People Describe Terrifying Encounters With Weird Strangers

1 Stranger Tells Man He's Going To Kill His Girlfriend

From a deleted user:

A few years ago, I was visiting my girlfriend who had just moved to New York. 

We had a long, wonderful weekend, but it came to an end. We were on the subway and it finally got to her stop. I was going to stay on the subway to head to the bus station. As my girlfriend gets up, so does a large male passenger. She gets up to the door and he stands right behind her. I wave goodbye as she steps off the train. Then he (the large male passenger) looks at me with a demonic smile, points at my girlfriend's back, and mouths the words, "I'm going to kill her."

I jumped up and try to get to the door, but it's closed by the time I get there. I tried desperately to call the police, but I can't get a signal. At the next stop, I bound through the station to the surface where I called my girlfriend. She was fine but freaked out. I ran the 14 blocks to her place and stayed with her all night rather than going home.

 

2 A Stalker In The Woods

From Redditor /u/jake0818:

I was out hunting in Northern Ontario, with no roads (except for... logging roads) for 130 km. I was late on the bear season so no one was out hunting in my quadrant. I found a nice campsite alongside a river and hunted from there; on the second day of my hunt, I came across the bear tracks. After tracking it for about two hours, I eventually turned back around.

This is when sh*t got very f*ckin' weird. I always track on one side of the tracks and return on the other. About 200 meters down the east side of the tracks, I ran into another human footprint which disappeared across the trail and into the woods on the west. My dog (Czech Wolfdog) didn't seem to smell anything, so I returned to camp with minimal concern.

I got back to camp at around 7:30 at night, made a quick dinner, and had a cigar by the camp. At around 12:00 [am], I heard a snap of a branch. After hunting for 20 years, I know only two things snap branches: bears and humans. I grabbed my firearm and a flashlight and went out after the noise. Every 100 yards, I would scan with the flashlight. My dog freaked, started growling and advancing into the woods slowly. I pulled back on my leash to slow his advance and switched on my flashlight. I saw a pair of eyes looking right back at me; they stared for about five seconds and disappeared into the woods. On the walk back I felt anxious, scared, and uncomfortable, like I could feel someone watching me.

The next night, the same thing happened. My dog went wild, like I have never seen him, whimpering, growling, and clearly very anxious. At this point I was terrified, and I didn't go hunting that day and didn't close my eyes once. That night I sat up with my flashlight, constantly scanning the tree line. I guess I dozed off at around 1 am and woke again at 3 am, sweating, confused, and very scared. I scanned the forest, and just barely visible about 25 yards in the forest there was a man and his dog, looking right back at me. I [started] to approach him, shouting to him. I got within 10 feet - he looked awfully disheveled and [malodorous], but the worst part was that he just stared and smiled; his eyes showed zero emotion, and [he] whispered, "Goodnight."

I ran back to my tent, packed it into my pack and loaded it onto the trailer of the ATV, and drove out of there.

3 When A Stranger Calls

From a deleted user:

I worked at a campground on the nightshift from 12 am to 8 am. I would bring in my PS2 game a good portion of the night, only having to deal with one or two people on busy nights. It was just me in this little 8' x 8' shack, with nothing around but darkness. My first week there, the other third-shift guy who was quitting told me about this payphone a few feet from the shack where I worked. He said it rang every night at 4:17 am, just once. It was probably just an automated test call, he guessed. He's never answered it himself. It was the middle of summer, so most nights I had the windows closed, so I couldn't hear the payphone go off.

Mid-August I started leaving the windows open during the night. Sure enough, at 4:17 am every morning, the phone would ring once. The ring even sounded creepy, like the payphone was submerged in water.

One night I got up the nerve to answer it. I set an alarm at 4:15 [am] and would go wait at the phone until it rang. When it did, I answered it. But there was no sound. Just dead air like someone was on the other line but wasn't answering. I said hello a few times and hung up. I did this every night for a week with the same results. I didn't think anything of it and left it alone after that for about a month. The first week of October, I decided to answer the phone once again. I set my alarm and when the time came, I answered the phone, "Hello? Hello?"

Then I heard what sounded like someone inhaling through clenched teeth. The voice sounded rough and like he had gargled gravel.

He said my complete name. First, middle, and last. It was a voice I'd never heard. My voice caught in my throat and I hung up.

I rattled some change into the payphone and hit *69. The number had come from California, but I was in Indiana.

 

4

Stranger Tries To Blow Up Family

From Redditor /u/BridgetteBane: 

When I was a kid, we'd go to these beach cabins in Maryland, right by the Chesapeake. They were small and rustic with basic comforts and no amenities. There were two bedrooms and a cot in the kitchen, and my siblings and I rotated on the cot.  

