what they had just seen. The man struck up small talk with my grandfather, asked him how he was doing and what they were doing out in the woods. My grandfather explained that he had just taken his family out for some target practice with the rifle. The man told him to have a nice a day and continued driving.
The next day, my grandfather went back out to that spot in the woods. There was not a body there. However, he did find the woman’s wig, her purse, some Kleenex, and a pair of eyeglasses. He collected the items and took them home. According to my grandfather, that area of the woods was known for having shallow graves and being a dumping site for bodies. My mother became hysterical when he walked in the door carrying that stuff, she started screaming “He killed that lady! He killed that lady!” My grandfather ended up taking the items to the police station, but my mom doesn’t think anything ever came of it – she never heard anything else about it after that.
Well, she did hear one other thing about it, I guess. Early the next morning, my grandmother called my mom when she arrived at work, just before the kids left for school. She told them not to take the bus that day, that she would come home and pick them up and drive them to school. When my mom asked why, my grandmother said, “Because that car is waiting for you at the bus stop.”
3. egegegeg
About two months ago, me and my friend were on a coach back to our home town after she came with me to London to look at a university. Our coach ends up being delayed so we’re on a late one, leaving at about 09:45pm. We’re both pretty tired after getting up at 5am to get to London, so she asks the man behind her if she can recline her seat a bit as there was no one sat next to him, and he agrees.
We both fall asleep sort of on the coach and suddenly she wakes me up panicing. She’ll telling me that the guy behind her keeps feeling up her back through the gap made by her reclining her chair. I told her (in my half asleep state) he probably did it by accident and to go back to sleep. About 20 minutes later she’s repeatedly whispering my name to get my attention. Straight away I look at the gap between our two seats and his hand is there. I put my head in the gap and stared at this dude dead in his eyes and made it clear not to touch her again. I then put her seat forward, and positioned myself so I was covering the gap between the seat.
Now I’m wide awake. As he was sat in the seat directly behind me and it was dark outside, I was able to see his body in the reflection of the window without seeing his face, meaning he couldn’t see me watching him. I stared at him for about 20 minutes before thinking he must have got the picture by now. I turn and put some music on and give my friend a headphone so she feels better.
Some time later, I feel a pull on my seat. Straight away I look in the reflection and see this dude’s holding onto my seat and is peering over the top of it. I lean forward and he catches my eye in the window. He sat down straight away and tried to style it out pretending he was adjusting the overhead aircon. I put my head between the gap and stare at him for about 20 seconds so he knows not to try anything again.
At this point my friend is getting really stressed and upset. I talk loud enough for him to hear and reassure him that I won’t let him do anything again, and put myself back covering the gap. About 20 minutes later she freaks out again. She starts shouting at this man and I see that he has moved seats and has put his hand on the outside of the two seats. This time I’m not having it anymore and turn around and tell him to leave my friend the fuck alone, raising my voice. He just leant back and pretended to be asleep. Unfortunately some guys on the coach were drunk and were being loud so no one heard us shouting to offer help.
About another hour into the journey, we all had to get off the coach because of a mix up and get a taxi back to our home town. We stand up and get off the coach away, after staring at the man and making sure he wasn’t behind us. We told the coach driver what had happened and requested he didn’t put us on a coach with him, but the man had gone at this point. I ended up getting a taxi back with one of the drunk guys on the coach and his girlfriend (both of which I knew, small world.)
4. kwasakwasa
So a couple of years ago my house was broken into and all my cousins things were stolen. I wasn’t home at the time, I was out breaking curfew with an ex of mine when all of a sudden I get this call from my mom.
At first I was horrified because I thought she was going to lose it from how late I was, but when I picked up all she said was “The house has just been robbed.” I got home and the village guards were gathered around my front door. My family was waiting in the kitchen, then they told me what had happened.
My cousin, who was staying with us at the time, had gone down stairs a little past midnight to have a midnight snack. When she went back upstairs she tried opening the door to her room and noticed it was locked. The lights were on and she heard people behind the door. She tried banging on it, but to no avail. She quickly ran to my parents room and alerted them, but by the time they had gotten the door open the room was ransacked.
Later, my mom had found footprints right outside her bathroom window and a broken watch. Now we have high walls that surround our house and the way to get to the roof would be to scale a tree and hoist ourself onto the roof. From the vantage point of outside my parent’s bathroom you can see the upstairs hallway and anyone who walks up and down it. That means the entire time someone was watching my family. This burglary wasn’t spur of the moment. It had clearly been planned. Someone had been watching and observing our house for a while.
5. beccabenvie
It started on my way back from NYC. The flight had been going smoothly up until our landing in Cincinnati. I was told that my flight was delayed due to bad weather. Keeping myself entertained, I went outside, read my book for a few hours, than made my way back to the counter to figure out what was going on with my flight. More delays later, it became clearthat I would not be making it back home anytime soon. I settled in for a long night.
Outside for a cigarette, I notice a drag queen pacing back and forth in front the vending machine. A few minutes later I got up and went to buy myself a bottle of water. I turned around just in time to see the drag queen sauntering up. “You having a bad night honey”? I politely motion that I’m on the phone. She’s persistent and I eventually hang up. The drag queen (her name is Chris) Asks me to join her for a cigarette. We chat for a while then she asks me to join her for a drink. My option of hanging around the airport isn’t looking like much fun. Get drunk in Cincinnati with a drag queen? Beats trying to find a spot to sleep on the cold floor.
Over a drink, Chris starts to talk about how she would just love it if I would join her at a nearby casino. I decline. She tells me its only a half hour drive away. I again tell her that I would prefer to just stay around the airport area. We continue chatting and after more insistence that we head to the casino, something makes me change my mind. The problem with all of this was that from the beginning my gut was telling me this was not a very good idea for many obvious reasons.
We get in the vehicle and start to drive, I’m keeping an eye on where we are going and am immediately alarmed when I realize that we are getting farther and farther away from the city. In fact, we are now on the highway (its 12:30 at night at this point) and there is no one on the road except some truckers. I start to get a little creeped out and ask some questions about the casino. Where is it? Are there signs? I am assured that it’s not much farther at all and that there will be some signs coming up at any moment. We keep driving. It’s getting more secluded and I still haven’t seen any signs for this casino. Now at this point I am more then a little scared. I am sick to my stomach. We take an c “exit” and are all of a sudden plunged into complete darkness on a road with no street lights, not traffic no NOTHING! Just farm land. We are in the middle of nowhere. I am in the middle of nowhere in Ohio with a drag queen who has asked me to go to a casino which I am not even sure exists. I am about to puke. I reach in my bag and dial 911 on my phone and hold my finger over the call button ready to press send at any second but I’m not even sure if I’ll get reception. The only thing I can think over and over is “what have I done?”
I could barely even talk at this point. I needed to get out of the car ASAP!! I ask her to pull over so I could pee. “But it’s just a bit further”. No, I really need to go now.” She pulls the car to a stop and I grab my purse telling her I’ll be right back. I go down a hill and take off running down into farmland. I can hear animals and I am so scared I can hardly even see straight. I press myself up against the side of the hill and wait for about a half hour until I think she is gone.
I walk for a bit until I come to some kind of community down a dirt road. The first house has a TV on and a rottweiler guarding the house. I keep walking and come to the last house around the bend. The TV is on. I knock on the door and peek through the screen. There is a man with a serious mullet asleep on the couch. I knock. He kind of sits up then sits back down and turns off the lamp. WTF!?! I knock again and say I need help.. nothing. All of a sudden he bolts up does a double take at the girl standing in his doorway and runs outside. He can hardly contain himself “Oh my god, oh my god,” I give him the short version of my story leaving out the part that my companion was a drag queen. He invites me in. I immediately find out that this guy is a taxidermist. He offers me juice (just water please) milk (just water please) kool-aid? sunny d ? coffee? tea???? MOUNTAIN DEW!!???!!! I see the disbelief in his eyes that I refused mountain dew so he cracks one himself and chugs the entire thing in about 30 second flat. He cracks another one, and in a few minutes I watched this man consume three mountain dews.
He starts to tell me again what a nervous guy he is (could it have anything to do with the mountain dew?) and how “this sorta thing happens on TV and he just cant believe this and he is just so glad I’m ok.” I ask for a ride to the airport. He agrees except that he has just had a bunch of beers. That’s ok we have time for him to sober up. He talks to me a lot for the next little while showing me pics of the biggest fish he ever caught and some taxidermy, a mounted squirrel that he shot with a BB gun. He showed me the fishing rod he had been in the process of patching with crazy glue and dental floss, and he told me how he hates the city (his friend once brought him to a bar where there were men dressed as woman…. This made me silently congratulate myself that I had left out the drag queen part in my story)
Despite my better judgement I ended up passing out in the lazy boy after he set an alarm. When it went off a few hours later the closing credits to an X-Files rerun was playing it’s eerie music on the television. I woke him up and was soon dropped off at the airport just in time to catch my flight home.
Whenever I tell this story it feels unbelievable even to me. It’s so ripe with clichés and the best part of the story? The helpful redneck told me at one point in the evening that there really was a casino in the area.
Update! Three other things happened that I didn’t mention in the original post.
1) Chris originally mentioned that we would go to the casino “in town” because it was more “lively” then the one that was further away. When we turned off onto the dirt road she said we were going to the one that was further away because it was “quieter” then the one that was “in town”. So, there was a lie in a tense situation.
2) Before we made the turn as we got further away from the lights of the city she started getting strange and aggressive with me. She kept cagely asking me if I judged her like everyone else.
3) She had told me she was a flight attendant from Florida with a layover. When we got to her car it had Ohio license plates and she excused this by saying it was a loaner from a friend.
6. beesoup
I don’t remember the beginning of the story too well. I was standing at the college bulletin board reading different ads and clubs when a guy started standing next to me and reading it too. I moved on and sat down on one of the couches in the hallway, and he immediately followed and sat down near me. After a while he struck up a conversation with me. He asked what music I was into, that kind of thing. Gave me the usual lame guy speech about wanting to start a band. He said he liked me and was basically a really terrible flirt. I was not into it and kept trying to shake him. The guy must have sensed my weakness because he kept following me. Every excuse I had to get away wouldn’t work, he’d insisted on coming with me. The problem with college is that all the class times are uniform. The next round of classes didn’t start for another hour, so he knew I wasn’t going to class. I kind of felt like I had been held hostage. I was way too beta to just tell him to fuck off. I had given him ample physical and verbal cues to get him off my back. There was something seriously wrong with this weirdo and all my red flags were going off. I texted a male friend that I was getting creeped on. I didn’t get a response.
Then the weirdest part of the encounter started. Everything before was your typical socially maladapted flirt experience. Then the guy started telling me how he had a guitar in his car, he could play it for me. I said, “Sure! You should go get it. I’ll wait here.” I was hoping this would be my opportunity to get away. Nope. The guy started insisting I go with him to his car. “I’m not really into that idea, I’d rather stay here. You can go get it and bring it back, though.” He was like a dog with a bone. He REALLY wanted me to come back to his car with him. My college is a commuter school, the parking lots are huge and spread out. It could very easily be the case that his car was in an empty area. I’m glad I had enough sense back then to turn him down. But I felt stuck: he wasn’t going to the car without me, and he kept waiting for me to come. I couldn’t seem to ditch him. He was becoming visibly upset and agitated every time I told him to go to his car by himself.
I decided to use every girl’s last resort. I headed to the women’s room. He seemed ready to follow me. I had to give him a look like “WOMEN’S ROOM” to make him stop in his tracks.
Women’s restrooms are like little glowing safe havens! I stayed in there for maybe twenty minutes before my friend saw my text and called me back. He told me I should just hide out. I told him I’d call him back. Luckily for me an older woman, most likely a teacher, was in the bathroom, overhearing our conversation. She emerged from a stall looking pissed off. She asked for a description of my creeper and walked out of the bathroom. After a couple minutes she returned and gave me the go ahead, the guy had gone. I never asked if he had just given up or if she told him off for waiting outside. After all that work, I find it hard to believe that he gave up after 20 minutes of me hiding in the bathroom. That lady is my hero if she told him off!
For the next few months I varied my route around school. I’m very careful about not keeping the same habits because I’ve been creeped on in the past. I never ran into the creep again. I always look back and think how weird it was that he tried to get me to go back to his car so urgently.
7. Silvfer
I just cleaned out my storage, and then far inside I found a box that I thought I got rid of ages ago.
Inside I found my collection of Internet conversations left after the dust had settled in a nearly year long stalking incident I saved it to have as proof if I ever needed to get the law enforcement involved. It all happened in High school, I was a bit of a ladies man. Like most guys that age I was not interested in being tied down to a single girl. It all worked fine, I was always very clear that we could have fun together but I would not have a relationship that stretched beyond that.
But then love struck, the old dog was in love. It chocked many, with my reputation no one thought it was the real deal. Sadly that made it easy for my stalker to make her move. I still had contact (Non sexual) with my exes, most of them was and still are great friends to this day. We would take a drink or coffee together when I was in town and do all sorts of regular friendly stuff. I often got approached by girls in school who wanted to catch my interest and often got treated something in the cafeteria. I was pretty used to this, thankful but I still didn’t pay it much thought. I was social and polite to anyone who wanted to hang out with me and my friends.
We had this tiny group of friends that always kept together in school and we would frequently get a new member that wanted to hang with us and have fun.
We had earlier that year adopted “Sara” into our little circle, she was a somewhat socially awkward girl. Very tense and always needed approval by her surroundings and friends. But she was nice and fun at a start, so we took her in. I was a little extra nice to her in the start since she had trust issues and often went to me when something was wrong. I often helped her out or spent time with her since we had classes together and she often came with me and my friends on our spare time to drink coffee, visit a bar or older friends with apartments on the weekends to party. I knew she had started to fancy me a bit, but so did a few others and I had made clear that I was taken and not interested. She still persisted in giving me treats and food whenever she could and often brought me a cup of coffee for the bus ride to school that we shared every morning.
