I would firstly like to state Im 17 now. I still live with my parents (obviously). I live in a building and an area that crime doesn’t typically occur. This incident happened 8 months ago and I get terrified when I hear the slightest sound at night.

For starters, I have a dog. To be precise, a Yorkshire terrier. Yorkshire terriers are known to be small but they can be so fucking loud and my dog is literally the definition of an ankle biter (despite her size, she’s pretty big. Weighing around 17 pounds) Our dog has a terrible habit of drinking a shit ton of water at night and then waking us up to go pee. We have a patio as we are on the first floor. Our patio is pretty spacious and is surrounded by a huge wall and a black fence that is sharp at the top to avoid any possible robbery. Like I said before, my area isn’t known for high crime but we have had encounters of people looking to steal quarters from our laundry machines.

I wasn’t fully asleep. Sure, my eyes were closed but I could hear everything. Since the apartment is small and has one bedroom, I don’t have much of an option but to share a bedroom with my parents but Im grateful that I still do because I don’t think Id be able to sleep alone now after what happened (call me a coward) but Im genuinely terrified. I heard my mom wake up groggy and pissed off because my dog started licking her. Usually when my dog licks, it’s because she needs to go outside to do her business. My mom stood up and and opens our patio door and lets my dog outside. In that moment, my dog starts barking furiously and whimpering. My mom being curious goes down to check wtf is going on and that’s when I heard bloody screams from my mom (like horror movie screams) I bolt up and my mom comes running inside our apartment, screaming “WAKE UP! THERES SOMEONE IN OUR PATIO” The moment I heard that shit, my blood ran cold.

Im so thankful my dad wasn’t fully asleep either and he got up and so did I. I followed after him. My first instinct for some reason was to protect my family. (Which is stupid because im a 17 yo female that can’t even do 10 pushups) Anyways, I grab a knife from our kitchen and go outside with my dad. I step outside and I see this guy standing in our garden, with garden scissors. My dad yells at him “gtfo or Ill call the police.” The guy turns around and drops the scissors and starts begging my dad not to kill him. Im ngl, this guy seemed out of it, like he was high.

The guy then gets up wobbly and jumps over the black sharp fence and doesn’t leave but instead paces back and forth, completely deranged. Idk why and Im still pissed at my parents for this, they didn’t call the police and when I asked why, they just said we’ll explain later. My dog was still barking loudly at the guy so my parents sent me and my dog to our bedroom and locked us inside so we would be safe. I contemplated on calling the police ( I should have) but hey, parents know what’s best. Eventually I knocked out. I gave up on waiting.

The next morning I woke up, I asked my mom what was wrong and she said that the guy who broke in was apparently looking for his girlfriend who lived in our building but on the second floor. He was going to climb our balcony to get to her apartment. She said she didn’t want to call the police because she knew who he was but she found it weird because the guy kept saying he jumped over the fence to “protect us” because he had seen someone else break in our apartment. Trust me, when my mom told me, I literally made a wtf face. Since the man was high, I didn’t question it though because he was batshit crazy. Crazy thing is right after I got home from school, my mom tells me she saw the guy roaming around again and he went up to her and apologized. He said he was sorry for scaring us and that he was high as a kite and that’s why he acted that way.

Anyway, I still don’t know what to make of this situation except that the guy traumatized me. Even though, I don’t know his intentions and what he planned to do. I hope he’s actually getting help he needs. As for my dog, Im grateful she is still here to protect us as without her, I don’t what would’ve happened to my mom or us.

This happened when I was in college. As I've said in some of my previous stories, that was a period in my life where just a lot of creepy shit happened to me. I don't really know what I was doing to attract so many weirdos at that time of my life, but I probably should have been evaluating my life choices a little more closely. But anyway, onto the story.

During college, I worked as a tutor at school, but on the weekends I would sometimes babysit for family friends. One of the kids was actually old enough to that he didn't need a babysitter (we'll call him Chris), but he wasn't old enough to watch the younger kid (we'll call him Kevin), thus my presence on the night that would prove to be honestly terrifying as fuck. I don't know, maybe you won't think it's as bad as I felt like it was...we'll see.

Okay, so anyway, I was babysitting for this family one Saturday night. The parents didn't usually stay out too late, getting home at like 10 PM (or earlier even) most nights when I babysat for their monthly date night. But this particular night was a special situation (I can't remember the circumstances of it now), but I mean, I was 19 - I could stay out past 10 PM. They figured they'd be home by 1 AM, and they said I was welcome to spend the night, but I'd already decided that would not be happening. That house honestly had a super weird vibe. It was kind of isolated, and they had all these old buildings on the property (a silo, some sheds, a gigantic barn, etc). Maybe I've watched too many horror movies, but all I could think was that there were so many places for people to hide in those buildings. Plus the house was really old too, and those always freak me out because, you know, ghosts. So I would not be spending the night, that was for sure.

So I was babysitting the kids, and Kevin wanted me to go help him find something in the basement. He had all these costumes he used to like to dress up in (once he scared the absolute SHIT out of me when he came up behind me in the dark wearing an ultra realistic soldier costume carrying a replica musket that I would have sworn was real but turned out wasn't. I nearly lost my shit that night). The basement was the second creepiest part of the house (the creepiest was the attic obviously because attics are terrifying, so if he would have asked me to go up there, it would have been a hard no). It wasn't fully finished and was really big with like lots of corners and turns and hallways and shit with a bunch of different rooms. It was actually my first time going beyond the stairway, and I kept thinking that if I had been aware of just how scary this basement was, there was no way in hell I'd be babysitting in this house. But I of course didn't want to look like a wimp in front of a child, so I went with Kevin to his costume area, which was kind of deep into the basement because of course it was.

As we were looking for the costume (well Kevin was looking, I was questioning my life choices that had led me to that moment), we heard noises that can only be described as footstep-like upstairs. At first, I just said it must be Chris, but then Chris was just suddenly in the doorway scaring the fucking hell out of me (seriously, no idea where the fuck he came from), and he was like, "That's not me." I remember this moment vividly, the three of us standing near this closet filled with various costumes of varying creepiness in this tiny room in a super sketch basement listening to what we thought were footsteps upstairs. Well, this is how we die, I thought, weirdly kind of immediately at peace with it.

But that only lasted a second before I thought, Fuck that shit, and I looked around for a weapon (this is where watching too many horror movies actually came in handy). Of course there was nothing because I was in a child's playroom, and the rest of the basement had little within it apart from like a washer and dryer, which would make a poor weapon unless I could somehow push it onto someone, which seemed unlikely to happen in this particular situation. In the end, I settled on this random crowbar (for real, it was just lying on the floor, and neither kid knew why - I cannot express how creepy this basement was), and I prepared to meet our fate while considering just how much of a risk I was willing to take to keep these kids safe.

It was at this moment that I realized something: the dog wasn't barking. The family had this golden retriever named Lily who would bark at fucking everything, and she wasn't barking, so I rationalized the sounds as just the noises an old house would make. Plus I realized when we heard the noises, we weren't actually under the house itself based on the layout of the basement - we were under the porch. So even if there was someone, it wasn't anyone in the actual house. It could have been anyone, a delivery driver being the most likely explanation. I felt a lot better, but you bet your ass I kept that crowbar (again I say, horror movies - they seriously prepared me for this type of situation).

So the kids and I went upstairs, where we found Lily knocked the fuck out (not like where someone knocked her out, she was just zonked. Like she jolted awake when I touched her because she'd been sleeping that soundly. I actually thought she was dead at first because that was the way this night was going). Once upstairs, I went to the porch and VERY CAUTIOUSLY opened the door to look for a possible package. It was winter, so it got dark early, meaning it was feasible that a delivery driver would still be working after the sun went down, but naturally there was no package. Of course there wasn't, right? I wouldn't be posting here if that's how this story ended.

So anyway, by this point I was stressed the hell out, but the kids were over it. While they were playing video games and I was googling the crime rates in this town, all of a sudden Lily perked up and started barking like a maniac; a second later, I heard a knock on the door. I just could not catch a fucking break this night. With my crowbar in hand, I walked to the door, and I could see through the frosted window in the door that someone was standing there. I couldn't make out their features, but someone was there.

Since I'm not a total dumbass, I didn't open the door, but I did ask through the doorway who it was. The man on the other side of the door said they had a pizza delivery. You already know what I'm about to say: we did not order a pizza. This was before every kid had a cell phone, so the boys couldn't have ordered one, plus they had been totally dead to the world while they played video games. And if the parents had ordered pizza, they would have told me. So naturally I again was prepared to fight for my life. I gripped the crowbar, and I told the guy we hadn't ordered a pizza. I thought for sure he was going to insist and try to get me to open the door, but surprisingly he didn't. He just said, "Oh, sorry, my mistake," and he turned and left.

At this point, I had a lot of questions, as one would when facing a series of unusual events in a creepy house in the middle of nowhere. So as I saw the guy walk off the porch through the frosted window, I opened the door just slightly. I wanted to see this guy, you know, in case I needed to identify him out of a lineup or something eventually, but by the time I opened the door, he was walking away, so I only saw his back. But I immediately noticed two strange things: I didn't see a pizza in his hands, and I didn't see his car. The latter I could rationalize because he might have parked on the street, which would have been strange since they had a large horseshoe shaped driveway, but you know, maybe. But...there was no pizza. I guess technically it might have just been blocked from view, but...I doubted it very much. I almost called him out on this too in a burst of ill-timed bravery, but then I realized that if I did, he would know the jig was up and would have nothing to lose. So I just closed and locked the door.