A small tradition was that my mom and I would have a hot cup of tea before bed in our summer jammies, which was our way of relaxing while everyone else went off to read or listen to music. One night I was settling on the cot when she picked up the tea kettle to fill it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her flinch, then say in a steady voice, "What are you doing there?" My head whipped over to the kitchenette to see her looking out the window. Then she jumped back and started screaming for my father.

My dad ran from the back bedroom and saw my mom point towards the left side of the house. He burst out the door. I was 10 years old so I ran under my parents' bed. I still remember the smell of the old wood and the feel of my teddy bear shielding me from whatever the hell was happening. I remember seeing my 14-year-old brother, [who was] then a medium-ranking karate student, following my dad out of the cabin at full-speed.  

My father, a former Army Sergeant and MP with a bronze star, managed to tackle the guy that had been peeping into our kitchen window. He put him in an elbow lock facedown on the ground with my brother standing over both of them, while my mom ran to get the cell phone we'd bought just two weeks earlier.

While my mom called 911, I remember hearing the guy talking. He was saying things like, "The [Ouija] board told me..." and "I want the devil to suck my brains out..." and '"Satan is in cabin 10, I have to get to cabin 10... The devil wants me to kill myself," and so on. We were in cabin three, over half a mile from where he apparently intended to meet the devil.

My dad kept a grip on him for probably a good 15 minutes until the cops showed up. The first thing out of one of the cop's mouth was, "Jamie, when'd they let you out?" Jamie had been released from jail just two weeks earlier for arson, and guess where he was standing when my mom was at the sink in the kitchen? Right beside the cabin's propane tank.

 

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5

Co-Workers Encounter A Serial Killer

From Redditor /u/ipVolatile:

I used to work for a group home, taking care of kids with autism or developmental problems. The company had multiple group homes, but none of them were within a mile of each other, and they were all in the middle of farm country. Each had a driveway of about half a mile and surrounded by nothing but open countryside. The locations were chosen specifically for this so that if a client were to escape, they would have to run through a wide-open field for quite some time.

One night at about 2 am, I was working the graveyard shift with a co-worker and we noticed some headlights coming down the driveway. We thought it was an administrator coming to check up on us, so we started frantically running around doing our work. Then we realized the headlights hadn't moved. I stepped outside, took a few steps down the driveway and noticed a white van about a quarter of the way down the driveway. It stayed there for about seven or eight minutes, then drove off.

My co-worker and I were kind of baffled and came to the conclusion that the person was just lost and had to stop to look at a map.

Three days later, a serial killer was caught in our area. He was known for picking up women on the exact road our group home was on and he drove a white van.

 

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6

Patient With A Mental Illness Threatens Mom

From Redditor /u/Devon302:

My mother works with... patients [who have a mental illness]. One night at around 9 pm, she told me she had to go to work because there was an emergency. Later, I get a phone call from her. She basically said my name and before she could finish, the phone got pulled away from her. In this high-pitch, creepy voice, one of the patients says, "Devon302 (I assumed she heard my name mentioned by my mom), Devon302? Your mom isn't coming home tonight because I'm going to do something bad to her." Then she hung up.

I started freaking out and my mom didn't call me back until two hours later. The woman ended up getting arrested but quickly released since she has a mental illness. It was creepy as hell and very unnerving.

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7

A Follower In Amsterdam

From Redditor /u/QuadsNotBlades:

Okay, so I spent about six months in Europe, mostly alone but meeting up with friends here and there. I went to Amsterdam for a week at the beginning of my trip and two weeks at the end. Maybe two or three days before I was supposed to come back to the US, I planned a lovely day of getting really baked and walking to the enormous and lovely Vondelpark. Before continuing, I'm just going to say that Amsterdam is nothing like the movies - it's beautiful, full of canals, museums, bikers, swans, etc. It's just great.

Anyway, so I got insanely high and began my trek to the park. On the way, this short dude who looked like a young Steve Buscemi walked past me going the opposite way and I accidentally made eye contact. He stopped and wanted to talk to me even though I told him I wasn't interested in conversation, then [he] insisted that he walk me to the park "to keep me safe." He asked me tons of questions and told me all about himself while I kept insisting that I didn't want to talk and just wanted to go alone to meet my friends.

After about a 40-minute walk of hell, we entered the park... I pointed to the nearest building and said I was meeting them inside, said bye, and ran into the building. I was inside sitting to the side of the front door for about 20 minutes when he came inside - he saw me and I saw him, and he quickly ran out the door. At that point, I was really upset that he was following me and I stayed inside the building for another hour. I peeked outside through a window and saw him, sitting on a bench directly outside the building. I told the women working the front counter that there was a man following me and asked if they knew of any other exits/ways to get out of the park.