I accepted it since I need my morning coffee and I feel it’s very impolite to refuse.
Then rumors started circulating that we secretly dated, and my girlfriend got harassed by people who felt sorry for Sara who had told them that we wanted to be together but that she wouldn’t let us and I was afraid to tell anyone because I was moving in together with her and therefore couldn’t break it up. The web of lies she had created behind our backs was so complex I can’t believe it. I lost a few friends in this process since she had them all fooled. When the truth came out it was to late to fix many of the wrongs it had caused. It all happened both quickly and slowly, I had begun to suspect that something was wrong with Sara and stopped accepting her treats and just pretending to drink the coffee she brought me. I tried to avoid her and not encourage her in any way.
But odd rumors just kept appearing, that we been to party’s together, had meet and had sex in secret. And that I played with her feelings. I asked a friend to pretend to be a stranger and befriend her online, she quickly feel for it and they started talking more “intimate”. She had this secret online profile where she would stalk mine to discover what I was up to. She would tell this fake friend of hers the most weird things she conjured up in her head. I was supposed to once have given her a rose, she took it home and when she placed it in water it sprang rots instantly. It was because I had realized my true feelings for her. She invented fake meetings, and often told her “friend” that I was there or been there or that she soon would go to see me.
Of course I was together with that friend at most of those times and could be vouched for that I had not done any of those things. Sara had even started to make love potions, she apparently stuck some potion she made containing a herb and some hair from me in the coffee that she offered me on the buss. Thankfully I had stopped to really drink it a few days before the first dose. I have a lot of pages on this and need to read through them because 10 years is a long time to remember back to. This got longer and more messy then I thought when I started typing so I’m ending this soon. I hope it’s not to messy and hard to comprehend since I just blurted this out. It all ended with a few lost friends, but she didn’t go nuts and try murder me or my girlfriend thank goodness. It’s something I never want to experience again.
8. alicenidiotland
This story happened when I was 24. I was dating this really nice guy that I had known for a while because he was a regular at a bar I worked in. I was a chain smoker at the time and , since there was only one room he allowed smoking in, we hung out there a lot.
This guy’s house was creepy as hell anyway because it was very old and literally had a graveyard in the backyard. We’re listening to music and kissing but I get this weird feeling like somebody is watching me. I tell him about it and he just brushes it off. We go back to kissing but I’m so not in the mood anymore. I’m still totally freaked out and I’m getting a little annoyed that he’s treating me like a child. I just feel that something isn’t right.
I start looking around and that’s when I see her. There is a girl clinging to the window with her face pressed against the glass! And she looks pissed! I scream and just freeze up. I’m standing in the middle of the room pointing at the window, hyperventilating , and grabbing on to him for dear life. At first he thinks I’ve lost my mind but then he sees her.
Instead of comforting me or calling the police, he starts running toward the front of the house where the front door is! I try to grab him and pull him back. He pulls away and opens the door. This girl comes in like a whirlwind. She’s yelling and breaking shit while I have hidden myself behind a couch in the smoking room.
I have no idea how long this screaming and smashing of furniture goes on. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die that night. I hear what sounds like a frying pan being thrown at something breakable and the front door slam. I seem to be in an altered state of consciousness because, the next thing I know, is the guy is back and is dragging me outside. The minute we get to my car I start throwing up and just kind of jump in and lock my door.
On the drive back to my house, I find out the girl was his ex. They had recently broken up and she knew he was seeing someone else. She was supposed to be at work and not spying on him.
9. myotterboxbroke
Two years ago I studied abroad in Paris, and was going to visit my friend at her apartment one night. As usual I took the metro, and I had to make a line change. As I squeezed my way onboard, I kind of bumped shoulders with a young (late 20s, early 30s) African male. I just said excuse me and grabbed onto the hand rail on the ceiling, thinking that would be the extent of our interaction.
Well I was wrong, because as the metro got moving the man struck up a little conversation with me. It started innocuously enough, with him asking if I was American and what I’m doing in Paris. I politely told him I was there for the semester to study abroad, and the questions became a bit more personal. He asked where I was studying, living and what I was doing that night- he even asked where I was headed.
At this point I was thoroughly sketched out, and I began trying to answer the questions as vaguely as possible. I hoped that my curt responses would deter further questioning/communicating, and it sort of worked. I finally got to my stop, and exited the train. Now, there were two exits to leave the metro station, and for some reason one of them was a lot more crowded than the other. This was one of the dumbest things I have ever done, but I decided to take the isolated exit out. In retrospect I should have probably stayed with the crowd and tried to lose him, but I wanted to be sure he was following me before I did something.
Sure enough, my new pal was about 5 feet behind me, following me. I ducked into a bar right by the metro exit, and the dude fucking came in with me, trying to chat again and asking more about where I was headed. I just sort of stood by the bar waiting for him to leave, and then he said he had to go step outside to make a phone call- sketchy. After he left, the bartender came to me and asked if I was okay and if I wanted that guy to be there. Relieved, I filled him in on everything, and he told me he’d get him out of there. The bartender and another patron told the guy to gtfo (nicely) and I texted my friend asking her to come meet me at the bar because I didn’t want to walk alone. She came to meet me and everything turned out just fine, but it was late and dark and I was in a foreign country so this was pretty unnerving.
10. MattyT7
I went on my hike today a little later than usual, starting up the mountain at about 6:30. I had gotten off work a bit later than usual, but that hadn’t discouraged me from going on my hike. I love nature. I view my hikes as blessings, as opportunities to really take in the beauty that this world offers. I began the usual route, left at the giant rock, and continuing straight for a while before making another left at the large oak. However, when I reached the oak, there was caution tape stretched from another tree to the oak, effectively blocking off the path so that you were forced to make a right.
I had never taken a right at the oak tree, and I did not want to today. I am not familiar with the path and may get lost. That thought process is what led me to disregard the caution tape, and proceed left anyway. It was then already rounding 7 o’clock. The sun was setting, but I had experience hiking in darkness, and did not even hesitate in continuing on my hike. Besides, I always bring my lighter, and swiss army pocket knife whenever hiking, so I was not all that nervous.
I started up the left of the oak and marvelled at the gorgeous vegetation I was surrounded by. The wildflowers, the trees with their blossoming branches, and the insects scuttling around. I was in heaven. As I continued on the trail, I approached an unfamiliar scene. This trail normally continues up and up the mountain, to its highest point. One way up. One way down. However, as I looked ahead, I saw a fork in the trail. One way leading left, the other leading right. I had never before seen these two paths. Faced with a decision I was unfamiliar with, I could not decide whether to go right, or left. I was not ready to end my hike, so I just decided to make it easy and go right. That was probably the biggest mistake I have ever made. I should’ve turned back at the first thing I came across. After maybe a minute of walking on this stray trail, I saw something coming up on the path. As I neared the object, I noticed it was a compass. However, there was what appeared to be blood spattered on the glass casing along with many scratches. The needles were going back and forth, as if running out of control. Instead of turning back, I picked up the compass and placed it in my sweatshirt pocket. I continued on the trail, with nothing worth mentioning appearing for about 15 minutes. Then I saw it.
Up ahead in the distance, I saw what appeared to be a golf cart with a large yellow bucket next to it. I came closer and closer, and realized how incorrect I actually was. I can now say it is what looks like a poorly put together shelter, presumably housing a homeless person. When I passed the shelter, I got a good look on the inside. I saw a few scattered sheets of paper, a candle, what looked like some roots, and a few poorly made small brown dolls. I had no interest in exploring the small shack, and continued on my hike. 20 minutes go by. I am nearing the top of the mountain. The sun has completely set but it is still slightly bright outside, loads of visibility.
I reach the top of the mountain, and relish the view. I can see the entire city, with a 360 degree view of it all. Nature is gorgeous. I’m getting ready to make my way down and back to the bottom to my car. Then I see him.
A man with a thick brownish-gray beard, slightly balding, and a little bit overweight. He is visibly shaking and mumbling to himself. I assume that this is the homeless guy which lives in the shack I had come across. Not wanting any trouble, I attempt to pass him, making no eye contact and looking directly down towards the ground. But when we are directly next to each other, he reaches out and grabs me. Looking directly into my eyes, his eyes are crazy and bloodshot. His lips are quivering as he makes out a few words.
“Return what is not yours.”
He then reaches into my sweatshirt pocket, and grabs the compass I had picked up along my hike. I reach for my pocket knife, only to find that it is not there. I pull out my lighter and stupidly flash it at him like it is some sort of deadly weapon. He frowns down at me, loosens his grip, and begins yelling nonsense at the sky. The last thing I remember hearing from him is, “Hot Tamale! Hot Tamale! Wrongdoing and sin! Meet your maker! MEET YOUR MAKER!”
I sprint, not run, SPRINT, as fast as I can while maintaining safety. I run past the two stray trails, past the caution tape and big oak, past the large rock, and finally reach the foot of the mountain. Reaching into my pocket, I grab for my car key, and find that it is missing. In heavy panic, I start freaking out. I’m not going to go back to the mountain, but I don’t have my keys. I decide just to go to my car and call Triple A or something. When I reach the car door, I notice something. My car keys are inserted into the slot on the handle. On the ground, my pocket knife lays, undamaged and intact.. What was written on the window spooked me the most. It had been carved into the glass.
“I Return what is not mine.”
11. SergantSniffy
A few years ago a small part of my neighborhood was inhabited by meth heads. A few different occurrences happened during a short time spand such as my neighbor being shot at with a pellet rifle by one of the meth heads while biking towards school.
However one occasion really struck out of the ” ordinary ” While waiting for my sister and her friends to arrive at our house before we went swimming in the lake (I was about 9 years at the time) While we were waiting one of my sisters friend noticed a man in our driveway who shouted he needed help. He was soaked in blood, his own blood. There were stabs all over him and the blood was gushing out of him. We recognized the man as one of the meth heads and my mom who is a nurse helped him into safety in our garage. As time passed with my mom in the garage helping the meth head, we had called the police and ambulance. Shortly after we could hear a faint shouting, as the individual got closer to our house we could make out what he was shouting ” I’m going to kill you Kim!! ” Several times he was shouting this with a snarl in his voice, with blood gushing from his bald head and a screw driver in his hand. He was searching for someone, and we were in his way for his prey.
As the police arrived they quickly managed to arrest him and the fellow meth head in our garage. We later learned that the reason this all had started was because they had not agreed how to share 10$ which resulted into one smashing a wine bottle in the bald guys head, which the bald guy responded to stabbing the meth head several times with a screwdriver.
Needless to say, I didn’t go swimming that day.
12. Hades83
This is actually my friends story. But I was almost a daily guest at her house so I think I might be able to tell it like she would. She lived at her parents house. We were around 17-18 years old and they had just moved into a big house from a small apartment. They had a dog who was extremely well behaved but sometimes in the middle of the night he would start growling and barking. One early morning, my friends dad followed the dog to the kitchen where he saw a young man trying to get in through the window. The man got away before the police got there. But the growling and barking didn’t stop. And sometimes we could all hear weird sounds, like someone was walking on the roof of the house or something. Her dad would often have a look up into the attic and saw nothing so he blamed these sounds on the weather. Changes in heat/cold and humidity making the wood crackle. This went on for a few years. A few nights a week the dog would growl and they would hear what sounded like footsteps. I spent some nights there and one time my friend woke me up just to make me listen. Years later, a few years after my friend moved out from her parents place, her dad was doing something in the attic when he found a tiny little door in the far corner. He had never noticed it before because this corner of the attic was really dark. He opened the tiny little door and what he saw in the beam of his flashlight really freaked everyone out. He saw a dirty mattress, some burnt out candles and candy wrappers. It’s been years since she told me about what her father saw but I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Someone had actually been living in their attic. Maybe the guy who tried to climb in through the window? Creepy as fuck.
13. purged6
[In Puerto Rico for a vacation…] About half a block from the house I see someone on the other side of the street looking through a car. I didn’t think much of it, since he had the door open, I assumed it was his car, nothing suspicious, and kept walking. I was maybe a half block past him when I glanced back and noticed that he was standing next to the car, curbside, and he seemed to be staring at me. He was wearing a white shirt so even though he was in the shadows I could still see him. It seemed a bit creepy, but I figured he probably lived there and just didn’t recognize me and was seeing what I was up to.
I kept walking and made my way down to the beach about another block and a half away. There was a small patch of some odd grass, just before some rocks, then the beach. I stopped on the grass, I wasn’t wearing shoes and it felt nice on my feet, and stood under the palm trees for a moment sipping my beer, just kinda looking around, taking it all in. That’s when I happened to glance back the way I came again and notice a man in a white shirt standing near the end of the street. I stood there for a moment, trying not to let him know that I had seen him, or that I was feeling uneasy at his presence in any way, and he just stood there as well. I was sure it must be the same man as I hadn’t seen anyone else on the street on my walk down. I continued to sip my beer, and he continued standing at the corner. He was standing completely out in the open, but it just seemed odd that he was just standing there. I didn’t really want to look directly at him so I couldn’t really tell what he was doing. At this point I was becoming fairly uneasy. I’ve never been worried about walking around at night, but I had never been in a place quite like this either. The road that ran along the beach had a few street lights, the nearest one was just up the beach a bit so I decided to make my way towards it in hopes that whatever this guy was up to it had nothing to do with me.