Later that night, Lily was again knocked out, and the kids were upstairs in bed. I didn't think I'd fall asleep. I honest to God was sitting there with the crowbar in my hands on high alert, like I was about to be in a fight for my life. In hindsight, maybe it was a bit of an overreaction, but I wasn't going to be one of those idiots who dies because they underestimated a threat level. I might as well have suggested the kids and I split up, which of course I realized in that moment that that was essentially what had happened. They wouldn't have been much help to me anyway. Well actually Chris might have because he was 14, as tall as I was, and could break a board with his fist. Maybe I should have kept him around.

Anyway, eventually I did fall asleep for like a half hour, and I was awoken to the sound of an owl. I'm a really light sleeper, so either the owl hooting woke me up or else it was just a coincidence, but I heard the owl when I woke up. Only...it didn't sound quite right. It sounded almost like an owl, but something was off about it. As I look back on this now, what I did next was extraordinarily foolish given the events that had transpired that night, but I think my tired brain wasn't working fast enough. That's the real killer in horror movies: exhaustion. In my fatigued state, I decided to investigate. I went to the door and listened. The owl was still hooting, but it still sounded weird. I couldn't figure out why it sounded so off, and this is when I did another stupid thing: I opened the door. With the door open, I could hear the owl a little better, and I looked into the darkness shining the light on my phone around (and given that this was early 2007, the light left a lot to be desired).

Suddenly I heard the owl again, and I honest to god gasped because this was when it all came together: the hooting didn't sound like an actual owl, it sounded someone a human imitating an owl. For real, even recalling it now for this story is giving me literal chills. Maybe it doesn't sound like a lot, but it was one of the truly terrifying experiences in my life, the moment where I realized this. My heart was about to fucking pound right out of my chest, and I still had the beam of light from my phone pointed into the darkness, and that was when I saw it reflected off of a set of eyes that were at the level a human's would be. And remember, this was 2007, so that light was total shit, which means the owner of said eyes was uncomfortably close, though it was so dark outside I couldn't make out anyone.

I wasn't tired anymore, so I came to my senses, locked that fucking door, barricaded it with a chair, and retreated into the living room after checking all of the downstairs windows again. I also grabbed big ass knife from the kitchen, like a Michael Myers style knife because at this point I legitimately thought I might need it. I really contemplated calling the police, but what was I going to tell them? That something outside was making owl noises and had eyes? They'd be like, "That's a fucking owl, you idiot" and then probably hang up on me. So I just sat on the couch again, this time clutching the knife and crowbar both, and I tried not to think about all the horror stories I had read or seen, especially the ones involving well-meaning babysitters meeting gruesome ends, but I was not successful. And I did not fall asleep again.

Around midnight, the couple came home. I had texted them to kind of warn them without sounding like I had completely lost any shred of cool I had left (which would have been an accurate way to read my texts). I just said that I thought I had heard someone outside, so be careful when they got home. They were totally unbothered because they lived in some bizarro world where bad things didn't ever happen to good people. They walked in nonchalantly while I put the knife away before they saw me clinging to it like a shipwreck victim clings to any piece of floating debris they can find, and this was when they told me that they thought they had heard someone outside a few nights ago because of course this wasn't something you would tell your babysitter beforehand. I mean, why would I need to know that? So I took my (VERY WELL-EARNED, I swear to Jesus) money, ran to my car, and got the fuck out of there.

Once I got home, I realized I still had the crowbar, and I won't lie to you: I never brought it back. I mean, because of their critical omission of information, I lived what was very nearly an actual nightmare, so I fucking earned that crowbar too. This was the end of my babysitting career. Only one other time did I babysit for them, and that was during a legit medical emergency one of the parents was having (everything turned out fine in the end luckily). I mean, I couldn't well turn them down when they called me in desperation. And nothing weird happened that night thank fuck because I don't think I would have the mental capacity to deal with this shit again. But you know, even all these years later, I know one thing with absolute certainty: that was not an owl.

Fair warning, this is slightly long and a slow burn, but 5 years on I still get creeped out thinking about this encounter and whether it could have ended very differently. Sorry there's no TL;DR.

This occurred a few years ago in 2019 whilst my partner and I were taking a road trip across BC, Canada. We'd rented a car from Vancouver and were just making our way towards Banff, up to Jasper then back towards Vancouver via Whistler, a little anti-clockwise loop. All in we traveled for around 5 weeks total, sleeping in National park campsites or rest stops along the way.

One evening somewhere along the Crowsnest Highway between Paulson and Castlegar we arrived at a Provincial Park campground where we intended to stay the night. A nice easy spot next to a lake with a large parking area, many benches and a wooden shelter, but far from any civilisation. There were already a few other people there with motorhomes and caravans, we were the only ones with a tent.

We arrived before dark, setup the tent, sharing a few polite greetings with the other campers. There was one guy in particular, old chap I would guess to have been late 60s with a motor home who was very friendly and chatty, but a little too chatty.

He noticed we had our coffee pot (mocka) with us and mentioned that he had a 5kg bag of coffee beans in his motorhome if we wanted some, though he followed up by saying he didn't even drink coffee because he didn't like the taste. He persisted in offering for us to come to his motorhome to get some beans. This sounded a little odd. We politely declined.

He eventually left us, we got our tent pitched and went to prepare dinner in the onsite shelter. My partner and I shared a few glances to each other, clearly neither of us felt particularly comfortable around this guy, but perhaps he was harmless. We kept our eyes open while we were cooking and noticed he wandered off towards the lake, presumably for a walk.

While we were eating we spotted him returning, trying to avoid being seen we just avoided eye contact and got stuck into our dinner. Unfortunately he spotted us and wandered over. Despite us being partway through eating he begun chatting with us. Being the type of people who never want to be rude or offend we politely returned conversation, nodded and ate.

I don't remember the whole conversation but a couple of things stood out to us. He asked questions about our relationship, were we married, did we live together, did we have children, did we want to have children. Some questions bordering on being a little too personal. It could have been considered innocent coming from a relative or a friend, but coming from this stranger we just felt some uncomfortable undertones to his questioning.

He noticed we were drinking water with our meal and asked if we drank coca-cola. He mentioned that he had a multi-pack of coca-cola cans in his motorhome if we wanted some, though said he didn't drink the stuff himself. He again persisted in inviting us to his motorhome to take a couple of cans each. We politely declined.

At this point my partner and I were sharing glances, we noticed that we were both feeling totally uneasy around this guy and quickly finished up dinner, made our excuses to get up and leave, realising he wasn't going to leave us alone so easier for us to leave him there in the shelter.

We cleaned up our cooking stuff, packed everything into our car and prepared the tent for the night. Whilst doing so he approached us again on his way back to his motorhome, again inviting us to come and get some coca-cola or join him watching TV if we wished to. Again we politely declined.

At this point the light was fading so we took ourselves down to the lake for a quick walk, brushing our teeth as we walked, rubbish bag in hand to dispose of in the bins at the bottom of the car park. As we approached the bins we noticed a large shadowy figure leaning into one of the bins. Startled by our presence it jumped down from the bin onto all fours and ran for the treeline. Both my partner and I froze. There was no mistaking it. The large cat-like silhouette with the long slender tail. We'd just interrupted a mountain lion foraging through the bins! Thankfully it was more afraid of us and made a run for the trees before we had even realised what we had seen.

Startled, we both turned back and fastwalked back up the hill, agreeing that we would instead sleep in the car that evening, not knowing whether that mountain lion would have been lurking nearby just beyond the treeline or not, but we decided not to chance it.

We reclined the seats, locked the doors and slept until morning, thinking of the close encounter with the mountain lion and having put the creepy old camper to the back of our minds.

In the morning we woke early before anyone else, packed the tent and got the hell out of there, heading for whatever town was next on the map, relieved to have left that entire scenario behind. We didn't bump into either the creepy old guy or the mountain lion again.

Continuing on our journey we wondered if perhaps we had misread the whole situation with the creepy old guy, but I like to think that our intuition is pretty good and both of us sensed there was something off. Later that day I received a call from my brother back home checking up on us and making sure we were okay. He'd seen on the news that there was a manhunt underway in BC after a spate of killings that week and naturally he was concerned for us! It turns out there were two guys on the run after murdering three people further north towards Alaska! The suspects didn't resemble the old guy we met in any way, but it did make us wonder what his intentions were.

Thinking back to that experience we wonder if we overeacted, whether this creepy camper was just some harmless Grandpa looking for company and conversation, or perhaps we were fortunate and avoided a much different fate. Trust your gut if something doesn't feel right.

Thanks if you made it this far. Curious to hear anyone's thoughts on this situation and whether we should have handled it differently.

Not sure if this is enough interaction to constitute an encounter but it was weird.

About 4 years ago my family moved from our (English) local, rural village to a slightly busier local, rural town. In the village we knew absolutely everybody but the town we knew way less.

The new place is a town house and as if it isn't creepy enough that we live opposite a graveyard, next to that graveyard is the huge walled-off grounds to the old hospital asylum. It's also worth mentioning that this town is known to be pretty dangerous, and was actually known as the murder town of the UK for several years. That being said, apart from a few run-ins in college, I never felt particularly vulnerable there.