I walked back to the sidewalk, as I figured it was better to stay where it was somewhat lit, and made my way over to the streetlight, all the while trying not to let on that I am aware of this man’s presence and getting a bit freaked out. I got to the streetlight and stopped. I took out my cell phone to try to seem as casual as I could and glanced around and didn’t see him anymore. I breathed a sigh of relief and figured I had just been freaking myself out for no reason and decided to call my gf to tell her what had happened and that I was on my way back. I called her and started walking back towards our street telling her about this guy creeping on me and then I see him. At the end of the street there was an abandoned house. It had no roof, doors or windows, just walls, and I could clearly see someone in a white shirt standing in the doorway. I stopped in my tracks.. oh shit.. he’s still here I said. He was far enough away that he couldn’t hear me, but when I stopped I saw him take a step back, into the dark house, so I could no longer see him. At this point my gf was getting freaked out as well, so I turned around and started heading back towards the streetlight. There was another street up just a bit and I figured I could take that and loop back around to the house. I tried to walk as normally as possible as to not let on that I was scared. When I got to the corner I turned left and looked back and could see the man was coming down the sidewalk towards me. He didn’t appear to be running, but he must have been walking fairly quickly because he had definitely gained some ground on me. I turned the corner and once I was behind a house and out of sight I told my gf that I was hanging up and going to run. I ran as fast as I could and didn’t look back. Of course, unbeknownst to me, one of the houses on this street had some rather large dogs, which, once aware of a person running by in the dark, began to bark wildly scaring me even more.
I made it back to the house, unlocked the gate and quickly locked it behind me. I looked around to see if anyone had seen me but there was no one in sight. My gf was pretty freaked out so we locked the doors and shut the blinds and called it a night. I didn’t have any more run-ins with any late night creepers the rest of the time we were there, and all in all we ended up having a great vacation. It still gives me a little chill recounting this story though.
14. D_b0
Years ago in NC, when I was a child, there was an area not far from my house that had large sand hills and a forested area surrounding it. Me, my older sister (Jo) and little sister (Rae) would go out and play there, and sometimes a friend of my sisters’ (Bri).
Anyway, Jo was telling me about how Rae was there listening to music and I guess was writing in her notebook. Jo went to go get her and let her know that dinner was ready but when she walked through the forested area into the sand hill part, Jo said she saw Bri wearing a pink dress walking up to Rae from beind. Jo called out to Bri saying hey, hoping to talk to her for a bit. Rae didn’t here this because of headphones, but when Bril turned around, Jo realized that it wasn’t Bri, but actually a full grown woman staring her in the eyes.
Jo was a little shocked at first and didn’t know how to react. But when the lady saw Jo, she turned and ran back into the forest and out of sight. Jo then ran up to Rae, who had no knowledge of what just happened, and told her as calmly as possible that supper was ready. They walked back together and Jo kept looking back to make sure nobody was following them.
15. MaskedRawR
First of all, I am a male who was around 20 at the time and with a male friend too.
So, me and my mate were at a very busy bus station outside of central London waiting for a bus. We had quite a wait and having spent most of the week together and being very tired me and my friend were quiet for a change.
I’m idly looking around when I notice an Asian man in his late 20′s/early 30′s staring at a teenage girl. I think very little of it at first as it’s hardly uncommon to see older men lusting for teenage girls. Though I sneak a glance at them a few more times. This guy is staring, I mean, burning a hole into the back of her head staring.. I point it out to my mate and he also found it odd. The bus arrives after 15 minutes of this and we stand on the bottom deck, coincidentally with the weird guy and the girl. As people shuffle down the bus as others get on and off, this guy get closer and closer to the girl until he is literally SMELLING HER HAIR!
At this point my mate is adamant he’s going to say something, but for some reason I felt it would be a better idea to stay back and see if he/she gets off the bus without the other. We were going to the end of the line so in theory it was a good idea. After only 10 minutes into the journey this girl rings the bell and gets off.. then the creep get off with her. Making a judgement call we decide enough is enough and get off with them, even though we have another 50 minutes of journey to go until our destination. The teen crosses the road rather quickly just dashing past traffic and this guy is still behind her, following at about 5 feet.
My friend decides he’d had enough but not wanting to cause a potentially dangerous fight we run upto the girl and quickly stop her to ask “for the time”, at this point the stalker guy walks past us whilst my friend warns the teen about what we’d just seen and asks her if she knew him. We point her, ever so slyly, to his direction and she says she’d never seen him before. Whilst my friend did all the talking I felt the girl was very eager to get away from us and seemed FAR more concerned by us than the creep, which was understandable IMO. I’m sure most girls would be apprehensive being told by two 20 year-old men that she was being stalked at around 10o’clock at night. Anyway, the next bus stop was a short walk away and again by coincidence the girl is getting onto the same bus as us. Whilst waiting we see the creep again watching her, getting closer and closer each time. My mate exchanges a glance with the teen who has now been snatching awkward glances in our direction probably thinking we were actually following her with an agenda. So one last time we walk upto her and warn her that the creep is back and to be careful. Even I felt it was time to speak up and try to drill it into her head that this guy was fucking weird.
So we’re on the bus now, after another 5 minute wait and again this creep join us, still watching her, though now giving me and my friend dirty looks. Only 2 or 3 minutes into the journey, the girl rings to bell and get off the bus.. the creep follows suit. Once again my friend leaps up to get off the bus when I stopped him and said “We’ve told her twice now, mate. She clearly doesn’t give a fuck about him. She’s more worried about us.” He protests but the doors close and the bus begins to move. I look out the window and she’s put some earphones in, glanced behind her DIRECTLY at the creep.. and walk on, down a side-road with no pedestrians, cars or lighting.
A few weeks later a serial rapist/murderer was arrested for raping at least 3 or 4 women and murdering 1 of them. He was an Asian man of 28 who had stalked girls home a few days in a row and would attacking them once he learned their routine. I don’t know if it was the same guy or what happened to the girl.
I might have been able to do more, but felt continuing pursuit of this naive girl and her potential stalker could only lead to trouble. (She probably would have fucking shit herself and legged it had she seen us again, and we’d have been nicked)
16. StrawberryBlondeish
I’m a 26 year old girl that lives alone in a basement apartment with my dog.
Last Easter (my dog was only about 3 month old at the time), I took her out to do her thing before going to bed. This was around 1:30 am. We went to the yard, pitch black (street lights are kind of far away so the only light out was from peoples windows. She’s doing her thing, and I’m talking to her. I look up and look into my neighbours yard (no fence, just 2 medium sized trees are between our yards), and I see this tall man. I’m guessing around 2 meters tall. The guy is around 3-4 meters away from me, and just stands there and stares.
All the sudden he starts walking from the yard towards the street. I do the same (my front door was open, didn’t want to risk anything). When I come to my door, I see the guy. He stands in front of my neighbours house and he just stares back. I stood there for about 2 minutes, just trying to see what the fuck he was doing. Than he start walking up the stairs of the house and it looks like he’s going in. At that point I decide that I just have a creepy neighbour and go in to my apartment.
I sit down on the couch and continue watching the Tv. Than I start seeing someone blocking a beam of light that comes in through my curtains. And again it gets blocked …. was like someone was walking in my yard. I mute the TV, but hear nothing (the weather was very cold so the grass was crispy). I stand up,and lift my curtains up (note that I live in a basement), and there he is. Our faces were too close to each others, on the opposite side of the window. I managed to keep my cool and stared back. The guy just stood up and walked slowly away in the crispy grass (went to my neighbours yard again).
I freaked out and called the cops.
And now, maybe 1 month ago, I’m watching Tv with the dog. All the sudden she starts growling, hairs on the back go up and teeth showing. There he was again, same window.
Now I always have the curtains down, have a security system and always take a flash light with me to the yard if its dark.
17. mikefthrowaway
I was in about the 4th or 5th grade and finally old enough to walk home by myself from school like a big kid. It wasn’t a very long path, but I felt a sense of pride in it, as if every single one of those footsteps were tiny bridges bringing me closer and closer to my ultimate independence. Looking back now, it’s eerie to think how close my first steps of freedom were to making me run for my life. It was the mid 90s and we had just moved to Miami, Florida. Shortly after we got there, news broke out over an abduction, rape and murder of a boy only a grade older than me. His name was Jimmy Ryce. It was the first time I learned that there were bad people around who did bad things.
I’ll never forget how much my parents and teachers stressed me not to talk to strangers, how to dial 911, and other hints, tips and tricks to help keep me safe after that. I think it’s safe to say I was a bit more cautious and aware of my surroundings than I would have been otherwise had it not been for Jimmy. Well on this particular day when I was walking down the avenue home from school, I noticed something strange that caught my attention. The same old junky car sitting at the stop sign in front of me was sitting at the last two stop signs behind me. As soon as I would cross the street in front of the car, the driver would zip around and the block and be at the next stop sign, once again waiting for me to cross the road.
But after about 3 more blocks of this, I turned down the last street to my house and he drove away. I remember thinking it was weird, but I figured that he have been lost or something. Just a strange coincidence. I didn’t think too much about it after that. Fast forward a few weeks later and it’s Friday. I’m super excited for the weekend and my best friend Luis is walking home with me so we can play video games and watch movies after school.
Well as we’re walking home together, I noticed that same old junky car pull up to the stop sign. Words cannot begin to describe the speed at which my brain re-calculated the previous event, which I had almost forgotten, and refiled the thoughts I harbored of him “probably being lost”, and replaced them with the “oh my god” as I realized I was possibly being targeted by this person.
As soon as I noticed him I tried to play it cool. I didn’t want him to read my face. I told Luis not to look, but gave him the run down that the same car ahead of us at the stop sign had followed me one time when I was walking home, and that we needed to make a plan. As we crossed the street I tried to nonchalantly draw my eyes over to the drivers seat to see the face of the man inside the car, but his tints were so strong that I couldn’t see anything but the silhouette of a man facing directly at me.
I’ve read a few times before that when someone points a gun at you and you’re in their cross-hairs, your body can somehow sense it, even miles away. I suppose it’s the same way you can feel it when someone is looking at you in a room. Now I don’t think this person had a gun pointed at me, but my body could feel his eyes watching me while I crossed the road in a way that gave me feel terribly uneasy. The only way to describe it was feeling like a big hungry alligator was really mad at me and I didn’t know why.
My skin was crawling as he turned around the street and pulled up again in front of the next stop sign. I could tell by the way he drove that his attitude was different this time. The first time it seemed he was trying to be inconspicuous and just blend in, this time I think he knew that I knew what was happening, and he drove with more bravado, and would inch the car closer to us at the stop sign to intimidate us whereas before he would stay fairly well behind the white line. It felt like he was getting himself pumped up for something.
We were totally freaked out, but we were still trying our hardest to play it cool and act like we didn’t notice. While he drove around the block to meet us at the stop sign at the street my house was on, we planned to write his license plate numbers down. As the car pulled up to the stop sign, we made a right instead of crossing him, and Luis pulled the pencil and paper out of his backpack and I read him the plate numbers real quick.
He definitely noticed what was going on, because he peeled away from the stop sign to go back around the block again. At this point he wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. It was time to run.
As soon as he turned the corner we bolted all the way to my house as fast as we could move. I don’t know if I said anything to Luis, or if we were communicating telepathically to each other, but somehow we both knew we had to get inside my house before he could see which house we were going to. Anyway, i’ll never forget this, but as soon as we were crossing the final street two houses from my house I looked down the road to see if he was there and I saw him turn a sharp corner super fast about 300 ft away and just saw him flooring the car so he could intercept us.
Before that moment I had only seen him pulling up to the stop sign, but this time I was seeing just how aggressively he was actually pursuing us and it was scary as fuck. Luckily enough we were fast and able to unlock the door and get inside just before he pulled down our street. I stared out the peek-hole and watched his car slowly drive around a few times before he finally disappeared. I called my mom and told her to come home because we just got chased my some weird man and she rushed home and we told her everything. Thankfully, my mother works in corrections, and as soon as we told her the story and that we had his license plate numbers she was able to send a few police officers she worked with over to visit the guy.
I don’t know if I’ll ever really know what happened, but she told me that the cops found the location of the owner of the vehicle and decided to go have a chat with him “off the record”. I didn’t know it at the time, but I found out years later that she went with them. She said he was some thirty something year old guy living with his parents, and that he denied everything, and his parents were surprised, but that the cops thought he was a fucking weirdo and didn’t believe anything he said. They told him they were going to be watching him cause they know what he was doing and that if I ever saw him again they were gonna personally come back for him and they scared the shit out of him.
I never saw him again.
18. MrAndersmith
One Saturday night when I was twelve I had stayed up until 1 AM watching a movie on TV. The movie had ended when I noticed headlights out the window. I opened the curtains to see a red pickup driving slowly (maybe 5 mph) with the brights on and some big, frustrated looking dude with a tank top on searching thoroughly for something. At the time I thought his pet of some sort had gotten out and he was looking for it now, so I dismissed it and went to brush my teeth. After brushing my teeth, I looked out the window again to see a figure dash past the window, came back, stopped, then approached the window.
It was a twenty-something dude with a neckbeard and messed up hair in just whitey tities looking frantically at me. He told me to let him to use the phone and I just looked at him, and laughed while telling him no. He then got really panicy and started banging om the window and screaming for me to let him in. I was really scared at that point because he was hitting the window so hard I thought it would break so he could come in. My dad came out of his room to see what was going on. He yelled at the window dude, but he wouldn’t leave. After a little bit the same truck came down the street and the window dude bolted. He never came back and there has been no other creepy incidents since that day. I still have nightmares of the window dude actually breaking the window and coming in to kill me.
19. micky21098
Let me start off by saying that when this happened I lived in a very safe neighborhood, the kind where nothing ever happens. So at the time I was about 9-10. I was walking home from school with a few friends. The group we had was about 5 people. The walk is only a mile and a half, so we weren’t very far from home. It was a Friday and all of us were going to hang out at my friend Amanda’s house. About half way through our walk home, a car passes us. We didn’t notice because tons of cars passed us, we were walking on a fairly busy street. Then it passed again. And again. After it passed the next time, my friend Alyssa, who was closest to the street, freaked out and told us. We looked behind us and saw it coming again. Now we were really close to Amanda’s house, and we ran. We didn’t care about crossing the street and getting ran over. We just booked it. And the car was following us the entire time.
Now, we were walking onto a suburban street lined with houses. Not a main road that leads somewhere, no, you only drove that street if you lived there. The car followed us onto that street. And then onto the next one where my friend lived. As we reached the house, it was no more than 15 feet behind us. We got into the house and screamed for her mom to come help us. A very concerned mother came out and we told her very quickly what happened. She called the cops immediately. We gave a description of the car, a white 4runner. Turns out the cops had gotten multiple calls about this car, and were already looking for it. I don’t know if they ever found it.
20. ckuhzzoolahan
When I was about 16, I used to visit my high school boyfriend every weekend. He lived in the neighboring town (about 30 minutes away), and we would usually stay together at our friend’s house. For a little background, I’d met these friends through my boyfriend and they’d all come from pretty low income families so I was pretty used to spending most of my time hanging out in the sketchier parts of the town. That whole city has somewhat of a reputation of being unsafe; there are many very poor neighborhoods, barely any jobs due to it’s rural location, and it’s well known for it’s meth users.
So one Friday or Saturday I show up to my friend K and D’s house. They lived in a VERY tiny mother-in-law unit in an alley, but would still have a lot of friends over so it was easily crowded and people who stayed the night usually slept in close quarters. So as soon as I get to their house that day, I notice that everyone is a little unsettled. It’s about 2 or 3pm, and my friend J recounts to me the weird events of that morning. So apparently the night before they’d had a little get-together. It had been D, K, J, my boyfriend, our friend C, and a guy we had somewhat recently been hanging out with who had brought a few friends. D and K were pretty laid back and didn’t mind when people brought their friends over, even if they hadn’t met them before, and it happened often. So everyone gets drunk, smokes some bowls, hangs out, and eventually everyone passes out in the living room. When morning comes, my friend J, now sober, opens his eyes and sees something strange. There is a man slumped against the heater on the wall, apparently sleeping. J goes through his mind, trying to remember which one of the friend-of-a-friends this was, but he couldn’t place it. He had never seen this man before. He described him as pretty normally dressed, hispanic, and possibly a bit older than all of us. He’s still groggy but also a bit paralyzed, not sure if he’s freaking out for no reason, or if maybe he’d just gotten too drunk and forgotten meeting the guy. He turns over quietly to the couch where our other friend C slept, and managed to wake him quietly.
“Dude…who is that?” he asked quietly, and gestured to the other side of the room, which, being such a small house was only about 6 or so feet away.
“…I don’t know.” With it confirmed at least between the two of them that this man was a stranger, they began to get pretty scared. Before either of them could do anything else, the man got up from his spot by the heater and walked over to the kitchen counter. He took a few cigarettes from someone’s pack that was left out, and walked to the front door. He then turned to C and J.
“I’ll be back later.” and he left. Eventually when everyone had woken up, the two of them told the story and asked anyone if they’d brought over a guy of that description. No one had, but someone, I can’t remember who, had noticed the guy there before everyone had gone to sleep, but assumed it had been one of the random friends brought over. However no one recalled interacting with him.
As J finished telling me this story I was SO incredibly creeped out and really wished someone had told me this before I’d come over, because if I had known I wouldn’t have come. For whatever reason, probably because I’d already asked my parents to drive me all the way there and because I knew if I went home I’d just be worried sick about my boyfriend, I stayed the night anyway. I triple-checked the locks and as we hung out and later as I slept in the living room I was on alert for anything; footsteps in the alley gravel, creaking of the porch. I was pretty freaked out but everyone else had laughed it off by the night time. But nothing happened. Morning came and days and weeks and months passed and the man never returned. Nobody ever figured out who he was, and now it’s just a weird, funny story between friends. But sometimes I think back to it and wonder what he wanted. If he had been so high or drunk that he’d gone to the wrong house, why did he act like everything was normal and say he’d be back later if he had obviously realized by morning he was in a strange place? I guess I’ll never know.
21. GreeneMachine1
I live in Calgary and was on my way home from a job interview today when this happened (it went great, fingers crossed!). I left the building and immediately went to the nearest stop for the train. Now, for those unaware, Calgary has a pretty sizable homeless population and it’s not uncommon for them to “ride the rails” to seek refuge from weather or to just pass the time, so I’m used to dealing with these types of people. In fact, when I moved here I found it strange how these people were so friendly. Most of the homeless I’ve run into here were generally really nice people and never do the whole “Got some spare change? no? fuck off” and will often just strike up a conversation.
So here I am, sitting on the train, when I notice this guy sitting across from me. I notice that he is flipping people the bird in a not-so-subtle way. Like, resting his hands on his lap flipping the bird. Now, at this point I’m not about to say anything, but he begins cursing and swearing randomly. There were children on the bus so I said something to the effect of “hey man, there are kids on here”. Big mistake. Buddy turns and looks at me and does a throat slitting motion at me and says “I’ll fucking kill you, kid” to the shock of everyone on the train. I’m no coward but I’m not about to argue with this obviously mentally unstable individual. Whatever. So I just sit back and watch the show. The guy continues the throat slitting motion, but now it was like some kind of nervous tick. He kept rubbing his face and then making the throat slitting motion at no one in particular and straight up blubbering gibberish. He got off the next stop and just fucking smashed one of the windows in the train with his hand and looks at me through the door and started spitting out obscenities and threats (I couldn’t really hear him over the commotion of people exiting the train). At this point I was thinking “fuck this guy, I’m never going to see him again. I will concede that I can be a smartass at times and what I did next may not have been the brightest move, but it felt great.
So buddy is outside the train hollering and cursing and calling me a bitch, etc, so I got an idea. There’s about a 10-15 second delay before the train departs after the doors lock. The doors lock and buddy is still going nuts so I just look at him through the window, flip him off and mouth the words “Fuck you, douchebag” Buddy goes absolutely fucking bananas and starts kicking the train while it’s locked down and tried to keep pace as it started pulling out of the station.
Maybe a little atypical of the average story on here but I certainly hope this fellow and I do not meet again.
22. Thralls_balls
A few years ago, I was travelling back home after spending a weekend in London, visiting some friends. The last leg of my journey involved me taking a connecting train from Birmingham New Street. A huge station, always bustling with commuters, this particular day was no different, even for a Sunday. My previous train from Euston had been crammed full of people, so I was thankful that when I boarded my train at Birmingham, it was relatively quiet. The seats were all unreserved so I chose the first pair of seats I came to, right near the exits. I popped my headphones on and stretched out, ready to just zone out for the 40 minute journey home.
About 5 minutes before we were due to depart, a large man carrying a huge duffle-bag walked into my carriage and sat in the seat next to mine, placing the bag across his knees. My initial thought was to be a little disgruntled. There were plenty of empty seats in the carriage, so why had he chosen the one seat which was next to somebody else? Also, why hadn’t be put his bag on the luggage rack? They were empty, and it would have made it easier for both of us as now, I was all squashed over next to the window, with his arms resting on top of his bag, elbows facing outwards.
Maybe he was only travelling for a stop or two. Maybe I was just overly grumpy and unreasonable from a day of hungover travelling. I decide to just continue my plan to listen to podcasts and zone out – albeit, in a more squished up manner than I had originally intended.
The train sets off, I am trying to ignore being jostled up against him as the train makes its natural jolts and movements. I don’t like strange people being in my personal space, but this is public transport so it happens and you just have to cope with it.
Seriously though, of all the places this enormous guy could have chosen to sit, why did he did next to me? What was in his bag that deemed it impossible for him to put it on an empty luggage rack? Was it my imagination or was his left elbow making uncomfortably regular contact with the side of my my right boob? No. don’t be silly. It was just due to the positioning of his arms, and the movement of the train. Ignore it.
I tried to anyway. But once I had this realisation, every single brush against that area of my body was amplified. At this stage, I was still convinced that I was imagining things, but as the train headed under a tunnel, the pitch black turned the window into a mirror, of sorts. I glanced at the reflection, and what I saw immediately made me feel sick and scared and helpless. The man was smiling, and moving his elbow in small but visible circular motions against my boob.
Immediately, I coughed, and shifted my weight so that I was further away from him, crossing my right leg over my left and folding my arms in-front of me to create a futile little barrier against him. This seemed to put him off his task, and he moved his hands underneath his bag instead.
A few minutes pass, a few more stops to small, local stations are made. I start to relax a little, convincing myself that it was all just a misunderstanding. However, part of me is still hyper aware of what he is doing, and so when his left hand starts to touch and tickle my right leg, I’m just filled with a kind of clammy, disgusted horror that this is happening.
I always imagined how I would cope if something like this happened to me. In my head, I would grab the guy’s hand and say something sassy and devastating and the guy would crumble and run off in shame, and everyone in the surrounding area would cheer and high-five me for being so assertive and ballsy. Yeah, this wasn’t happening now. As far as I could tell, we were alone in the carriage. I am a tiny girl, and I am crushed up against a train window while a physically intimidating guy is touching me up and having a lovely old time of it. What if he doesn’t let me off at my stop? What if he follows me? Please let somebody walk by and see what is happening and let them help me.
Eventually, I didn’t have to worry about either of those scenarios. His stop came, he removed his hand, lifted up his bag, stood up and smiled at me.
‘Thank you.’ Is all that he said before he exited the carriage.
I felt sickened and sad and angry and pathetic. This is the day when I realised I’m not as assertive or strong as I thought I was.
23. AuchnotOuch
A couple years ago before I joined the military, I was a performer at a well known theme park/animal sanctuary/water park in the US. After a long hot day of dancing, I went back to my apartment to get cleaned up for a date with a guy I was interested in at the time. He came to pick me up and we went to the mall to go have dinner and a movie.
After the date, we got in his car and began to leave the parking lot. We pulled up to a stop light that just turned red and was notorious for taking an eternity to shift colors. So we sit and wait and he asks me about my day at work (he also worked at the theme park), and I did the same to him. While we were talking I saw some movement to my right outside the car and glanced in the direction and saw a tall lanky woman with wire like grey hair jumbled in a huge knot of nastiness. It was dark so I couldn’t see her face and just thought it was a homeless woman and felt sad for her.
I returned my attention to my date and started to say something when all of a sudden I heard my side’s door click open and the woman from outside was trying to get in. For being all skin and bones, she was quite strong and I struggled to pull the door in. She had one hand on the door and in her other hand was a medium sized kitchen knife whipping at me. She managed to cut my face, very minor, but nonetheless terrifying. As I struggled I looked at her face; It was the scariest part. She was obviously very malnourished, possibly struggling with drugs. Her face looked more like a pure bone skull than a flesh covered one. Her skin was wrinkly, making her appear elderly, but no way she could be with her strength. Her eyes were bloodshot to the point where her pupils blended with the rest of her eyes. But the weirdest part was the color of her skin. It was grey. It resembled the color of ash, but not in the dry skin kind of way. Her expression was a mixture of desperation, rage, and hunger. It was obvious she was seeing red, and my life could be in jeopardy.
Realizing this, my brain released even more adrenaline and I managed to finally pull the door shut. My date was frozen with fear and I had to scream at him to lock the doors and hit the gas, regardless of the stop light still being red (he had an older car, no automatic locks). So he hits the gas, and I kid you not, the crazy bitch held on to the door handle and was dragged along side us for maybe 30 or so feet. I told my date to make a left turn up ahead sharply to swing her off, and he did, and she went flying off. I looked in the mirror and saw her barrel roll to a stop. My date stopped the car for a moment, trying to compose himself. We both looked back and somehow she managed to get up within a few seconds and she just stood there staring at us. Finally, she slumped her shoulders in defeat, turned around, and slowly paced away from us, seemingly unharmed.
My date drove forward and we were both silent the entire way home. We ended up staying with each other because we were scared. It was completely terrifying, and really the first time I ever felt that scared. But I couldn’t help but feel bad because she was obviously desperate for some kind of nourishment or resource.
To add to the creepiness of the incident, the mall we went to had an urban myth that supposedly there are zombie like “people” that stalk the property. I doubt it was a zombie, but probably was a homeless woman in need of drugs, food, or money. Either way, her face and bloodshot eyes haunt me to this day.
24. InferiousX
My roommate and I were out on the town together. Something that happens about every 6 months or so. We were walking back to his car, debating on whether or not driving was a good idea. When suddenly, this tall “bro” looking guy kind of steps in between us. He asks, “Can I walk with you guys?” We’re like “Sure man, we were just thinkin we need to call a cab.” In complete odd stroke of coincidence, a cab then comes around the corner, and stops for us. Which was weird, because no one had called for one. The cab picks up another couple and we’re off to the races. The couple gets dropped off first, then our house is the next closest stop. Eric (the bro) gets out of the cab at our stop with us. He tells the driver that his house is just a couple blocks away and that he’ll walk. We pay the driver and I wander inside.
I take a leak, get out of my bathroom, and Eric is sitting in the giant bean bag in our living room about to pass out. I look at my roommate like “WTF”. He says that he just asked if he could have a glass of water, and when he turned around, Eric had made himself at home. Now keep in mind, although I’m calling him Eric now, I didn’t even know this dude’s name. I wrote it off and figured “Well, it’s just another party dude that partied a little too hard. We’ll just let him sleep then kick him out in the morning.” So we let him pass out.
I wake up early the next day, and am moving about the house getting ready for work. Eric wakes up like 2 hours later. Now normally, I’d expect someone in this situation to be like “OMG where am I? I was sooooo drunk last night. Thanks man, see ya later” But no. Not this fucking guy. Not Eric.
Eric gets up, uses my bathroom, grabs himself a glass of water and starts watching Netflix. I want to say something, but I have a long day ahead of me already taking up space in my mind. The audacity of this guy was something else. Not since I was like 8 have I seen someone make themselves at home like that in a strangers house.
My roommate then asks if I can give him a ride to his car. I say sure, and offer to take Eric home on the way. He says that he wants to go with my roommate. WAT…..ok “sure man.” My roommate says.
As I’m working that day, I get texts from my roommate that they ended up hanging out all day at a Country Club pool and drinking cocktails. My roommate doesn’t know a lot of people in this town so I figure it’s good for him to hang with someone, even if he is kind of a douche.