We moved in late November and so by Christmas we had only lived there for a few weeks. My ex and I came home for the holidays and spent a few nights at my parents and then hers. One night, my parents were in the living room and my ex and I were arguing but we wanted to talk things out discreetly so we went upstairs to my parents room. It was about 1am. As we were arguing I felt this weird sensation and randomly glanced out the window to the street. Everything seemed normal at first until I saw somebody, dressed in all black, stood completely still in the old hospital grounds just staring directly at our window. I couldn't make out any features of theirs, just that they were white.

Once my ex realised that I had stopped arguing and was visibly creeped out she looked too and was like 'what the fuck'. Something instantly felt wrong and I didn't respond. I was looking to see if maybe the person had a dog they were walking but after a couple minutes I realised they hadn't moved a muscle. Where they were stood, the only thing at normal eye level to them would have been the wall surrounding the grounds. Though they were clearly facing up at our window.

Anyway who walks their dog at 1am in the middle of English winter? I told my ex to move away from the window for some reason. They stood there for 15 minutes straight, staring directly up at the window, not moving at all. I stared back, completely frozen the whole time, just studying everything about the situation, trying to make sense of it. Eventually I moved away from the window and told my dad. He double checked everything was locked and told us to just sit with them for a bit. About an hour later, curiosity got the better of me and I checked the window again. They were gone.

My partner had been arguing for well over 20 minutes before I noticed, had that person been watching us the whole time?

My encounter when I was 14

So when I was 14, I liked to go for walks alone. Just me, some music and where ever I decided to go.

One day, might have been early spring, I'm walking through a beautiful wooded area, with the sun glimpsing through the branches and leaves. I saw a man, I'd say around mid 30's, walking and looking around in the opposite direction to me. He then turned to me and asked if I had seen his dog, me being oblivious to what he said, said no and tried to walk away. But he seemed really desperate and upset, practically begging for my help. So eventually I agreed and u helped him look for close to an hour.

Eventually, he disappeared down a heavily wooded area and called out that he found his dog and needed help to free him from some branches. Me being relieved to have found the dog was originally sceptical to go in after, but stupidly I did. It was only then where I found the man's true intentions, he had pulled his trousers and pants down and wanted me to do unspeakable things to him, I stood frozen has he only stepped closer towards me.

In a panic I ran, whilst trying to take photos of him to show anyone for help. But has I ran, he chased close behind. We came to a bridge which was other a river, don't ask me how I did it, but I managed to slip, dropping my phone into the river. I scrabbled to my feet and continued to run, where I realised he wasn't chasing me anymore. He had seemingly disappeared.

I've never told anyone this story because I thought no one would belive me, but now I'm 17 and happily in a relationship, it's been on my mind for the last 4 years and now I just have to tell someone.

Monday night I went to sleep with my girlfriend in the house we’re currently renting. We’re in a somewhat rural area so we’re not in much of a neighborhood, just off of a small road with a few houses around us, the closest being about 300 feet away.

We’re both startled awake when we hear a VERY loud banging coming from our front door. Very rapid and strong hits. At first we both just lie there and listen. After 30 seconds or so I check the time and see it’s 4 am. Okay, something’s not right here. I get up and grab my pistol, then hear a woman start screaming from the porch.

She yells “OPEN THE DOOR! I’M HAVING A SEIZURE! MOM! OPEN THE DOOR!” While she continues to bang on our door with all the violence of someone trying to knock a door in. We’re both extremely uncomfortable so instead of answering I call the police.

I explain the situation and give my address to dispatch, who informs me that someone else has also complained and police are already en route. So for the next 10 minutes or so, I’m just frozen between my girlfriend still lying in bed and the window we have on our front porch that the stranger out there could easily access.

She continues beating our door violently and screaming every few seconds until the police finally arrive. They go talk to her, then eventually approach my door and ask if she said anything of any use. I tell them what she has been saying, then they go back to talking to her.

My girlfriend comes out at this point and we step out together to assess any damage to our front door. She immediately looks down and spots a pair of channel locks (similar to a pair of pliers for those unaware) and when we look at the door, there is a multitude of dents from where the woman outside had been beating our door with the channel locks.

I hand the channel locks over to the police, and have them come back to our front door to photograph the damage. Bear in mind that we have a metal front door and she has made significant dents all over the thing.

Police finish talking to her, then come give us a case number. I ask why she was doing that and all they tell me is that if what she says is true, she had good reason to be panicked. I ask if she lives near and they point at the immediate house next to ours and tell me she just moved back in with her parents.

5 hours later, I hear a knock at my front door. I go answer and it’s the woman from last night. Pretty visible drug usage has dwindled her body down to a sickly figure. She says “I’m sorry if I scared you guys last night, there was a lot going on.” Before I can reply she says “I can fix your door, how much do you think it would cost to paint over it?”

Can upload an image if enough people are interested but our front door is so dented and banged up that no amount of paint is going to cover this. I explain that to her and she says ok well I’ll get someone to fix it.

Now it’s Wednesday, and every time me and my girlfriend have left to get lunch or go to work or go shop, she’s standing halfway out of her front door staring at us. Waiting on the case report to be finished Monday so that we can hopefully get a protective order against her. This has obviously been a stressful situation and me and my girlfriend are having difficulty sleeping ever since.

Update: photo of door

Update 2: for clarity, the woman is an adult, not a child. She seems to be in her 30s or so and her parents are both pretty elderly.

Last night after my wife picked me up from work we headed over to Walmart to grab a few things before returning home. We were discussing what we wanted to get for snacks in the chip aisle (I was being indecisive as usual) when some random guy leaving the aisle decides to chirp in with "That's why you shouldn't shop when you're hungry!". We laughed politely and agreed in a way that was I thought passive enough not to continue conversation, but apparently he had other plans. My wife, not really paying attention, wandered off to look at popcorn and this is where things took a strange turn.

"I keep telling them it'd be easier if they let me ride my bike in here!"

I gave him uninterested "Yep I bet." while trying to figure out if I wanted plain or sour cream chips. Kind of random but wheels do make most things easier I guess.

"But my bike's a Harley so..."

What the fuck? I'm trying to make sense of what was said and shoot him a confused look like in what universe would that be at all helpful or practical. I can't tell if he's just on the spectrum somewhere or if this is some weird flex like "hurr hurr I have a Harley" to brag (just why) or a horrendous attempt at trying to flirt. My wife calls over that she can't see the popcorn anywhere totally oblivious to what's happening and I'm like oh thank god, I grab a bag of chips, throw it in the cart and begin to turn to walk over when dude doubles down.

"Wanna see what happens when I'm left unsupervised?"

ABSOLUTELY NOT. He starts rummaging around in his coat, with his arms full of groceries for his phone and I very quickly give a firm "No." and start to walk away because this was rapidly devolving into something I would rather let a rabid weasel chew on my face than be a part of. At best it's something I don't care about, at worst I'm probably going to get flashed a dick pic.

"I got a... puppy."

OKAY we have ascended to windowless unmarked van levels of creep! "HONEY." My wife turns around and starts walking back to meet me looking concerned, he mutters "Have a good night." and removes himself from the area with a noticeable swiftness. They asked what happened so I repeated what he'd said, they looked just as confused and disturbed as I felt.

I really want to believe that he didn't have malicious intent, that maybe he was just unfortunately naturally unsettling, but at the same time that was a fucking weird conversation to have with a complete stranger, let alone someone who was obviously with their partner (we're one of those gross PDA couple that hold hands everywhere) and actively trying to shop.

I definitely did not feel comfortable, and I was weirded out enough that I didn't even notice I grabbed the wrong chips until we got home which is honestly just insult to injury.

I used to work in a kitchen design studio. We had a "Host" desk at the front to answer quick questions and handle small customer service issues. One day the host on duty needed her (21F) break, and I (34M) told her I would take her spot for her break. About 10 minutes in to her break a scruffy looking dude with an unlit half cigarette in his mouth came in. I gave the usual "welcome in, how can I help you?" Service industry greeting and the dude just looked at me silent for about 2 minutes. Then he walked over and started rubbing my shoulder while saying "you're a good man. You're gonna be okay" I kinda just frozen. I didn't know to do. He wasn't attacking me, but it was super unnerving. I told the host about it and she said she was glad it happened to me instead of her lol.

Anyway that guy got arrested after lighting half a block of sidewalk on fire.

I never post anything on Reddit, but I have to share this story because it really affected me as a child. When I was about twelve or thirteen, I used to play a lot of video games with my best friend, and we often played shooters together. As you can imagine, it’s easy to get frustrated, and at one point, I ended up breaking my PlayStation controller. Since I didn’t have a spare and couldn’t continue playing, I told my friend that I had to stop. He said I could come over and borrow his second controller since he didn’t live far away, just a short walk. I thought, “Okay,” and told him I’d be over soon.

So, I grabbed my keys and started walking to his house. It was already dark and, since it was winter, it was snowing and very foggy. While walking, I had a strange feeling, like I was being watched. I kept looking around, but didn’t see anyone. When I arrived at his place and picked up the controller, I saw through a window that a man was standing in the middle of the street. I pointed it out to my friend, and we both wondered who or what was standing there. It looked like a person, but we couldn’t make out any details, just a silhouette.

Eventually, we decided to go outside and see if the person needed help or if something was wrong. We stepped out and asked what was going on, but there was no response. The person just stared at us and then walked away. We were both confused and told his parents, but they just brushed it off, thinking we were imagining things because we play too many video games.

After a while, I figured it was time to head home. Since we had played video games together for a while, I almost forgot about the strange encounter. But when I was walking back, I started to feel that same eerie sensation of being watched. I saw a few passersby, but they all seemed normal—nothing strange. But just before I got home, I looked behind me one last time, and I saw that person again, this time standing behind a tree, staring at me. Then, they started walking toward me, and eventually, they began running.

I could tell it was an older man, probably around 60, but I was surprised at how fast he was running. He was shouting something in a language I didn’t understand, but he didn’t seem happy. I ran for my life, clutching my keys, and tried to unlock my front door as fast as possible. When I got inside, I quickly glanced back, but the man was gone. I rushed to my room and immediately told my friend about what had just happened. He suggested I call the police, which I did. But since my description wasn’t very detailed, the police took a report but didn’t seem to take it too seriously.

My parents were visibly shocked, but nothing ever came of it. In my village, four other people reported similar experiences, saying that someone was watching or following them. I was one of them, but no one was ever caught by the police. To this day, no one knows who this man is, whether he’s just trying to scare people or if it’s something more sinister. No one knows for sure, but everyone agrees that it seems to be a man around 60 years old. Beyond that, no one can give a detailed description.

That day, I feared for my life. I’ve told many of my friends about this, and I’ve received mixed reactions. Some said it sounds like a spooky campfire story, while others believed me and were visibly scared. A few even told me they had experienced the exact same thing.

A few years back, my mum (46F), sister (23F), and I (28F) were driving to the shops when we noticed an old car tailgating us. As we pulled into the shopping center car park, we couldn't see the car behind us anymore, so we assumed he had driven off. Just as we pulled into our parking spot, the same old car sped into the space directly in front of us, and we saw the driver—he was maybe in his 40s and looked really angry. He got out of his car and kept looking back at us as he walked into the shop.

Just as we thought he was gone, we saw him poke his head around the door and look at us again. This really freaked us out, so we decided to park somewhere else. That's when we noticed him running out of the shopping center and looking through all the cars for us. At this point, we were really getting freaked out, and keep in mind, this was a busy shopping center in the middle of the day—it just seemed so strange.

Eventually, he spotted our car and randomly stopped what he was doing to stare at his phone. My sister and I decided to run over to the security guard and tell him what was happening. The security guard went over to him, said something, and then the guy looked over at us again before getting into his car and driving off. He must have been on something, but it was really freaky...

hi i’m a 17 year old female and today i decided to sneak into my boyfriend’s high school because i skipped school. i currently attend a different school and just wanted to see him for a little longer, mind you his school is my old homeschool so ik my way around especially when it comes to sneaking in; i just transferred because i didn’t like the environment and ppl. i was also wearing this matching 2 piece set that was pretty tight on me and i also have a bit of curve but honestly i was only showing like 1 inch of belly max.

maybe around 10 minutes before his 4th period bell rung for lunch i started heading up to his school by the side gate because i live like maybe a 5 minute walk from his school. then as im walking i notice this maybe tan colored toyota camry with this huge dent on the right back side so obviously i look at it cause who wouldn’t right? then i notice inside the car the owner which is maybe a 25 year old male jerking off in there.

also mind you he was parked by my homeschool which is in between of a preschool and elementary like bro have sum respect at least hello? anywho i went on with my business and kept walking to my man’s school, i also notice the car driving past me; and as i walk a bit into the side gate the car comes back into this parking lot and beeps the horn at me and so of course i got super scared and sped walk as quick as i could. also with this side gate im pretty skinny and there was this bigger opening space if that even makes sense; but i was able to slide thru without having to jump the gate, then i walk maybe 10 feet from the gate i just came thru and i look back and that man was running after me like fuh no foo what is you doing??

we also have a camera right by that area but it doesn’t point to the gate but i don’t think he knew that and when he saw it im guessing; he then just ran back to his car. i don’t know if im possibly overthinking this interaction or not. he seemed to be filipino tho and as an asian myself, not sure if i should be feeling comfortable about that.

Neighbor scratching on my apartment door in the middle of the night

Last Sunday, I was putting together a new dresser I had bought in the rear bedroom of my apartment. The bedroom door was open and I could see down the main hallway into the living room where my fiancé was standing with the two kids while they were playing. This is about 7:30 pm.

A knock comes on the door. My 6 year old son runs to the door and opens it (even though he knows he is not supposed to. We are working on this. He was coming down from his birthday party excitement and just went for it, probably thinking someone else was stopping by for his party even though it was long over).

A woman is at the door. I recognize her as an upstairs neighbor from the other side of the building. She says she needs help and walks straight into the apartment. She began frantically talking nonsense. Saying she was locked out of the building (she is in the building) Saying she can get into her apartment but couldn’t get in the building then in the same breath saying she can’t get into her apartment. She appears extremely disoriented and keeps saying she’s just so exhausted or really tired over and over again. She appears very out of it. Not balancing very well, speech pattern is sloppy, appears to be in some sort of a light daze. To me, immediately, it appeared she was having some sort of episode.

As soon as I stepped foot near her I could tell something fishy was going on. She continued to talk in circles and not make any sense, saying her parents were going to be so worried if she didn’t check in with them (she lives alone). She begins repeatedly asking us to call numbers for her.

Her phone is in her hand, on the video record setting (but I can see it is not recording) She is rolling something in her pocket over and over. It appears to be a screwdriver.

As she is telling my fiancé numbers to dial, she cannot come up with the numbers. Every phone number she gave us to “call for help” was multiple digits short. They were not phone numbers. Then when I said that’s not enough numbers to make a phone number, she would switch to a different “phone number” and then stop half way through saying it. This happened about 7 to 8 times and finally I had enough. She kept saying her phone wasn’t working so I had let her try to use my phone but she ended up just standing there holding it not using it just holding onto it continuously talking nonsense.

I’m thoroughly uncomfortable at this point and very upset that this woman has entered my apartment without invitation and is acting this way around my children. I tell my fiancé to take the kids to the back of the house and try to coax the woman out by saying “let’s go check out your apartment. Come with me, we will see if it’s open.”

I try to lead her out of my apartment but she says she is so exhausted and needs to sit down and proceeds to just sit down on my living room couch. I’m not thrilled with this. In fact I’m livid but I keep my cool and realize im dealing with crazy. My fiancé flanks her from the back so she can not get further into the apartment and near the children again. I continue trying to coax her out. After about five minutes of trying to convince her to leave our apartment and come with me to check hers out, she finally walks ever so slowly out of our basement apartment.

I’m a stairway ahead of the woman already, telling her to follow me up to her apartment. On the way to her apartment, she attempts to get into 2 other apartments that are not hers. I tell her each time that is not her apartment. When I arrive at her apartment, the door is wide open. She has not caught up with me yet so I take a quick glance inside the door. The couch cushions are thrown everywhere and the living room is looking torn up and turned upside down. She arrives behind me and tries again to get Into another neighbors apartment across the hall from hers. I tell her that is not her apartment but hers is here and is wide open. Finally I get her to go inside her apartment. When she does, she apologizes to me saying “I’m sorry this is how we had to meet, I’m just so exhausted”.

I say it’s okay and quickly head back downstairs to my apartment. I have such an uneasy feeling that I decide to call the cops and let them know some woman who I have never spoken to before showed up at my door asking for help and acting disoriented. They say they will send someone to check on her. An hour later police arrive and knock on her door. No answer. They leave.

4:15 a.m. rolls around. My 6 years old son and 1 year old daughter have been asleep through the night, as have myself and my fiancé. I get up to use the bathroom. As I’m using the bathroom I hear a light knock on the apartment door. So light I actually second guessed if I heard it. I call out to my fiancé to ask her if she heard a knock at the door too. She says she didn’t hear it. We both head towards the living room together just to see if we hear anything.

No sooner do we step foot in the living room, then we begin to hear scratching at our front door. The unmistakable sound of someone clawing at your door is not something I wish for anyone to hear in the middle of the night. It is truly horrifying. I tell my fiancé to be with the kids and make sure they are okay.

I open the door to find the woman from earlier standing at the top of the flight of stairs in front of my apartment just looking down staring at the door. It’s fucking terrifying. So I told her no fuckin way are we doing this shit. Proceeded to call her a crazy bitch and tell her to get the fuck away from my apartment and stay away from my family. I also told her I’m calling the cops right now. She scurries away out of sight (presumably back to her apartment). I immediately call the police.

They show up and ask her all of the “mental health questions” which she apparently answered adequately so they said there’s nothing they can do. This woman was clearly in some sort of state and is now harassing me and my family and disturbing our peace and the safety of my children. They told her to stay away from us and I haven’t seen her in a week since then. But I can’t help but continue to think about it. Ever since the first time she entered the apartment acting crazy I have had this pit in my stomach and this uneasy feeling that whatever this is is not over.

I still do not know what it was that was going on and it makes me feel so uneasy. I do not know what to make of it. Our other neighbor who we are cool with said that her doorknob was being jiggled by someone in the middle of the night. Putting 2 and 2 together I know it was this crazy woman. It’s got me sick. The complex sent her a warning that this behavior is unacceptable but I really don’t know what to do or how to feel. My first instinct is to respond with anger and physically defend myself and my family.

Input is welcome and appreciated

Hi all. My friend and I just had a pretty terrifying encounter with an Uber driver and are shaken up by the event. We're visiting a pretty touristy city in a foreign country right now for the weekend and went to visit a winery not far from the city center. After finishing our wine, we called an Uber to get back to our hotel. The Uber driver, a woman, picks us up and upon entering the car calls us "beautiful ladies." She doesn't speak very much English but my friend can speak her native language/the language of the country we're visiting.