Well 5:45PM or so, I hear my roommate come home. And Eric’s still with him. They are going to a resort in a small town over an hour away and through the mountains. At this point I’m kind of wondering WTF my roommate is doing spending all day with some weird dude he just met but whatever. They go to the resort that night.
As the evening progresses, my roommate is sending me more and more text messages. He’s becoming more and more annoyed with his new buddy as the night goes on. He eventually ends up ditching him at like 3 in the morning and driving home. I was well asleep several hours before that.
I wake up the next day, and my roommate was telling me how much of an asshole this guy had turned into as the night went on. As he’s telling me this story, I hear the doorbell ring. It’s Eric.
“Whasup, brah?” he says to me somewhat giddy as he stands there with his Big Gulp.
This dude was abandoned 70 miles away and ended up right back on our doorstep 7 hours later. I was getting the “I think we fed a stray cat” feeling.
Thankfully, my roommate was getting ready to drive out of town to go work and I had to leave for work as well. Eric asks for a ride to the bank from my roommate. He says “Sure…” in a not so enthusiastic way and off they went.
About 7 hours later, I’m home alone and I hear my doorbell ring again. I open the door, and Eric just walks in and starts raving. He claims that he “forgot” about his drunken disorderly in public ticket he had gotten recently and he needed to pay the fine by midnight or else he’d have a warrant for his arrest issued. He asked if my roommate was coming back and I told him no. I knew what was going to happen next…. He asks me if he can borrow the money to pay the ticket until tomorrow. I tell him flat out no. I just don’t have it. He starts to kinda argue with me a bit more. I shut him down again and tell him ultimately that I don’t know him and it’s not my problem. He leaves in a huff with my roommates number. I had foolishly given it to him before I knew what the fucking problem was.
He blew up my roommates phone but my roommate never answered due to my warning him not to answer his phone tonight from any strange numbers. The roommate said he got at least 5 calls and a few text messages.
Fast forward even more. It’s midnight. DING DONG GUESS WHO? Fucking Eric. Again. This time, he claims he left his house keys in my roommates car and he just now noticed he didn’t have them. He needed a place to crash and that my roommate said it was ok. My roommate told me that he was full of shit and that he didn’t have any strange keys in his car.
I told him that I thought he was full of shit, but from the looks of him, he looked drunk and like he was going to tip over at any minute. I told him that I know these kinds of games and that he could stay one more night, but I was getting him up at seven AM and he wasn’t welcome back. Once I gave the ok to stay, he took off his shirt and was passed out again in the bean bag within minutes. I drug his ass out of bed around 7:30AM (I slept like complete shit with some strange weirdo in our house AGAIN) and took him to the bank. I told him “good luck” and drove off as he walked into the bank.
Here’s the kicker. My roommate called me this afternoon and said he had Googled this guy’s full name. I didn’t know it until he told me. The first two links that come up are forums where people describe this guy doing the same kind of shit all across the country. He’s apparently been abandoned by his family or some craziness and does this shit all the time.
25. bassrose
I was hanging out with a few of my girl friends. That night me and my (at the time) best friend Sabrina were with our friends Britney, Alyssa and Beth. It was about midnight, maybe a bit later and we were hanging out at this elementary school literally right across the street from my house, walking around and chatting when we started to notice a white van had been following us. We hid in the playground of the school, and the van slowly circled the school a few times then disappeared for a few minutes. We were in an average neighborhood and not too concerned with it, and being silly teenagers decided to start walking around again.
The van appeared again, and this time, the men in there (maybe 4 or 5 of them) started to yell at us and it quickly became apparent they either were not sober or not in their right minds. We ran to my house, and stayed in there for about 30 minutes before deciding it was safe to leave again, thinking no way did were those guys still around.
When we exited the house I immediately noticed a white van parked right down the street from my house, but it was off and looked like no one was in it so my friends wrote it off as being a different car. No sooner than the words left their mouth the car turned on, instantly blaring music and the men hanging out the window, yelling at us. We immediately took us running (why not back into my house, I’ll never know) and hid throughout the neighborhood for a little bit. We decided to go back to the school, and about a block away we heard the giveaway sound of that loud music and men yelling, and we started running again. Somehow in their mad rush one of my friends accidentally knocked me over. They didn’t notice I wasn’t with them and took off towards the school again. I managed to get up and throw myself behind some bushes just as the men came close enough to see me. After I couldn’t hear the car, I called my friends (who had gotten to the school somehow and freaked out when they realized I wasn’t there) and met up with them where we stayed in a well lit area of the school, by a circle drive, thinking we were in safe place. Wrong.
Surprise, surprise, the van comes speeding across the circle drive and this time, the entire group of guys jumps out and starts chasing after us. We run for our freaking lives and behind us, we can hear the guys yelling after us, trying to say that one of our moms had been looking for us and if we got in their van they would take us home. Obviously we’re like “fuck that” and hauled our asses until we finally lost them. We stayed low for a few minutes then decided to call it a night (which obviously should’ve happened much earlier in this story). We decided the coast was clear. Britney and Beth went to their house while me, Sabrina and Alyssa went back to mine.
We all later laughed about that night but I don’t think any of us quite realized how close we were to being gang raped or whatever else that group of men had in mind! I didn’t hang around the school late at night too much after that.
26. AnErinWithAnE
It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon, summertime in Louisiana. I had decided to escape the heat by staying inside to watch a few episodes of It’s Always Sunny with my dog, Kingsley in my lap. The sun was shining through my windows, which in this complex took up half the living room wall, floor to near ceiling. I had blinds, but had decided to adjust them so some natural light would come in.
Now, the neighborhood wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t the best, but you definitely didn’t leave anything outside, and you always lock your house and your car. I had seen my share of shady activity, so regardless of the time of day, my doors and windows were locked. It had also come to my attention that my ex had done drive-by’s of my new place, and not wanting to be caught off-guard, I was constantly checking that I had locked everything.
A beat up car pulled into the parking lot, which i could see out of my peripheral, across from a grassy area in front of my building. I guess I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but I didn’t recognize the driver who stepped out.
Until he walked in front of my window, staring directly inside my living room.
The bushes in front of my windows were maybe waist-high on me (I’m 5’4″), so this man was clearly staring. RIGHT AT ME. As in, we made eye contact. No blinking, and there was no mistake — he saw I was inside, by myself.
From what I saw between the blinds, he was EASILY 6 feet tall. Heavyset, bald, with dark eyebrows and a goatee. He wore a short-sleeve button up shirt over a dark t-shirt and jeans. I had never seen him in our complex before.
Kingsley’s head shot up, ears perked, his fur standing up on his neck. He was a friendly, playful dog, and loved meeting everyone. But when I felt a low grumble from his stomach when he bolted up off the couch, I knew this wasn’t a stranger he wanted to meet. My heart raced and I felt my palms tingle with anxiety. My cellphone was in my pocket, within easy reach. Kingsley sat in my lap, now growling, his paws nervously twitching. The door was locked, no way he could get in, right?
…WRONG.
When I heard a key in the lock, I remember feeling many things at once- my heart stopped and jumped in my throat. My scalp felt like it was on fire, but my hands felt cold. Who was this guy?? Why, of all fucking things, did he have a key to my apartment?? I didn’t have a gun. The front door was 6 feet to my left, the kitchen at least 15 to my right; I didn’t have time to run and grab a knife, especially since I didn’t know whether this guy was armed or not. I didn’t have a baseball bat, and I doubt throwing my nearby shoes would deter a home intruder of his size.
The door cracked open. I panicked. Kingsley let out the loudest bark I had ever heard and in one leap was snarling at the door, his teeth bared, ready to attack. For the split second the door was open, I saw the man’s eyes widen and he shut the door.
AND HE KNOCKED ON THE DOOR. I shit you not, this man KNOCKED on the door. After he had already opened it, with a key he somehow had.
Kingsley was busy, jumping at the door, letting out vicious growls, not acting at all like the giant goofball I knew him to be. I jumped up after him, grabbed his collar, and with the other hand grabbed the doorknob and opened it just enough for Kingsley to poke his head out. “Can I help you with something?” My voice shook. Anger and fear coursed through my veins.
“I’m here to pick up my mail. I’m expecting a package. I used to live here,” the man said, matter-of-factly, as if this was something I should have known. What the fuck? “You don’t live here anymore. I LIVE HERE. I don’t have your mail” Seriously?? Our mailboxes were at the apartment main office. “I was EXPECTING a package from FedEx. I WANT my package.” He took a half step forward, seeming impatient, angry, expecting somehow that I would have his mysterious mail and invite him in? NOPE.
Actually, 3 days prior, FedEx did come by with an envelope, but as the name on it wasn’t mine, I told the delivery guy and never accepted it. Still, did he really expect me to believe that the FedEx guy left him a package in an apartment he no longer resided in? “They came by with something a few days ago. But it wasn’t mine, so I made them take it back.” I responded. His face went red and his fists clenched.
PANIC PANIC PANIC
“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?? THAT IS MY PACKAGE AND I WAS EXPECTING IT!!!” He exploded, waving his arms, as if I was to blame. Kingsley leapt up, nearly dragging me out of the door. I yanked him back. The man continued his rant. “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING SO FUCKING STUPID! NOW I HAVE TO GO TRACK IT DOWN MYSELF! DO YOU KNOW WHAT A WASTE OF TIME THIS IS??” I was frantic at this point, I didn’t know where this dude came from, why he still had a key to this place, WHY, when he saw me in the living room with a dog, he tried to come in, and WHY of all things was he freaking out over a stupid envelope.
“LOOK man, I don’t have your package, just call fucking FedEx and take care of it yourself!” The words sounded better in my head; out loud they sounded shaky and fearful and I knew my lack of courage was a terrible disadvantage in this situation. “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS SHIT!!!” He was completely red, flailing around in rage. “YOU GOTTA LEAVE!” I yelped, trying with all my might to keep a hold of poor Kingsley. “I’M GOING TO CALL THE COPS!” I finally shouted out, figuring this would deter the now furious stranger in front of my door.
For a split second, his eyes widened, and he took a step back.
“I’ll be back.” He gulped, and turned around. I froze, and Kingsley let out a few growls. I patted him and shut the door, locking it, unlocking, then locking it again. I put him on a leash, grabbed my keys and hurried to the front office. I told them what had just happened. I let them know the police would be notified, and demanded they change the locks, and install a chain, NOW. No way was I waiting for the psycho to come back. He never did.
To this day, regardless of where I live, I keep my car, windows, and doors locked, and I double check when I leave the house and go to bed. Thanks asshole, it’s been three years and the paranoia persists.
27. AScholarlyGentleman
So, I work as a waitress now, but I used to work as a bus person (all at the same restaurant), and the building we’re in is next door to a bar in a bad part of town, so we get our fair share of drunks stumbling in.
One day, this older man, probably in his late forties or fifties, came in. We have a wait to be seated policy, but he just kept walking right through towards the back. Two of the tables in that area had small children, one was an infant and one was about two or three, and as he walked by he stroked them both on the head without asking the consent of the parents or even looking at them.
I let my floor manager know what was going on (being fourteen, I had been explicitly told not to interact with the drunks and creeps that came in). When he asked the man if he could get him anything, creepy guy pointed at me and said “her.” Floor manager escorted the man out, and told him that he was no longer welcome in our restaurant.
28. Moal
Once, when I was 5, my dad decided to buy a puppy.
He, of course, was ill-prepared for a puppy. So on the way home, he decided to swing by Walmart to pick up some puppy-supplies. My two sisters (7 and 8) and I were instructed to sit outside the Walmart with the puppy, since we obviously couldn’t bring him inside.
As we’re sitting on this bench playing with our new puppy, a man approaches us. We had received several comments from people entering and leaving the Walmart, usually remarking about what a cute puppy we had. But this man sits down on the bench next to my oldest sister, and starts talking to us.
He’s kind of strange looking. Tall, skinny, probably in his 40s. Has a short red beard, balding head. He’s asking us if this puppy is for sale. My oldest sister tells explains to him that, no, this is our new puppy. But the guy decides to continue sitting here and talking to us. At first, we just sort of assumed that he was just being friendly. But it turned weird really fast.
He then tries getting my oldest sister to go out into the parking lot with him because he has some “old puppy toys” that he wants to give to us. My sister is getting kind of scared at this point, and this creep is unrelenting. He’s insistent. My sister was the sort of child who wanted to please adults. She’s trying to be polite, saying, “Our dad is buying dog toys, but thank you.” But this guy keeps saying, “Aw, come on! It’ll just be a second.”
Finally, our dad (big scary hairy Iranian man) comes out the doors and gives this creep the glare of death. Creep immediately bolts. Cue my dad chastising us on the car ride home not to talk to strangers.
29. mcstanky
It’s about time i relate my experience from the night of July 3rd. For a little back story: in my town (as with probably every other town in America), we have a big firework show on the 4th of July. But, a couple other towns have their fireworks a day early for some reason. I should also note that my area has very dry summers, and storms are highly uncommon.
It started as a normal night at my best friend’s house. My other best friend and i were staying the night, and we were all just chilling out with some bong rips and pizza and Netflix. Around midnight, my friend Aaron started to doze off (he’s always the first to pass out). Once he’s gone, James (the one whose house we were at), looks at me and says “Wanna hit it again and go on a walk?” Of course i said yes. We used to take stoned midnight walks all the time through his neighborhood, but he had just moved, and i wanted to get to know this new one.
And so we set out around 12:30 in the morning. Immediately i knew something was amiss. There were no stars in the sky–no moon either. That’s usual. We live near the coast, so there’s always fog. But it wasn’t fog. It was too high, and we were on the top of a mountain. No these were clouds. Odd.
We hardly noticed the first few flashes. He was on his phone, and i was semi blinded by the back light. Soon, we were picking up on them.
“James, dude, did you see that?”
“Yea, was it lightning?”
“I dunno. I mean, it looks like it, but it’s coming from a concentrated point in the clouds as opposed to just the dull flash we’d normally see, you know?”