As we're driving back toward the city, she first makes joking comments about us being drunk and telling us not to throw up in her car, which I assumed was all friendly banter because she was picking us up from a winery. The woman begins telling us about her life story, but then begins talking about how the mafia works in this particular neighborhood we were driving through and deals in human and drug trafficking (my friend was translating for me because I couldn't understand). She also kept calling us "beautiful" and "beautiful ladies." She then asks us if she can pick up some mail on the way and that it'll be a short stop. We assumed it would be along the route and so we say yes.

She then begins going far off route, in the complete opposite direction of where we were meant to go. She also kept extending the amount of time she claimed it would take to pick up this mail, and also said it was actually at her apartment. My friend and I were growing nervous. The driver then approached an apartment building and started driving toward the entrance to a gated, underground garage. My friend told her to stop and that we would wait outside, and then Uber driver said "don't worry, I'm a mother" and "it'll only be a minute." We thankfully were able to unlock the door, canceled the ride, and ran toward the main road of the city. We then mapped our way back to where we were supposed to be, and it ended up being about a 45 minute walk from where we were. I don't know if this woman truly had malicious intent, but her words, combined with trying to drive us into her (alleged) apartment parking garage, was scary.

I got into the elevator and a guy ran and caught it before the doors fully closed. Thinking nothing of it at all, I was shocked when I looked up to see that the guy was standing with his back to the doors and directly face to face with me. I’m telling you, my heart was pounding and it felt like it took forever to get to my floor. The guy was not turned to me because we were speaking either, he was not friendly and had a dead pan creepy look on his face.

I get to my floor and he gets out as well. I tried my best to keep composed with my key in my hands, got in quick and locked the door. wtf is wrong with people?!

A few years ago, when I was 25 (F), I ran as a candidate in an election for a small party. It was my first time running, and I didn't really know what to expect.

The night before the election, my mother (44) and I went around putting up my signs at all the polling booths. As we were leaving one of the booths, we saw some volunteers from another party pull up in their car to put up their signs. When we got to the next place, the same people were driving past us really slowly.

It was around midnight at this point, so it was a bit creepy. We were heading to our last spot to put up signs, driving down a really dark road, when the same people cut us off, blocking our way. I watch too many thrillers, so I was freaking out, crying, thinking we were about to get robbed or worse.

My mum, on the other hand, is tough. She wound down the window and asked them what they were doing. They said, "Sorry, wrong person" and then drove off.

I swear they wanted to scare us away so they could get all the best spots for their signs.

I realized how dirty politics could be. They were only trying to scare us, but they did a bloody good job of it.

Trigger warning: This is a pretty messed up story. Please don't judge me—I was only a kid, and kids make really dumb mistakes. When I was 15 (F), I used to talk to people online. One man, who claimed to be 26, said he would pay me a lot of money to pretend to be his girlfriend to his family. Then his requests became more disturbing—he said he wanted to have a baby with me for $20,000. He then suggested that my friend and I go to his house to do some very messed up things with him for a lot of money. My friend and I planned to get the money from him and then run away. We were very stupid and should have told a parent about what he was saying to me.

We decided to meet up with him that day in a crowded area so he couldn't kidnap us. He looked much older than 26 and was fat and scary-looking. He bought us some smokes and gave us $50, saying he would give us the rest that night when we met up again. When we left, he texted me, saying he could see my underwear through my shorts. I was really creeped out, but being young and dumb, my friend and I were determined to get the money and then report him to the police.

We met up across the road from a park in front of some houses. He was in his car and told us to get in. I said, 'Show us the money,' and he showed us about $1,000. I said, 'Pass me the money, and then I'll get in the car,' but he insisted I get in the car first. I sat on the edge of the seat, and he said, 'Now tell her to get in the car too, and I'll give it to you.' I refused and said, 'Give it to me first.' Then a man came out of his house asking if we were okay, and the car sped down the road a bit before driving off.

After that we decided to try to catch him again to get his number plate so we could report him to the police. Unfortunately, we never looked at the number plate. He never tried meeting up with us again, so I gave my Facebook information to the police so they could try to catch him. It turns out he didn't tell us his real name and got rid of his phone right after that, so they could never catch him. I know we were very stupid, but this just shows that parents need to really monitor what their children are doing.

When I (27F) was about 15, my cousin (26F), who was 14 at the time, and I were walking past a really dark alley in the late afternoon. I noticed an old, suspicious car with a creepy guy driving slowly past us. He turned around and pulled up right next to us with the creepiest look on his face—he was probably in his late 20s. He asked in the creepiest voice if we had a lighter he could borrow. For a moment, I thought about saying yes, but my instincts kicked in, and I said, 'No, sorry.' Then he seemed frustrated and asked if we needed a lift anywhere. We freaked out and ran away—it was such a creepy moment. To this day, I wonder what he was planning to do with us...

I was 9 years old when me and my little brother (5M) were invited to a sleepover. My mother had just become acquainted with a man from church, whom spoke of his children wonderfully. I remember him saying he had them for the weekend due to custody.

When we arrived, we asked about the children. Turns out they were arriving sometime soon. The man invited us to the pool and so we spend part of the day chilling and playing in the pool. When the sun went down we decided to head back in and take a shower. I made sure to stick by my baby brother while the man was in the living room. I didn’t trust the man for some reason. I remember thinking about the children. I don’t remember seeing any kid pictures or anything, not even on his phone’s background. I think by then it was clear there were no children coming. No children ever existed. I remember there was a wii we spent most of the night playing but no children were ever seen. I don’t remember much after that other than telling my mom we never saw any children. Of course, she was spooked, and never left us alone at church ever again. and we never saw that man ever again.

This happened years ago and now I’m a 19 year old boy, reliving the memories of the man with no children, inviting us for a sleepover.

Before I begin this story, I'd like to get it out of the way that this story is true, even though it is written like it isn't, I wanted to include as many details as possible to really show what my perspective was like. I wish this didn't happen to me and my friend, as we were only teenagers and it definitely effected how safe I felt in my hometown. This also happened several years ago, and even though this isn't a new story, there's not a week that goes by that I don't replay this in my head. I guess hearing other's thoughts might help give me more clarity on what might've happened, as there's still a lot about this that is unknown.

It was early in the fall of my senior year in high school. Me (F 17), My friend Madison (F 16), and our two other friends Daniel (M 17) and Jake (M 17) walked around the mall for a while. After Madison and I bought a few things, we all went to the food court to wait for the rest of our group to meet up with us there.

We sat down, with Madison to my left and Daniel and Jake across the both of us. After about 15-20 minutes or so, Madison nudges me with her elbow. I asked her what was up, and she leaned into my face and whispered in my left ear.

"Don't look and stare, but I've been watching this guy the last few minutes and he's walking back and forth in front of our table and staring at the both of us."

I remember that I briefly saw a man a few minutes ago walk by our table a couple times, but I didn't think much of it then. There was a lot of people in the mall that day that were walking by. But at the same time, I could see the same man in my peripheral and asked if it was him.

"Is it the one in the blue?"

"Yes."

"Is he still looking?"

"Not right now, I'm looking away though." Madison looked down at her phone.

I thought that it was better to look at the guy now since he wasn't staring at us and Madison wasn't looking anymore. Just as I went to get a glimpse, he started walking past our table again. He was a white man, brown hair, lanky/slender build, middle aged (30-40+), wearing a light blue polo shirt and jeans with sneakers. I also happened to notice something that my friend didn't, and it was that he was holding his phone in his arm facing us, down by his side, with his camera pointed right at us. My first conclusion was that he was recording us, so I stayed vigilant and made sure he didn't notice me looking at him.

After he passed our table, I saw him stop walking and was just standing there. he was about 20~ feet away to our left from where we were seated. Then, after looking at his phone, he walked the opposite way past our table AGAIN. Here's the kicker: he switched his phone into his other hand so he could point his camera at us again.

I nudge Madison and tell her, and just as I finish whispering, we both watched him sit down a few tables over from us, about 25-ish feet away. He sat facing towards us and after fidgeting with his pockets, he pulls out his phone again. he propped the bottom of his phone onto the table, pointing the camera right directly at us, still not noticing that we can see him doing all of this.

I guess Madison and I were in shock at what we were coming to terms with, that a strange man was taking pictures of us in a public place and we had no idea what his intentions were. We were still staring at him while he tapped things on his phone screen, until all of a sudden, his eyes get wide and he looks right up at us (my guess is that he saw us staring at him through his camera).

"We need to go. Daniel give me your keys now!" Madison yelled at him while i grabbed my things and put them away. While fumbling with my things, I made eye contact with the man, who I saw was starting to get up from his chair. Madison ran out in front of me, and I was right behind her.

I never ran so fast in my life, and i am not a fast runner, but that didn't matter in that moment. I couldn't feel anything. I remember running out of the double doors to the parking lot and turning around for a brief moment and seeing the same man sprinting at us.

Luckily, traffic stalled him after I ran into the huge parking lot that was full of cars. I knew exactly where to go, and when i got there, Madison was fumbling with the keys until she finally got the car to open. I could see the man run into the parking lot, looking around to see if he can find us. Daniel's mini van had dark windows (thank god) so he couldn't find us as long as he didn't see which car we got into.

After catching my breath and exchanging a "What the fuck was that" with Madison, I kept watch on the rest of the parking lot for the guy. Daniel and Jake got in and asked us what happened and we filled them in.

A few rows ahead of us, I saw a blue nissan going very slowly through each isle in the parking lot. When they got up to the row I was in, I looked and saw that the driver was the same man from the food court. I saw him reach the end of the parking lot, turn around, and go through each isle again. I told my friends and we all watched as he passed us again, reached the end of the parking lot, and left.

After contemplating on what we should do, we decided to just drive somewhere else and meet up with our friends there instead of calling the police. Now that I'm older, I feel like that was my mistake because I really wish I said something. If that guy was comfortable enough to go to a public and crowded place and do something like that, he's definetly done it before to other young girls. I often wonder who he was, why he did that, and thinking about it leaves me no where. Why was he taking photos of me and my friend? Was it for his own pleasure? If so, why did he feel the need to chase after us into the parking lot if he had the photos anyway? Was he working with other people? Could it have been human trafficking? If he caught up with me and Madison, would he have hurt us? or worse, kidnap us? Why didn't I take a picture of him and tell the police? Why didn't I call him out inside the mall and caused a scene?

I try not to be too harsh on myself about it because at the end of the day, Madison and I are alive. Her and I aren't friends anymore, but I know i'll never forget that day and neither would she. Thanks to her quick thinking, I wouldn't have thought twice about that guy walking by our table, and I owe her a lot for that.

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading this. I appreciate you for reading my experience and if you're a woman and you're in public, TRUST YOUR GUT, be aware of your surroundings, be with people you trust, and take extra precautions when you feel like you're in a potentially dangerous situation. We live in a very disgusting world with very disgusting people, stay vigilant even if you're somewhere familiar like your hometown mall.

I (19F) study in a university. During the semester, I noticed that someone had been checking off my own attendance on our class sheet. I didn't know anyone at all so I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched. A week later, a guy sitting in front of me started talking to me and he seemed friendly. Eventually, he asked for my contact info, claiming he needed help for classwork and I gave it to him.

After that he started spamming me messages, stickers and videos in class. Whenever he noticed I left him on read, he would turn around to check if I was on my phone to respond. He'd also track when I was last online and would shoot looks to get my attention. Strangely, he would browse my profile pictures (selfies of me with friends) and stare blankly at them, not typing anything. Just frozen. I'd tell him I needed to focus but it didn't stop him from spamming anyway. He purposely angles his screen so that I can see everything he's doing and it's creepy seeing how obsessively he monitors our chat. He’s also starting to ask for “hugs”.

Couple of days ago was my last class (this year) with him. I saw that the pen ink used to check off his name was the same color used for mine on the attendance sheet. So I put two and two together and I'm pretty sure it's him all along. (Edit: just talked to him and he denies it, but if he is telling the truth, this situation is even weirder.)

His behavior has only been limited to class hours, so I just want to know if I'm being unnecessarily creeped out. I was physically followed at my previous job and it made me really wary since then. Just wanna know if maybe he's just socially awkward and after a while he'll stop? He's going to be in the same class as me next year too

Edit: Just confronted him and he is more avoidant of me now. Thanks everyone for the advice!

Hi, so I live in Australia. It was 2017, after a long, late class at the university, I walked home, dead tired and just wanting to collapse into bed. The streets were quiet, just the occasional flickering streetlight accompanied me as I walked home. As I got closer to my place, I noticed someone slouched in my doorway—a figure huddled up against the door, wrapped in layers of worn-out clothes.

As I got nearer, I realised it was a woman, most likely homeless. Her face hidden beneath a tattered hat. But then she looked up, and our eyes met. Her face was tired, but her eyes were intense, as if she was guarding that spot for dear life.

I froze. Slowly, she raised a beat-up walking stick and pointed it at me, her grip tight. Suddenly, she snapped "GET THE FUCK OUT!!!" her voice rough and firm. Her teeth, oh my God, were yellow and rotten. That kind of teeth you would see in zombie movies. The threat felt real—she was clearly ready to use the stick if I took another step.

I took a cautious step backward, my mind racing. It was my place! But she seemed so tense and defensive. I wanted to say something to calm her down, but words failed me. Before I could even say a word, she hit my head hard, twice, with her stick. Instinct took over, and I turned, walking quickly—almost running—back down the street.

A couple of blocks away was the university's security station, and I practically stumbled in, trying to catch my breath. I told the officer on duty about the woman on my porch and asked if someone could come with me. The officer nodded, maybe a little perplexed, but he came along.

When we got back to my place, though, the porch was empty. She was gone. The officer did a quick look around and shrugged. “Looks like she moved on,” he said, giving me a reassuring nod before heading back to the station. I thanked him, relieved but still on edge. The whole thing had happened so fast, but I felt like I’d been holding my breath the entire time.

Even after she was gone, I couldn’t quite shake it. For weeks, every time I came home after dark, I found myself bracing as I got close to the door, half-expecting to see her sitting there, eyes glaring up at me, with those rotten teeth showing.

I started leaving the porch light on, checking the lock twice before bed, just in case. It wasn’t so much about feeling unsafe—I just couldn’t forget her face, that fierce, weary look, or the way she’d guarded my doorway like it was her last refuge.

The memory stuck with me. Now and then, I wonder what happened to her, whether she ever thought about that night again, or if I was just another stranger in her endless drift through the city.

I was a volunteer church choir member back when I was in grade school. I was not religious, I just loved to sing. After school, I go to our town‘s church still in uniform and sometimes together with a classmate who is also a choir member.

It became a habit to go sing for the afternoon mass after school. Oftentimes, there’d only be 2-3 other choir members. I figured instead of going to a computer shop and waste my money on games like my friends do, I‘m doing a good deed volunteering plus I get to practice my singing.

One day, I arrived but the entire place was quiet. I was told by a staff that mass was canceled that afternoon so I can just go home. I remembered that there was a newly built prayer room in the building next to the church, people said it’s gonna be beautiful so I thought to check it out before going home. That way, I at least didn’t waste my time walking to church.

To get to the prayer room, you’d have to walk down a wide 20+ steps staircase. The door is right at the end just a couple steps facing the stairs. There are narrow hallways on both sides that you wouldn’t know was there until you’ve reached the last step.

I took about 4 steps down, taking my time, when I saw as I looked ahead that the door to the prayer room had thick chains and a big padlock. Right before I even had the chance to turn around, a guy in a black jacket, jeans, and cap appeared from the left hallway at the end of the staircase. There was a second of him just standing there looking up at me (but not too much as I didn’t get to see a good look on his face). That’s when I realized that there were hallways connected to the church office buildings.

I didn’t mind him at first as he could just be another staff, until he said „Let’s go pray inside little girl“. Stupid old me responded with „But it’s locked“ while pointing at the prayer room door. He didn’t say anything and just stood there. Only then did it hit me that something was not right. I don’t know why but instead of running away immediately I said „I‘ll just go pray in church“ then turned around and walked away like nothing. Little me thought if I showed him I‘m panicking that he might come at me fast. Thankfully he didn’t follow me. I went straight home. I never went back to sing for the choir after that.

Looking back, it still gives me the chills. I was a kid. In an area, where as a child, I thought was a safe place. I just hate that I didn’t get to clearly see his face from afar. Whenever I visit my hometown, I wonder whether I‘ve bumped into that guy and he recognizes me but I don’t recognize him.

When I was around 16 or so, I worked in a store whilst going through college. We always had odd customers come in but one in particular really sticks out to me. At the sight of him walking in I’d get chills, my whole body wanted to nope out. You could really tell he thought he was charming, but even thinking of him now I feel a little sick.

He used to always offer to take me out in his car, buy me jewellery, you know - strange things for a grown man to say to a 16 year old girl. He gave me rapey vibes.

Being the a**hole I was at 16, I was always rude to him, never ever humoured him but it didn’t deter him from visiting the store every single day. It got to the point I told my manager and if I saw him I’d just go out the back or sometimes even duck.

Anyway, a fews years before this, there was a very infamous story of a young girl going missing in our town. Her body was never found.

Fast forward to now, I’m in my thirties, watching a documentary about two men accused of this girls murder, and who is one of the accused, this guy.

They had tapes recording how they’d done it but because of mishandling evidence by the police they got away with it. If he wasn’t the killer I’d be shocked. He tried to prey on young women, buying them things, flattering them. And honestly I believe he was attempting to line me up as his next victim.

Never has another human being made me feel so creeped out. It still makes me shudder at the thought he’s still out there.

My bf and I live in a big party city so we're pretty used to strange neighbors and odd people, but one month ago we had a really unsettling encounter. We just got the full context today.

We live in a sub-unit of a large house. Our landlord and one other person live in the other units of the house. We noticed that our landlord had brought a few different dates over to the house. We didn't mind, and we weren't surprised when a girl was walking around the property.

Last month, we went to sleep at about midnight and woke up 30 minutes later to knocks at the door. I told my bf not to open it, but he said it was the girl we saw earlier. I still felt very uneasy about the situation. So I put my clothes on, grabbed my keys, and picked up our dog in case I had to run out the back door. I then go stand in the hallway next to the front door so I can hear the conversation, but she can't see me.

She sounds very drunk, and she tells my bf that she is my landlord's fiancé. I am somewhat confused by this because of our landlord's other dates. However, she starts talking about how we are good tenants and mentions personal details about us, so we assume she is actually his fiancé. She asked my boyfriend for a lighter for her cigarette. We expect this to be the end of the interaction, but she then tells my bf that our landlord is at a hotel cheating on her right now. My bf responds with, "Oh wow."