“Yea, I noticed.”
“Plus there’s no thunder.”
“Maybe it’s really far away.”
“No man, it’s been going on for like five minutes and I haven’t heard shit.”
It was kind of creeping me out, not being able to hear the thunder. But soon, i kind of just forgot about it and we kept walking and enjoying our view. After a particularly bright one, i heard a helicopter flying low to our left, which kind of worried me because the only helicopters that fly in our town are medivacs (my dad used to work for one). There were also some cracks and booms of people setting off illegal fireworks. But that was nothing compared to what happened next.
I dunno how long he had been following us before I noticed. James was checking his phone again, when i noticed our shadows cast on the trees ahead of us. The light causing this was from a rather powerful LED flashlight.
“Dude, did you see that?”
“What?”
“I think someone’s following us.”
At first he didn’t believe me. He just thought it was some passerby behind us who spotted us and just moved on. But, after the flashlight was shined over us three or four more times, he believed me. We went about another half of a mile before deciding to call it a night.
Knowing we’d have to pass our follower, we crossed the street, and started heading back the way we came. After a hundred feet or so, we saw the flashlight shining from around the bend. When he came around the bend and saw us, the light went straight back to us again. As we came closer and closer, my blood started really pumping and I got really nervous. I’m sure James felt it too, but we both just kept our eyes forward. When we were about even with him, i made sure to shoot him a quick glare from my peripherals. We were prepared to bolt, but everything ended uneventfully.
Maybe a mile back to his house, the lightning started picking up again. Still with no sound, still eerie. I pulled my phone out to check the time and to make sure i still had battery. It was around 1:15 now. I put my phone away and looked up at James, who was still on his phone. And that’s when my blood chilled. The flashlight was back, shining our shadows on the trees ahead of us.
“James….”
“What?”
“The light’s back…”
He was silent for about a minute after that. I whispered his name a few more times, not sure if he heard me. I quickly realized he’d heard me perfectly fine. By now, the flashlight wasn’t just glancing around like it usually had been. It was fixed on us, only leaving us when we went around another bend. It took me a couple seconds to realize James was in a full sprint, seizing this temporary moment to escape. I quickly followed suit, and we didn’t slow down for the entire quarter of a mile back to his house. Thankfully we did not spot the flashlight the rest of the way home.
Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, we decided to smoke a joint calm our nerves before going to bed. I don’t know what we were thinking when we went out to smoke on his balcony overlooking the street. About halfway through smoking, we saw it again. I think he saw it the same time I did, because he looked at me with horrified eyes for a split second before putting out the joint and ducking below the railing. Thankfully, his railing is solid wood, so there’s no way we were visible.
We waited there, terrified as we heard the footsteps in the street. The flashlight even glanced over his house and onto the next a couple times. We waited until the footsteps were well out of earshot before going inside to finish our joint in his room.
30. Kposh23
I used to live in a one bedroom house alone, in a neighborhood that wasn’t the best but wasn’t the worst. I was watching a movie one night and started falling asleep on my couch. I heard my wooden front porch creak and looked out the window expecting to see a raccoon or possum. Oh no. Turned out to be a tall man, dressed in black with his hood pulled up over his head.
Flicked all the lights on, screamed, called the police. They couldn’t find anyone in the area. Cops said he was probably watching me for awhile, since I’m blonde and living alone. Landlord let me break my lease and I moved out the next day.
Thank God for lifetime movies keeping me awake, who knows what would have happened if I would have been asleep in bed.
31. lollydot
I am female. This incident happened when I was in college; I was 20. I lived in a big city where I went to school but I still used my car more than public transportation since I needed to transport a lot of materials back and forth from my apartment to campus (sculpture major.)
One weeknight I had been working late in the studio and decided to stop at the 24hour drugstore chain on my drive home to pick up a few things (tampons and chocolate.) It was pretty late, probably 2am, so there wasn’t any other customers in the store but there were two male cashiers around my age.
After I had been there about three minutes, a new customer entered the store. He was male, late 30s, kinda jittery looking. He noticed me and started following me around the store in a really obvious way. I was trying to ignore him, get my stuff and get out of there. He came up to me and started doing this “psst” noise like he was trying to discreetly get my attention. I kept ignoring him. Then he said “fuck you bitch” and left the store. I figured, whatever… Weirdo.
As I paid for my stuff I had this overwhelming gut feeling to ask the cashier if he wouldn’t mind walking me out to my car since that jittery guy had creeped me out. The cashier said it was cool and we make our way out to the parking lot. So I’m feeling more at ease about half way to my car and I turn to say thanks to the cashier for his help when he grabs my shoulder and says, “that guy is under your car.”
Sure enough, that fucking jittery guy was UNDER my car. The cashier shouts “what the fuck are you doing, I’m calling the police!” The jittery guy starts scrambling out from under my car and cashier guy and me run back in the store and he immediately calls the cops. It scared me pretty good. He ran away before the cops got there.
I sometimes wonder what he would have done to me if I hadn’t asked the cashier to walk me out. Grabbed my foot? Stabbed me with something? Just let me run over him?
32. RegentOfTheMask
This happened to me at January during summer break. By the way I live in Melbourne and there are people in the city that can freak you out day or night, anyways continuing with the story. I was helping out at a Starcraft II tournament my friend was hosting at a local internet cafe and seeing as it was his first time and things didn’t go as smoothly as expect it ran overtime. It was about 11pm and everyone was sort of knackered. He told me that his sister was going to pick him up and that he would stay there and wait and thinking back I should have waited and gotten a lift home but being the dense 16 year old I was I told him I would catch the train back home.
Now I was in the city, I would also like to point out that the “zombie” wasn’t the only creepy encounter. I accidently walked past the street i was meant to cross the road at so I had to turn to this other street which connected it back to the path. Now I was walking along the sidewalk near the stores and they were all closed and on the other side i could see an old woman with a shopping cart filled with junk just yelling and screaming gibberish. Now I always had the attitude that I can’t let something just scare me or threaten me in any way, so I just paid no attention to her walked away.
Now i was at a really quite sidewalk, too quiet for the city especially but I could still hear the distinct crowd of clubbers nearby. Then I realized there was someone behind me, i did a slight glimpse back and saw him sort of stumbling while groaning. I thought it was just some drunk dude and kept walking but then I knew something was off. His stumbling turned into a power walk and he began to half pant and half laugh. Needless to say I was sort of scared so I started to speed up. I started power walking to jogging and I noticed he too picked up the pace and taking no time to stop I ran, and this part scared me the most. He started running and gave out some sort of scream (kinda like a zombie hence the title) and i could see his shadow behind me getting larger. At this point I said fuck this turned around and just Kicked in the air and miraculously it hit his stomach and he collapsed.
Hyperventilating and still quite scared I see he was some guy around his mid 30s in a suit and he was frothing at the mouth. He looked like he was on some sort of drug. Disgusted I ran all the way to the train station and just cooled down. On the walk home I just kept looking behind me because of all the paranoia. Thinking back if I had not kicked him, he would’ve caught up and something bad would’ve happened.
33. MauraGrace
This happened when I was in college. I lived in Isla Vista, the student community at UCSB, notorious for being a party school. It fully lived up to its reputation. I like to party, but holy shit! These people were off the wall. As such, there were a lot of people who put themselves in dangerous situations, drinking to excess, not being careful, not locking doors, etc. It had a very isolated and insular vibe, and anyone who was hanging around who wasn’t college-aged immediately looked out of place and strange.
One night after having a few drinks, I came home to my small house where I lived with 2 other girls, probably around 2:30am. We were all serious students (I was probably the least serious, actually), and when we partied it was not your typical UCSB mega-rager. More like a small get together with friends. We would often have a few people spend the night, sleep on our furniture our in our beds as the case may be.
That night my roommates had had a few people over who 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. He just had this weird energy to him. He was lying down, but it was 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 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 fucked up or 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 fucking 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 fucking 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.
The police in Isla Vista are generally used to peeling drunks off the sidewalk and breaking up brawling frat bros. This was really serious and strange and I think the dispatcher got the sense from my tone how terrified I was, and she stayed on the phone with me. 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 shit 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.
34. Mr_Stink_Finger
When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike almost daily to the local library branch a few blocks from my home.
One day when I was about 8, I rode down to the library like I normally did, parked my bike by the bike rack near the back entrance to the building, went in and browsed for whatever an 8-year-old boy would read, checked out a few books, and left the library.
When I came out, there was a man standing over by the bike rack. I didn’t think anything of it, so I went over to get my bike so I could go home. As I went to get on my bike, he said, “Hi, my name is John.” Then, he asked me, “What is your name?” I was a stupid kid, so I said, “__.” He said, “I work with your mom, you know.” “What is her name again?” So I said, (again, stupid kid here) “__.” He said, “Oh, she wanted me to show you something in the woods.”
In hindsight, and upon many years of reflection upon this incident, the guy sounds like the most inept kidnapper/pedophile in history. It’s like he was reading from the script of “How not to Abduct a Child.” However, it was 35 years ago, and the most education kids got about this kind of thing was, “Don’t talk to strangers.” My parents were great, but this was just not something people worried about all that much. The abductions of Etan Patz and Adam Walsh definitely did a lot to change the perception, but that is an entirely different subject.
Anyway, I was a bit creeped out when he said that my mom wanted him to “show me something in the woods,” and my “This is weird” radar went up. I politely declined the invitation to the woods and hopped on my bike to pedal home. As I turned away, he grabbed the bar on the rear of my seat (it was a Schwinn 5-speed with a banana seat. Not sure what you call the bar) to keep me from peddling away.
Now I was scared. I jumped off the back and re-entered the library. I made my way to the circulation desk and asked if I could use the phone. The woman at the desk told me that the phone was not for public use, so I left the library again from the back entrance (the front was always locked).
Happily, my bike was still there and the creep was gone. Thinking nothing of it, I jumped on my bike and set off. About a block from the library, I noticed a brown car at a stop sign on a side street. I looked again, and I saw the creep behind the wheel. I realized many years later (and not at the time) that he knew my route home, which means he must have followed me from my house to the library. Whenever I think of this now, it gives me a sick feeling knowing that he could have taken me anytime he wanted on my way to the library. I was probably saved by something as random someone walking a dog or grabbing their mail, and he didn’t want any witnesses.
I pedaled faster once I spotted him, and he pulled out onto the main road (I was on the sidewalk) and followed me closely. When my bike sped up, he sped up, all the while screaming and pointing at me. By now, I was screaming, too, and moving pretty quickly for an 8-year-old on a 5-speed carrying library books. (No; I never thought to drop the damn books.)
I quickly turned onto a side street, and he was moving too fast to make the turn as well, and I saw him turn onto the next side street. The side street I turned on led to my street, but there was a hill that I could not yet pedal up between my street and I. I got about midway up the hill when I had to get off and walk my bike. He was parked at the very top of the hill, just staring at me.
I literally walked right past him, and I will never forget his stare or the hate in his eyes. I have no idea why he let me walk past him, why he didn’t grab me, why he didn’t kill me.
I got to the top of the hill, got back on the bike and pumped my legs to get home. At this point, my house was less than 500 feet away. He turned his car around and followed me again. I got to my house, dropped my bike and screamed for my grandmother (she watched me while my parents worked.)
The creep sped past my house and turned down the next side street. I never saw him again. My parents called the police, and I remember answering the policeman’s questions while I was standing on a chair, as I was too small to look the cop in the eye. I remember that the creep drove a Plymouth Duster-type car, that he was balding and about 25-30.
I don’t know if he was ever caught, or if he ever hurt any children, his name or anything. All I know is that I have never gone back to a library (sounds silly, but true), and for the next few years I walked and rode my bike constantly looking over my shoulder, and that I am unbelievably protective of my children.
I don’t trust anyone easily, I don’t trust anyone with my children, and my first reaction to a helpful teacher, coach, etc., is, “What is his or her motive or true intention?”
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about that day, and I wonder not “Why me?” but “Why not m
35. bompompom
When my (then-boyfriend) Tim and I were eighteen, we used to drive all over town until late at night, not having anything else to do. We were going quite fast on a deserted road in the middle of town. The thing about streets in AZ is that most are on a grid pattern, with poor lighting and the land is mostly very flat, with nowhere to hide. We came to a stop light right next to another car eventually, and of course our windows were rolled down and we yelled at the couple next to us in their coupe, who were rowdy and obviously drunk or on something else. The man driving revved his engine, and we laughed and revved ours.
The light turned green and we both sped off, side by side. It was all fine until the other couple yelled something unintelligible at us and swerved behind us, uncomfortably close, like they were trying to bump us or run us off the road. My boyfriend swerved around a corner and they followed us for miles as we caught every green light. Finally we made it to where we planned to lose them – an old road that follows a dry river, which is very curvy and actually has steep hills. The other car gunned it behind us as we sped up, but we managed to get some distance. When their headlights were lost in the dip of a hill behind us, my boyfriend slammed on the brakes and pulled into the gravel yard of a house along the road, behind a large decorative boulder and some cactus, and we killed the lights and sat in silence. The other car roared past us and continued looking for us.
There’s a lot of sketchy people there, and a lot of crime. I don’t yell out the windows at anyone anymore, I keep everything locked tight, and I don’t play games with strangers who might be psychotic, sore losers.
36. Beeknight
Ok, I’m 16 now and this happened in the fifth grade so I’ll try to remember as best as I can. Me and my two cousins (We’ve been good friends all our lives) were exploring deep in the woods near my house, and we we had a cell phone with us.
While we were far in the woods we got a call from a number we didn’t recognize, but I answered it anyway. I said Hello, and in a raspy, whispering voice, (A little like Ghostface from the Scream films) the man on the other line simply replied “What’s your name?” I’ve been drilled with the stranger danger talk a million times over so I just said “What?” and this time he replied with “Where do you live?” I hung up.