She then started flirting with my bf. She invited him to come swim in our landlord's pool with her and he declined. I'm starting to get less scared and more annoyed at her. She is rambling about a bunch of different topics and basically holding my bf hostage.Finally, she gets to our neighbors. She starts going on a racist rant about them, using slurs I have literally never heard in real life because they are that bad.

At this point, I'm pretty sick of this woman, so I step into the door frame and tell her that we have to wake up early. She was clearly shocked by me showing up. This is when her face changes. She glares at me. Suddenly, we aren't good tenants anymore. She calls us "white trash" for not taking our garbage bins out in time for trash day. She screams that she is going to get us evicted if we don't get on her good side. At this point, we close the door in her face.

We had a really long discussion about whether or not we should complain to our landlord about her. We assumed that he actually was dating this girl and that she just happened to be crazy. She probably caught him cheating and was trying to sleep with my bf for revenge, but realized that wasn't going to happen.

Eventually, we decided to text him. He apologized for the situation but was very vague. He does mention that she is NOT his fiancé and that he will remove her. We assume this is the end of it. For the last month, she's been blasting music, banging on the walls, taking things out of the shed, and coming into our section of the backyard in the middle of the night. I was absolutely terrified the first week and couldn't sleep at all. I would stay up all night listening to sounds and staring at our back window to see if she was in our yard. Eventually, I got used to it.

Our landlord had basically vanished. We haven't seen him for the entire month... until today. Today my bf is walking our dog when he sees our landlord back on his porch. Our landlord finally tells us the full story.

He went on a few dates with this woman, and she seemed totally normal. Eventually, they go back to his section of the house, and when he wakes up, she is behaving much differently. He asks her to head out while he goes to work. He comes back, and she's still there.

It turns out that this is what she does. She goes home with men and invades their home until they get her lawfully evicted. My landlord went to a different property for a month while he worked on his case to get her evicted.

We found out that she got served an eviction warning the same day that she came to our house. That's why she was flirting with my bf in an attempt to squat in our home. That's why she was so angry when she found out I lived there too.

My landlord actually negotiated a way to get her out of the house a few days early. He bought her a one-way flight to another state. So, if you live in the Midwest, watch out. She's coming north. I'm very thankful that it's over, though.

hi so as the title says I’m 21. Not sure if gender matters but I am female. Now this might sound maybe a tad bit overdramatic since it’s been years since this incident has happened that caused this fear but I just want to get it off my chest as someone who doesn’t really talk about it. I personally find this encounter super creepy, especially getting older and being able to look back on it. I've learned a lot from it so maybe posting what happened could either guide others to stay alert that it could happen to them, or know the signs.

I live in rural Ohio so there's not much that goes on here. We don't live in the best area either, with lots of druggies/pedos, just if you have kids you really shouldn't live around here basically. When I was younger we didn't really worry much about anything happening to us or questionable things due to the fact our family is known in this area (my grandpa was a known cop for many years and was extremely respected and people knew he would fight over us). So nobody really messed with us. We also lived around MULTIPLE other children our age, it wasn't uncommon to let your kids run around by themselves before nighttime because our neighborhood essentially relied on each other and the other kids to keep each other safe and it worked for the most part. We knew what people to stay away from and they knew to stay away from us as well.

When I was in middle school the bus ran at 7 AM and we would have to be at the end of our long driveway by 7 AM to catch the bus on time, and this happened during winter and our bus tended to be late sometimes, and would reach us around 7:05-7:15 the latest. But we made sure to be out at 7 AM in case they were on time. It was me and my 2 cousins, one was 4 years younger than me and the other was a year older but we were in the same grade.

The road is straight where our driveway is so cars come by multiple times and you would be able to see if a car was slowing down and such and they’d see us as well. We were always told to not stand by the end of the driveway, and always keep a distance so if a drunk driver or whatever happened to swerve we would be okay for the most part. We were at the age where me and my cousin who was in the same grade as me essentially babysat the younger cousin and we didn’t have an adult accompany us at the end of the driveway anymore.

It was super cold that day and the sun was just coming up and we were annoyed because the bus was late while waiting in the cold. I noticed a car was coming and again, this happened all the time so it wasn’t like I was checking it out or anything, I just noticed it and went back to listening to music on my phone. I hear a loud brake sound so I look up and the car is in front of our driveway now fully stopped. The man in the car was waving his hand towards us to signal us to come closer to him and of course, I refused and was frozen in my spot because this never happened before. He could tell we were obviously shaken back by this and said he worked for a school but was lost and he just got hired. (he named a school that was an hour away). Remind you it’s past 7 AM at this point and I immediately knew he was lying. It didn’t make sense to me why he would be lost at a job he said he already got plus it being this late I’d think he would already be at the school. No way would he be lost to the point he’s an hour away from the district AND signaling children to his car the way he did if he was a teacher at all. It also made no sense to me logically how he would be lost from a job he obviously had to go in to get hired for (this was before Zoom and all those things I'm pretty sure).

I immediately said I’m going to get an adult and he clearly panicked and said it wasn’t necessary that he just wanted us to get closer and show him where to go. I pointed straight (I truly don’t know the direction to the district but that was not my main focus honestly). I told him to go straight and he ignored me. My little cousin was moving towards his car and I grabbed him by his hair and kept him by me, I refused to let go of his head. I’m shaking and I'm trying to not show I'm scared because I don’t know what’s about to happen, the driveway is a long one as well, like I truly didn’t feel safe turning my back on him.

I have my other hand on my phone and I’m shaking so I’m struggling with gloves on but I’m able to call my mom and THANK GOD she answers. (she usually would ignore my calls and be on the phone with her boyfriend). The guy gets out of his car when he sees I’m on the phone with someone and I start immediately sobbing and telling my mom there’s a man out here and I think he’s going to hurt us. She comes out running and the second she gets closer and he sees her he bolts back to his car and dashes away. A car that was around the corner of the road also dashed away as well. Now looking back is even more scary since if it was just someone who needed to get past said car that was in the middle of the road by our driveway, they would've just either honked or gone on the other lane to pass them. They definitely also saw the entire thing and didn't get out of their car to help us or anything, so it makes me think they were also in on this entire situation.

I’m forced to go to school that day and my mom calls the cops and when I get home I find out even more horrible news that just made me realize my gut feeling was correct. My mom told them the car and how it looked and such and they found an abandoned car that matched her description just up the road so they found who it belonged to and eventually found out he wasn’t a school teacher. He worked on the barges. The cops said they thought it dealt with sex trafficking from the looks of it and they didn’t even catch him since they already left on the boat or whatever. Who knows what would’ve happened if he got one of us... I’m assuming we would’ve been on that boat and horrible things would’ve happened. It still pisses me off that he was never caught, and possibly other kids were victims of this. It’s truly terrifying and to this day I refuse to go near the road. I still have recurring nightmares of it. I'm always on alert now too, which I most definitely should've been more alert back then but I was just a kid and clearly didn't realize how it would've affected me in real time.

I'm a 29-year-old man from the Philippines, and even though this incident occurred back in 2013—over a decade ago—I still find myself haunted by it every time I return to my hometown.

At the time, I was just an 18-year-old college student. It was the night of our department's socialization party, which had wrapped up around midnight. As the only one among my friends with a car, I had always taken on the role of the designated driver. After dropping my friends off at their homes, I was parking in my usual spot, just a few houses away from my own, due to the limited parking in our area.

As I was about to exit the car, I noticed a girl standing near the entrance of the alleyway leading to my house and several others, wearing a shirt with our department's logo. I assumed she had just walked back from the party. In front of her, a man in his late twenties, clad in a hoodie, stood ominously, seemingly blocking her path. The girl locked eyes with me, and I immediately recognized her expression—it was a silent plea for help.

Instinct kicked in. I grabbed my bag and stepped out of the car. The man, noticing my presence, began to walk into the alleyway. When I reached the girl, he had vanished from sight. It felt as though whatever threatening situation had occurred moments before was over, and I was tempted to walk away. But then I caught sight of the strange man again; he was leaning against the wall of a nearby house, his gaze fixed on me. A chill ran down my spine, and just then, the girl called out from behind me. Her voice trembled with fear, and I saw her approach, visibly shaken.

"Can you walk with me to my apartment at the end of the alleyway?" she asked, explaining that the man had been silently blocking her way. I glanced back at the man—he appeared intoxicated, perhaps drunk or on drugs.

We began to walk, our breaths shallow as we passed by him. After putting some distance between us, I glanced back. To my horror, he was following us. We had already passed my house at that point, but I couldn't leave this girl to face him alone. As fear coursed through me, she suddenly broke into a full sprint, and I had no choice but to keep pace with her.

We reached the gate to her apartment, and she hastily swung it open, slamming it shut behind us. We then dashed into the building, where a second gate stood—this one smaller, likely designed to keep pets from escaping. She opened it, and we slipped through just as the sound of the man approaching the first gate reached our ears.

We bolted up the stairs, making our way to the third floor. Breathless, the girl knocked urgently but softly at her apartment door. After what felt like an eternity, it swung open, revealing her friends—a guy and a girl around her age. They looked bewildered but quickly locked the door behind us and led us into the bedroom. They turned off the lights, and we just sat there silently with our hearts pounding.

The girl broke down in tears, recounting the terrifying events to her friends. She revealed that the man had been following her for 10 to 15 minutes, and she expressed relief at having seen me. Unsure of what to do next, I called my aunt, who was staying at our house that night. Thankfully, she answered swiftly. I urged her to call the police. At this time, we could now hear the man pacing around the apartment, seemingly looking for us. He was mumbling something we couldn't hear well from the other side of the door.

A few minutes later, my phone rang with an unknown number. It was my uncle, a policeman, reassuring me that help was on the way. What felt like hours dragged on, and eventually, the police arrived. My uncle instructed me, via phone, to come downstairs and recount the ordeal to the officers. They informed us that they had seen the man wandering around the gate and eventually into the far end of the alleyway.

Once the police had finished their inquiries, they allowed me to go home. I recounted the entire story to my aunt, who urged me to get some rest. Despite my exhaustion, sleep eluded me as my mind raced with thoughts of the strange man. What if he had caught up with us, armed with a knife or some weapon? I fought to dispel the terrifying images racing through my mind, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he might be watching me in the dark, a knife glinting menacingly in his hand.

My mom and grandparents used to live in the same town for ages. Grandma is a physician (retired now) and mom is a child psychologist. There’s not many stores in our area, so they frequented one and all cashiers knew them very well.

One winter day, mom went to that store, as usual, and a little girl, maybe 8-10 years old approached her and stood next to mom as she was picking something from a shelve. Mom looked at the girl, expecting her to say or ask for something, but the girl just stood there. Mom picked her item and moved to another shelve. In a few seconds, the girl folllowed, standing silently next to her and looking at the items. Mom moved and lost the girl for a few minutes. Then, she saw the girl with a saleswoman, the girl was pointing at mom and saying something. Mom ignored it and went to cashier, paid and left the store.

When mom returned to the store the next day, saleswoman approached her and said that the girl was asking them to call police because my mom was acting like a p***file towards her. They decided to check cameras first without stopping mom as they know my mom and family very well, where we live etc, and saw that the girl was the one who followed mom around the store and approached her first, not the other way around. The girl left quickly after confronted. Two men were waiting for her outside the store.

In a few weeks, mom saw the same girl on our street, two men on both of her sides, as saleswoman said. They were passing by very quickly and our street is almost empty during the day, mom didn’t think it would be wise to confront them. Then, mom’s never seen her again.

EDIT: it’s is not the landlords son that was the creep, he is a friend it’s his uncle the landlords brother and he is around 45-50 years old short little creepy man that chain smokes newports and waste all his money on porn and chocolate milk.

Last year me and my ex were living in a cottage with our son and my step son. We lived on a property where the landlords were right there. We got along great, their son was a friend of mine and my father went to school with the landlords. The lady had her brother living with them who is on the spectrum but it’s more like he’s just awkward.

I’ve had suspicions of someone in our house because we would notice things moved around and draws open. I would always be missing money and all my change was gone. That started many arguments between us because I thought she was stealing my change and cashing it in. AND IT WAS ALL SILVER COONS, that I’ve collected for years. My ex thought I was stealing money out her car and I thought she was taking out of my car.

Sometimes she would wake me up in the middle of the night saying she just heard what sounded like foot steps upstairs (which is the main floor) I would get up and look and didn’t see anybody. This happened a few times.. sometimes when my ex would get home early from work she said she would hear the downstairs door close but didn’t see anybody outside.

I’ve come home from work early around noon when everybody knows we are normally at work till five. One day I came home and the landlords brother was sitting on my front steps. I said what’s up what you doing. He said I’m sitting I just got the mail was dropping it off to you. I litterly grabbed the mail out the box on my way in. AND we have separate mail boxes so it’s not like it was mixed with theirs. I told him don’t be creeping around up here don’t need you on the steps in my area when I get home from work.

One time everybody was down by the pool and I came down and yelled down to everybody that imma BBQ for them. Where I was standing I could see into the room where their step grandfather was staying and he is loaded. Always has a wad of cash 10k or more with him. When I yelled down I heard a commotion and seen him closing draws and run out the room and came outside and the creep lit a smoke. I could tell he was shaking in his boots thinking he got caught. I told grand pop he was in there and he lost it on him.

NOW FOR THE CREEP PART.

I have told the landlord that her brother has been snooping in my house and now I caught him snooping in there house for money as well. We have been out of there for a year now and he started messaging my ex on Facebook trying to talk to her. She ignored him for a while and he kept video calling her and she wouldn’t answer and then blocked him. He found her insta her tik Tok and every other platform and kept messaging her. She finally answered and asked if everything was ok.

He started confessing his love to her saying he wants to see her and my son.

He said I have your panties and leggings .

He told her, “ I’m on my way home from work and I’m gonna put your undies on and watch porn”

She said wtf are you talking about how do you have my underwear. He told her that he would sneak into the house and go through her stuff. WTF

There was times she would call me after I went to work and ask if I’m there because she would hear the door open as she was in the shower.

He started sending screen shots of his phone showing her that he has her as his background cuz of how much he loves her. And that he likes to put her leggings on and jerk off to her pictures.

While living there the landlords kid his nefue was telling us how he hears him jerking off in his room with porn playing so loud and him screaming her name as he beat off. We didn’t really believe it at first but now holy shit creepy.

He was working at a farm that is also a doctors office. He was fired because he was sneaking into the house and watching this girl that lived there sleeping, also because he was apparently creeping on children in the playground at the doctors and he had no reason to be over there when his job was on the other side of the property. FUCKING CREEP. He told my ex that he has 13 articles of clothing that he took from her as well and is very proud of it. Told her he has undies and clothes from other women that rented the cottage as we did.

He thought that this was ok and would some how make my ex attracted to him. He started asking for her address so that he could send her stuff back to her. Saying why do you hate me baby I’m in love with you I can do everything you like. “I’ve seen how he fucks you I can do it so much better” WTF HE WAS WATCHING US. He was watching us sleep. My son slept in the room with us, he was a newborn in that house and were there until he was three before we moved. My step son had his own room wich had a door to the outside so he would have to walk through his room to get into ours.

My step son was uncomfortable saying that he hears things at night on the window and that sometimes the window would open by itself!!!!

She is going to bring all the stuff that he texted her and admitted to doing to other people to the cops.

HE NEEDS TO BE STOPPED.

Wish I could post the screen shots of the messages on here to show y’all’s.

There’s my story lol what the heck to we do next I don’t need this guy trying to creep on my ex and my son. It’s very unsettling.

My brother and i was driving between two medium sized cities late one night a couple of weeks ago. We live in sweden so it was pitch black. On this stretch of the road there is nothing but forest and at this time of the night the road is pretty empty. It's a kind of narrow road without any space on the sides. It has low railings along the sides and behind them there are high fences to prevent wildlife.

Suddenly we see a person on the inside of the railing in our headlights, 10 meters in front of the car. My brother was driving over 80 km/h so he didn't have a chance to make a manuver, we drove by the person no more than half a meter in full speed.

We were shocked, after a few seconds we both wondered what the hell that was. It happend so fast but we agreed that it was a young woman dressed in black who was leaning/sitting in a strange way against the railing. Behind her on the other side of the railing stood a man in all black hugging/holding her from behind with both arms. Behind them was the high fence, so how did they even get there? There was no cars nearby and there wasn't even anywhere to stop with a car.

After a minute we decided to call the police, they asked us to turn around to see if they were still there, we got back but unfortunately they were gone. The police came and started searching with headlights and we continued driving home.

My brother and I was shaken and this still haunts me, what was the deal with these people? Did the guy hold the girl so she wouldnt run out in front of our car? Did the woman try to escape from the man? The only possible way forward for them was in to the forrest, without lamps in the cold, far away from any houses. In retrospect, it's easy to be wise and of course we should have stopped at once!

I made a post here about a week ago about this man who followed me from the train station a while back and got quite touchy and seemed keen on following me all the way home. That seemed to raise quite a bit of concern, and I kept some of the advice that I received in the comments in mind, of course. I thought I'd post an update on the situation.

Near the end of the first post about this I mentioned that after the initial incident he started to appear every single day at the same time that he'd seen me the first time at the train station. I always come back from school at the same time, leaving the station between ten to four and four pm sharp. For over a week he'd consistently appeared next to the station on the street that I have to cross and just stared at me, but I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence and I was just being paranoid or what. He hasn't tried to follow me since the first time, so I'm probably being unreasonable for assuming that he's there at that time for any particular reason.

Anyway, last week I tried coming back half an hour later than usual to see if he'd still be there. He wasn't. Over the following two days I was sick so I didn't go past that area at the usual time either and when I finally went back to school on Thursday and came back at the usual time I was so relieved to find that he wasn't there. Even in the unlikely circumstance that he really was observing me, I assumed he'd thought I take a different route now and gave up on the whole thing. He wasn't there on Friday either, which felt liberating honestly. I had enough of having to face that unpleasant reminder every day.

On Sunday, so yesterday, I was walking down an adjoining street on my way to my grandparents' house and managed to find him there. Just my luck isn't it? He was on a phonecall or something but immediately spotted me and grinned in the most dread inspiring way. He said something that I didn't quite hear because I was so focused on just walking away. I kept walking in the opposite direction to him and when I'd glanced back for a second to make sure he wasn't following me he hadnt moved but he was fully turned towards me and standing still, staring. So yeah that's kind of creepy but again he hasn't gone further than that so I can't assume, can I?

You can probably guess who was fucking peering into the train station exit today again at 4pm sharp. Turns out he didn't stop appearing there for good and it has me wondering if it's a coincidence or because he saw me yesterday down a nearby street. The staring is so obvious that even though I make a point of not looking directly at him whenever he's there it is really noticeable. He'll literally turn his head as I walk by it's so fucking creepy. Maybe he thinks I don't notice or something, I don't know.