At this point I told my cousins what he said and we were all pretty freaked out so we headed back out of the woods. He called again, and I answered, because I was just curious. He said in a slightly annoyed tone, “Where do you live? What is your name? I want to know because I want to be your friend.” I had him on speaker this time, and all my friends heard and were freaked out. I never take anything seriously, so even though I was scared I just joked and I said to him “My name is Joey and I live in Miami Florida.” (My name is Logan and I do not live in Florida.)
I then hung up and we hurried home. We described the whole thing to my Dad and he was really angry. He called the guy back, and all that was on the other line was heavy breathing. (This is what my dad told me.) My Dad just yelled into the other line that if he called again we would call the police and told us we would be fine, and nothing like this has happened since.
37. Camp_Koala
So, little bit of back story, I was 22, living in a new state,I am around 5″2, and female. Where I worked I was generally off in the corner of the building working by myself. My shift was from 10pm to around 7am.
It was around my first break, I decided to work through it because, I had a lot to do and didn’t want to leave a lot for day shift to worry about, I noticed a guy, he was older then me,probably late 20′s-early 30′s had been walking around my area for a while looking around, I decided he probably needed help, I asked if I could help him find anything and he asked where the adult diapers were so I showed him and that was that.
The next day he was there at the same time, this time however, he came straight to me and started to talk, I kept working so I didn’t fall behind in my work, the conversation was generally normal he was here from out of town working he never specified for what. Then he started talking to me about of all things periods!
Obviously,by this point I am weirded out. I am a pretty friendly person so, I tried to change topics and finally said I needed to get something from the back,when I came back he was gone.
Next day same deal, here he is, this time he decides to tell me he was born with both male and female,I am just standing there like, alright I don’t know why that would be something I need to know about you since, I don’t know you…I don’t even know this guys name! Then, he asked me what stuff I use because, he “has a heavy flow.”
About this time I excused myself to the back room to find one of my bosses,I was mainly uncomfortable with the fact that this person I don’t know is telling me things that are very personal and asking me personal questions in an attempt to almost bond with me in a way.
This went on for almost a week. I was always on the lookout for this guy so I could go to the back and not deal with him,one night though he seen me on my way to the back, I tried to loose him he followed me the whole way to the back room.
He finally left me alone while I was working when one of the bosses finally got there to talk to him, told this guy he was making me very uncomfortable, and I had to work not socialize.
I even quit going outside to smoke because I was a little scared he’d be out there waiting. Which even after he left me alone,still scared me as the hotel he was staying at was near where I lived and I walked by myself to and from work.
So, that’s my creepy story,never seen him after that,I did however find out he was related to a co-worker,was not born with both parts,and just generally insane.
38. missionnowhere
I knew this guy , Tom , for a few years. Tom and I were the same age , 22. He was a ladies man , a player. We were just friends , though he tried being “more” on several occasions.
One night , while over Tom’s apartment with a few friends , we’re watching a movie. Tom offers everyone a drink. He told me that he had a “special one” for me. I assumed he meant that he just put more alcohol in mine. Cool. Apparently there was more than just that in it though. I remember after having a few sips feeling odd. I excused myself to use the bathroom. I felt lightheaded and disoriented. I had only had one drink before those few sips so I definitely wasn’t drunk. After splashing my face with water , I decided to ask one of my friends for a ride home.
When I walked out of the bathroom , Tom was waiting for me. He pulled me into his bedroom and started undressing me. The rest is a bit fuzzy but I remember him feeling me up and telling me it “was finally going to happen.” I told him “no” but was too out of it to really fight back. I guess one of our friends noticed us gone and came to look for us. He came in and ended up stopping Tom. Our friends know I’m not into him at all. I guess they threatened to call the cops on Tom but he insisted that I “came on to him.” Luckily , my friends were there to save me. They took me home.
Tom later apologized and confessed to slipping something in my drink. None of us really see him anymore. We stopped going around after this incident. He blames me for losing quite a few friends.
39. sacaco
I was sitting at home one night around 9pm when my best friend calls to tell me she is home alone and is really creeped out by some noises she is hearing. She also thinks she has seen a figure walking around outside. This was very unlike her. I agree to make the 10 minute drive to come keep her company. She lives out in the country, and her backyard area is basically a forest. On my way, she calls to say she just saw a man looking directly in her window. I haul ass.
Her garage is attached to the house and has large windows facing the driveway. It is always open and has a (usually unlocked) door into the rest of the house. As I’m pulling in, my headlights shine into the garage, and I see a man walking around in it. I am totally calm because I assume it’s her dad or brother who’s gotten home. I get out of my car and stroll up to her front door, calm as an idiot cucumber. Before I can get there, she comes running out of the bushes with a fucking knife. I (still calmly, for unknown reasons) ask, “hey, is your dad home or something?” She immediately flips the fuck out and demands why. Me: “…I saw a man in your garage” (aaand now it all clicks) “WAS THE GUY????” Her: “Right as you were pulling up, I heard someone trying to open the garage door, so I ran outside! Your headlights must’ve scared him off!”
We get in my car, and I call 911. She calls her parents who rush home. Her parents get home right as the cops get there, and suddenly her old-ass neighbor emerges from the bushes, shotgun out. Apparently, her parents called him right after she called, and he was waiting to shoot the fucker dead. The police searched the house but didn’t find anyone.
Fortunately, this has a happy ending. A few days after this, they find the guy who did it. It was some weirdo who actually lives in a house directly through the woods behind her house (which is nearly a mile away). He has a long history of pedophilia and various petty crimes. At the time this happened, he was on parole, which doubly-fucked him. He had apparently creeped on quite a few neighbors who knew who he was and just thought he was weird. I just wonder what he would have done, knowing my friend was home alone. Very glad my headlights scared him away.
40. mad__max
This happened to my mom. For reference, we live in one of the most populated cities on the planet, and even though this incident took place 30 or so years ago, it was as true at the time.
In the early 80s, my mom had just arrived in the city from her native village to pursue a college education. She had invited over by her maternal uncle as the education scene in the countryside was not that great during those days. My mom was very much a village belle in those early years in the big city and found the milling crowds of people all around her a little unnerving. Her cousins made it a point to accompany her to her college, especially for the first few days of her stay. Every morning, she’d start on her usual route with a cousin who’d usually carry on towards his workplace after seeing her off. Even though their route passed through several streets bustling with rush hour traffic, this routine helped her cope with the loneliness she felt on moving from her childhood home. A month or so passed without incident.
But this morning was going to be different. They were walking along the city’s arterial road and hadn’t gotten too far from home when a commotion on the other side of the street caught their attention. A shortish, unkempt man was running like he was afraid for his life, glancing back every couple of seconds or so. Sure enough, he was being followed by a group of four or five other men, a couple of them brandishing swords! They made no attempt to conceal their obviously fatal weapons. The man soon ran into a busy intersection, out of breath, and his pursuers gaining fast. The poor guy realised that the game was up, approached a traffic island in the middle of the crossroads, and sat down, head in hands. At this point my mom and cousin uncle were little more than 30-35 feet away.
Everything after this point happened in stunned silence and utter disbelief. On a street among hundreds of onlookers in both pedestrian and vehicular form, the group caught up with the guy and stabbed him – repeatedly – to death. His lifeless body slumped forward from the island and he lay there spreadeagled in a huge pool of his own blood. His assailants escaped down a side street; no one dared stop them.
Mom and her cousin booked it out of there, too stunned to speak to each other or to anyone else. Back home, it took them the best part of the day to calm down and tell the others what had so terrified them. Mom left for her village the next day; this incident had really gotten to her. She says she had nightmares about it for a month or so afterwards. She visibly shook once or twice while telling me all this yesterday.
She never learned who the victim or the culprits were. She doesn’t know if they were ever caught.
41. DoTheTimeWarp
I had a family reunion yesterday so a few family members came to the house. Toward the end of the day, everyone decided to walk to the beach, which is a few minutes away. I was feeling exhausted and decided to stay behind. The kids had been playing outside all day, so the doors were wide open. This sub has made me really cautious of being alone, especially as a female teenager, but it was still light out and I wanted to lie down in peace.
I decided to go to the bathroom right after everyone had left. I had watched the group (which was pretty small, only about 6 people) pass by the window and walk down the street until they were out of view. Then I sat down to pee. As I was zipping my pants up, I heard a knock at the bathroom door. Without thinking, I instinctively replied “One second!”
Then I realized that I was all alone in the house. I heard an unfamiliar man’s voice say “Hurry up.” I started to panic. I stood in complete silence, and he did the same on the other side of the door. He knocked again, then I heard him walk away and go down the wooden stairs outside. I wish I could’ve gotten a good look at him, but I was far too terrified to open the door. I stayed in there for a half an hour until the rest of my family got back.
In case anyone was wondering, there are public bathrooms at the beach, so there was no reason to come back to the house. I’m guessing the guy saw my family leave, thought the house was empty, then checked the bathroom to make sure. I don’t know who he was or what he was thinking, but he found me when I was alone, and that’s enough to creep me out for the next few years.
42. streuthguy1
This happened a few years ago when I first got my driver’s license, I was driving to the country for a friend’s birthday. I’d worked late and had left home for the 4 hour drive by myself at 7 at night since all my friends had left before, but I really wanted to be there so I didn’t mind. The area I was driving through was quiet, sparsely populated farm area, it was known to have a few weirdos around, but nothing serious. Either way, I wasn’t worried when I set off.
I had been driving for ages, just listening to music and zoning out and i’d found myself on a road called Buckets Lane, a 80km stretch of road thats mostly straight and was absolutely empty at this time of night. At some point I took notice of headlights in my rear view mirror, it was the first car i’d seen in a long time, and although it seemed a long way behind me it started to catch me fast. I was driving my twenty year old Ford wagon, and was driving about 110km/h, but this guy was coming up REALLY quick.
Soon after I saw the car, I started to hear the faint noises of intermittent honking that grew louder and louder as he got closer. I’m not sure if this sounds scary, but it was really eerie. He was honking from a huge distance away for no reason, I was alone, I didn’t even have phone reception. It gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I had a strong feeling this person wanted to mess with me. After a while this car finally pulled right up on me, I could see it looked like a black pick up with two people inside, and before I knew it he was tailgating me and still honking repeatedly. I freaked out, I was trying to wave him around me, but he wouldn’t go. I didn’t want to slow down but I couldn’t outrun him, so I was sort of stuck. At this point he started flashing his high beams, which made it really hard to see, and then he started hitting my rear bumper, really smashing it. I was trying to keep my shit together enough to keep my car on the road, but I was dealing with the bumping, the high beams, and the honking that was driving me insane. All this was happening at around 100km/h (60+ mph), and eventually something had to give, I swerved off the road, luckily it was on open field, slammed on the brakes, the car did a full 180 degree turn and I slid backwards into a small ditch. I checked myself quickly, made sure I was all in one piece, the car miraculously wasn’t damaged and I hadn’t really crashed so I was fine. I then looked up to look for the truck. It had kept driving but it was slowing down, and then turned around, drove slowly towards me and started that fucking honking again.
I panicked big time. I put the car in reverse for some reason and slammed down on the accelerator… big mistake- I just dug the car in to the soft grass. The truck was driving in to the field towards me, at this point I realised this person was potentially dangerous, before it could have just been someone playing a stupid prank, but now they had run me off the road, and were coming back, still honking the horn, obviously not coming to see if I was ok.
They pulled up close to me, probably 20 meters off, and were shining their high beams on me so I couldn’t see a thing. I was still trying to reverse out of this ditch like a moron, and finally decided to put it back in drive. By this point the honking had stopped, and someone had stepped out of the drivers door. This person was short and fat but all I could see was their silhouette, and this silhouette was now walking towards my trapped car. I took a few deep breaths, I was shaking and terrified, and slowly eased the pedal. The car was moving but my wheels were spinning and I didn’t know if i’d make it out. The person moved faster now and got up to my door. I locked it in the nick of time when pulled the handle, so he just started knocking on the window. This was fucked, because he didn’t bash on it, he just tapped on it, really calm, and very slowly. I begged my car to move and finally it did, i got some traction and got back on to the road and just floored it.
The honking started again and pretty soon I saw the truck was racing to catch up with me again. FINALLY a car came in the opposite direction, I flagged him down by flashing my high beams and this middle aged woman got out of the car. I was hysterical, but once I stopped, I saw in the distance the lights of the black truck stop, turn around and zoom off in the other direction. Thank god for this woman, she calmed me down and took me to the police station. I gave a statement and everything but I didn’t really see anything but a short fat silhouette and a black truck, so no help there.
No one was ever caught, and the sounds of honking horns still send shivers down my spine.
43. SnoreBaby
Just for background, I’m a girl, early 20s, and this happened last year.
I have a twitter account, which I kept private (as in, I’d have to approve followers before they could see my tweets). I didn’t have a whole lot of followers, and I’d approve people who were friends of friends, etc. Which I probably should not have done.
But anyway. I approved this one girl, Mary, to follow me, and I followed her back. Mary was really into twitter. She’d tweet every five minutes, foursquare her every location- like she’d check into roads and streets- and she’d tweet every song she was listening to, what she was currently watching. It got annoying very quickly, as my entire feed was comprised of Mary’s activities.
Because I did not know her personally, and hardly interacted with her anyway, I unfollowed her. Shortly after that, I heard from friends that she was tweeting about me, making fun of my user name, my description, etc. It was very strange, but I shrugged it off as her being hurt that she lost a follower (I conclude now that she was VERY dependent on online activities to feel good about herself).
A few days later, a friend messaged me asking me about my ‘new twitter account’ to which I replied “what??”. Turns out, SOMEONE made a twitter account using my picture, a weird version of my name and a twisted version of my user name. They even used the same theme and background (which they would have had to search very hard for, as it was not easy for me to find them). On this account, they posted a lot of my personal information, from where I lived, to my dog’s name.
I tweeted something like “thanks Mary for that parody account”. And the crazy girl kept insisting that I made this account to ‘frame’ her. I ended up having to email twitter to get it down, which thankfully they did. I really didn’t want all that personal info out there.
I heard later that she was ‘obsessed’ with me and would tweet about me if she saw me anywhere like at concerts or at our uni (I never met her IRL thank God).
After that, I cleaned up all my accounts, and deleted a lot of tweets that contained personal info, and blocked A LOT of people. I thought that because I didn’t accept strange GUYS on my accounts that I’d be safe. But apparently girls can be crazy obsessive too lol.
44. owllamp
For reference, I’m a girl and was 17 when this happened, my sister was 14.
It was the afternoon and I’d gone to pick my sister up from gymnastics because my parents were out of town. Now my town is pretty small, so it isn’t necessarily strange to have a car driving behind you for a while, but for some reason the green car that had been following us for the past couple of minutes had gotten my attention.
My worry became magnified when they turned their blinker on to follow us down our residential street. Even though people do use the road as a shortcut my chest got tight and I felt sick to my stomach. Despite the anxiety I pulled into my driveway, which was incredibly stupid and I should have kept driving. I turned off my car and looked back to see the car pull into the parking lot of the small church across the road with the car facing our house. My sister hadn’t noticed the car, and I hadn’t said anything, so she started to get out. I told her to get back in. I cranked the car back up and started to back out. The car pulled out and left.
I sat in my car and called my mom who called the police. The officer came by and took a statement for a report and told us that we had to be careful because we were “pretty girls.” As if attractiveness had anything to do with it. I felt he wasn’t taking me seriously because I could not logically explain the feeling of dread that I’d had. They patrolled my street that afternoon and that’s all that came of it. A couple of weeks later we heard about a man that knocked on the door of a young girl in town who was home alone and tried to lure her into his car, which happened to be green.
45. koleypunch
This happened when I was 10 or 11 (so about 18 years ago), I was with my mom and my brother, who was maybe a year or so old at the time. My mom never drove, so we often took the bus whenever she had errands to run and my dad wasn’t available. This particular day, the bus was crowded and the only free seats were two together, plus another set of double seats ahead of it, one of which was occupied by a man.
My mom and brother took the two seats together, and I sat in front of them next to the man. I very distinctly remember the man being tall (or as tall as an 11 year old can guess from someone who is sitting), skinny and had a moustache. He looked over at me and smiled. At the time, I remember being freaked out by it. It was definitely not a pleasant smile, but a creepy one.
The man, still smiling, reaches over and begins to touch/rub my stomach. I immediately realize THIS IS NOT OKAY, and jumped up. I stand by the seats my mother and brother are in and ask “Mom, can I sit here with you please?!” and proceed to squeeze in.
To this day, I have never told my mom what happened, and if she could tell how freaked out I was, she never asked why. Maybe she just assumed that strangers scare me.
Also, I have no idea what the man did after that. Frankly, once I was safe with my mother, I stopped caring about the man and his creepy smile.
This happened to my mom. For reference, we live in one of the most populated cities on the planet, and even though this incident took placeyears ago, it was as true at the time.
In the early 80s, my mom had just arrived in the city from her native village to pursue a college education. She had invited over by her maternal uncle as the education scene in the countryside was not that great during those days. My mom was very much a village belle in those early years in the big city and found the milling crowds of people all around her a little unnerving. Her cousins made it a point to accompany her to her college, especially for the first few days of her stay. Every morning, she’d start on her usual route with a cousin who’d usually carry on towards his workplace after seeing her off. Even though their route passed through several streets bustling with rush hour traffic, this routine helped her cope with the loneliness she felt on moving from her childhood home. A month or so passed without incident.
But this morning was going to be different. They were walking along the city’s arterial road and hadn’t gotten too far from home when a commotion on the other side of the street caught their attention. A shortish, unkempt man was running like he was afraid for his life, glancing back every couple of seconds or so. Sure enough, he was being followed by a group of four or five other men, a couple of them brandishing swords! They made no attempt to conceal their obviously fatal weapons. The man soon ran into a busy intersection, out of breath, and his pursuers gaining fast. The poor guy realised that the game was up, approached a traffic island in the middle of the crossroads, and sat down, head in hands. At this point my mom and cousin uncle were little more than 30-35 feet away.
Everything after this point happened in stunned silence and utter disbelief. On a street among hundreds of onlookers in both pedestrian and vehicular form, the group caught up with the guy and stabbed him – repeatedly – to death. His lifeless body slumped forward from the island and he lay there spreadeagled in a huge pool of his own blood. His assailants escaped down a side street; no one dared stop them.
Mom and her cousin booked it out of there, too stunned to speak to each other or to anyone else. Back home, it took them the best part of the day to calm down and tell the others what had so terrified them. Mom left for her village the next day; this incident had really gotten to her. She says she had nightmares about it for a month or so afterwards. She visibly shook once or twice while telling me all this yesterday.
She never learned who the victim or the culprits were. She doesn’t know if they were ever caught.
41. DoTheTimeWarp
I had a family reunion yesterday so a few family members came to the house. Toward the end of the day, everyone decided to walk to the beach, which is a few minutes away. I was feeling exhausted and decided to stay behind. The kids had been playing outside all day, so the doors were wide open. This sub has made me really cautious of being alone, especially as a female teenager, but it was still light out and I wanted to lie down in peace.
I decided to go to the bathroom right after everyone had left. I had watched the group (which was pretty small, only about 6 people) pass by the window and walk down the street until they were out of view. Then I sat down to pee. As I was zipping my pants up, I heard a knock at the bathroom door. Without thinking, I instinctively replied “One second!”
Then I realized that I was all alone in the house. I heard an unfamiliar man’s voice say “Hurry up.” I started to panic. I stood in complete silence, and he did the same on the other side of the door. He knocked again, then I heard him walk away and go down the wooden stairs outside. I wish I could’ve gotten a good look at him, but I was far too terrified to open the door. I stayed in there for a half an hour until the rest of my family got back.
In case anyone was wondering, there are public bathrooms at the beach, so there was no reason to come back to the house. I’m guessing the guy saw my family leave, thought the house was empty, then checked the bathroom to make sure. I don’t know who he was or what he was thinking, but he found me when I was alone, and that’s enough to creep me out for the next few years.
42. streuthguy1
This happened a few years ago when I first got my driver’s license, I was driving to the country for a friend’s birthday. I’d worked late and had left home for the 4 hour drive by myself at 7 at night since all my friends had left before, but I really wanted to be there so I didn’t mind. The area I was driving through was quiet, sparsely populated farm area, it was known to have a few weirdos around, but nothing serious. Either way, I wasn’t worried when I set off.
I had been driving for ages, just listening to music and zoning out and i’d found myself on a road called Buckets Lane, a 80km stretch of road thats mostly straight and was absolutely empty at this time of night. At some point I took notice of headlights in my rear view mirror, it was the first car i’d seen in a long time, and although it seemed a long way behind me it started to catch me fast. I was driving my twenty year old Ford wagon, and was driving about 110km/h, but this guy was coming up REALLY quick.
Soon after I saw the car, I started to hear the faint noises of intermittent honking that grew louder and louder as he got closer. I’m not sure if this sounds scary, but it was really eerie. He was honking from a huge distance away for no reason, I was alone, I didn’t even have phone reception. It gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I had a strong feeling this person wanted to mess with me. After a while this car finally pulled right up on me, I could see it looked like a black pick up with two people inside, and before I knew it he was tailgating me and still honking repeatedly. I freaked out, I was trying to wave him around me, but he wouldn’t go. I didn’t want to slow down but I couldn’t outrun him, so I was sort of stuck. At this point he started flashing his high beams, which made it really hard to see, and then he started hitting my rear bumper, really smashing it. I was trying to keep my shit together enough to keep my car on the road, but I was dealing with the bumping, the high beams, and the honking that was driving me insane. All this was happening at around 100km/h (60+ mph), and eventually something had to give, I swerved off the road, luckily it was on open field, slammed on the brakes, the car did a full 180 degree turn and I slid backwards into a small ditch. I checked myself quickly, made sure I was all in one piece, the car miraculously wasn’t damaged and I hadn’t really crashed so I was fine. I then looked up to look for the truck. It had kept driving but it was slowing down, and then turned around, drove slowly towards me and started that fucking honking again.
I panicked big time. I put the car in reverse for some reason and slammed down on the accelerator… big mistake- I just dug the car in to the soft grass. The truck was driving in to the field towards me, at this point I realised this person was potentially dangerous, before it could have just been someone playing a stupid prank, but now they had run me off the road, and were coming back, still honking the horn, obviously not coming to see if I was ok.
They pulled up close to me, probably 20 meters off, and were shining their high beams on me so I couldn’t see a thing. I was still trying to reverse out of this ditch like a moron, and finally decided to put it back in drive. By this point the honking had stopped, and someone had stepped out of the drivers door. This person was short and fat but all I could see was their silhouette, and this silhouette was now walking towards my trapped car. I took a few deep breaths, I was shaking and terrified, and slowly eased the pedal. The car was moving but my wheels were spinning and I didn’t know if i’d make it out. The person moved faster now and got up to my door. I locked it in the nick of time when pulled the handle, so he just started knocking on the window. This was fucked, because he didn’t bash on it, he just tapped on it, really calm, and very slowly. I begged my car to move and finally it did, i got some traction and got back on to the road and just floored it.
The honking started again and pretty soon I saw the truck was racing to catch up with me again. FINALLY a car came in the opposite direction, I flagged him down by flashing my high beams and this middle aged woman got out of the car. I was hysterical, but once I stopped, I saw in the distance the lights of the black truck stop, turn around and zoom off in the other direction. Thank god for this woman, she calmed me down and took me to the police station. I gave a statement and everything but I didn’t really see anything but a short fat silhouette and a black truck, so no help there.
No one was ever caught, and the sounds of honking horns still send shivers down my spine.
43. SnoreBaby
Just for background, I’m a girl, early 20s, and this happened last year.
I have a twitter account, which I kept private (as in, I’d have to approve followers before they could see my tweets). I didn’t have a whole lot of followers, and I’d approve people who were friends of friends, etc. Which I probably should not have done.
But anyway. I approved this one girl, Mary, to follow me, and I followed her back. Mary was really into twitter. She’d tweet every five minutes, foursquare her every location- like she’d check into roads and streets- and she’d tweet every song she was listening to, what she was currently watching. It got annoying very quickly, as my entire feed was comprised of Mary’s activities.
Because I did not know her personally, and hardly interacted with her anyway, I unfollowed her. Shortly after that, I heard from friends that she was tweeting about me, making fun of my user name, my description, etc. It was very strange, but I shrugged it off as her being hurt that she lost a follower (I conclude now that she was VERY dependent on online activities to feel good about herself).
A few days later, a friend messaged me asking me about my ‘new twitter account’ to which I replied “what??”. Turns out, SOMEONE made a twitter account using my picture, a weird version of my name and a twisted version of my user name. They even used the same theme and background (which they would have had to search very hard for, as it was not easy for me to find them). On this account, they posted a lot of my personal information, from where I lived, to my dog’s name.
I tweeted something like “thanks Mary for that parody account”. And the crazy girl kept insisting that I made this account to ‘frame’ her. I ended up having to email twitter to get it down, which thankfully they did. I really didn’t want all that personal info out there.
I heard later that she was ‘obsessed’ with me and would tweet about me if she saw me anywhere like at concerts or at our uni (I never met her IRL thank God).
After that, I cleaned up all my accounts, and deleted a lot of tweets that contained personal info, and blocked A LOT of people. I thought that because I didn’t accept strange GUYS on my accounts that I’d be safe. But apparently girls can be crazy obsessive too lol.
44. owllamp
For reference, I’m a girl and was 17 when this happened, my sister was 14.
It was the afternoon and I’d gone to pick my sister up from gymnastics because my parents were out of town. Now my town is pretty small, so it isn’t necessarily strange to have a car driving behind you for a while, but for some reason the green car that had been following us for the past couple of minutes had gotten my attention.
My worry became magnified when they turned their blinker on to follow us down our residential street. Even though people do use the road as a shortcut my chest got tight and I felt sick to my stomach. Despite the anxiety I pulled into my driveway, which was incredibly stupid and I should have kept driving. I turned off my car and looked back to see the car pull into the parking lot of the small church across the road with the car facing our house. My sister hadn’t noticed the car, and I hadn’t said anything, so she started to get out. I told her to get back in. I cranked the car back up and started to back out. The car pulled out and left.
I sat in my car and called my mom who called the police. The officer came by and took a statement for a report and told us that we had to be careful because we were “pretty girls.” As if attractiveness had anything to do with it. I felt he wasn’t taking me seriously because I could not logically explain the feeling of dread that I’d had. They patrolled my street that afternoon and that’s all that came of it. A couple of weeks later we heard about a man that knocked on the door of a young girl in town who was home alone and tried to lure her into his car, which happened to be green.
45. koleypunch
This happened when I was 10 or 11 (so about 18 years ago), I was with my mom and my brother, who was maybe a year or so old at the time. My mom never drove, so we often took the bus whenever she had errands to run and my dad wasn’t available. This particular day, the bus was crowded and the only free seats were two together, plus another set of double seats ahead of it, one of which was occupied by a man.
My mom and brother took the two seats together, and I sat in front of them next to the man. I very distinctly remember the man being tall (or as tall as an 11 year old can guess from someone who is sitting), skinny and had a moustache. He looked over at me and smiled. At the time, I remember being freaked out by it. It was definitely not a pleasant smile, but a creepy one.
The man, still smiling, reaches over and begins to touch/rub my stomach. I immediately realize THIS IS NOT OKAY, and jumped up. I stand by the seats my mother and brother are in and ask “Mom, can I sit here with you please?!” and proceed to squeeze in.
To this day, I have never told my mom what happened, and if she could tell how freaked out I was, she never asked why. Maybe she just assumed that strangers scare me.
Also, I have no idea what the man did after that. Frankly, once I was safe with my mother, I stopped caring about the man and his creepy smile.
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