At this point, my buzz is completely gone and replaced with cold apprehension. They directed me to a little side path that exited to a small side street, but [it] would quickly connect to the main street again, so I left through the back and went out that way.

About halfway down this quiet, cobblestone road outside the park, I suddenly heard pounding feet, and then I was grabbed from behind and slapped so hard that I screamed and hit the ground. A couple walking together looked over, then kept walking. He yelled, "That's what you get for lying to me!" Then [he] ran off, breathing hard.

I started crying and ran to the main street, then began speed walking through the crowd back in the direction of my hostel. I was terrified, but just kept walking faster and faster and faster. After a few minutes, I glanced over my shoulder and he was immediately behind me, walking in my footsteps. I almost threw up in panic and went into the first doorway I could find while he disappeared into the crowd.

I begged the employees at the jewelry store to call the police, but they told me no, the police station was only a few blocks away and gave me really confusing directions. I asked the other customers if anyone would be willing to call the police because a man was chasing me, but everyone just ignored me. They asked me to leave, so I went outside and began walking again, but watched for streetcars. I walked casually for a few minutes, then just as a streetcar was pulling away, I leapt onto it and rode it back to the north part of the city.

This was all really terrifying for me - being a chubby, awkward girl from a nice suburb, I have never really had to be afraid of strange men before. When I got off the train, I had no idea where I was and just sat down and cried. After maybe 15 minutes, though, a walking tour went by and at the end of it were these two geeky, maybe 16-year-old, German boys who I'd met a few days before (they asked me to show them how a bong works at a cafe). They instantly recognized me and invited me to join the tour, which ended up being really fun. All in all, really terrifying afternoon, really fun evening.

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8

Stranger Wants A Hacksaw

From a deleted user:

I live in a small house out in the country. You would really never find the place if you weren't specifically looking for it. One evening, I'm sitting in my rocking chair, smoking my pipe, drinking a beer, just having a relaxing time when I hear a knock on the door. I open the door to find a man who weighed roughly 300 pounds. He had a severely burned body and appeared to have pulled out most of his hair. This man looks at me and asks in a terrifyingly low, gruff voice, "Do you have a hacksaw I could borrow?"

I gave him my hacksaw, shut the door, locked it, and cowered in my room for the rest of the evening. I [neither] know what he needed with my hacksaw, nor do I know what became of it or him.

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9

Man Finds A Corpse In A Garbage Bag

From Redditor /u/psychohistoric:

The summer after I graduated from high school, I worked as a highway litter crew supervisor where I drove two younger teens around and had them pick up litter on the side of the road. One day, one of the kids flagged me over to him and showed me a weird bag he'd found. The bag [had] a very thick, semi-translucent plastic [and was] double-bagged and tied off at the top with black electrical tape. It was down in a ditch covered with brush, so the kid and I dragged it to the side of the road for closer inspection. It was really heavy, and it took two of us to get it out of the ditch.

Once we got it to the roadside, it became apparent that the bag was filled with a reddish-brown slush and a bunch of hard pieces of bones. It was then that I realized that this was a sack filled with a rotting corpse of some kind. I called my boss, and he told me to call the police. The police showed up pretty nonchalantly, but became visibly upset once he'd inspected the bag himself. He took down my statement and contact information, then shooed us along as he called into the station for assistance.

We never heard anything back from the police, and I never did find out what, or who exactly, was in the bag.

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10

A Few Party Poopers

From Redditor /u/rhenzel:

I had a party at my apartment with my friends from college. We had music, beer pong, drinks, altogether a typical party. Pretty low-key, there was only about 12 of us, just looking for something to do on a Sunday night since we had the Monday off. We live in a complex that has a bunch of rows of townhomes and a huge parking lot. It was about 11:30 pm, and there is a knock at the door. Figuring it was one of our neighbors, I opened the door.

There was a very pale, skinny, bleach-blonde girl standing there. She looked sickly, like a serious drug addict. She asked if any of us had a lighter, and my friend Nick gave her one. She walked into our apartment and lit her cigarette in our kitchen while everyone stood there silently and awkwardly, watching her. She stood there for a minute, looking around, then abruptly said, "Thanks," and walked out the door.

Our window was open, and we saw her walk down the steps to the parking lot and get in a car directly in front of our window, watching us. There was another girl and a guy in the car with her, equally sickly looking. We laughed it off, and the party went on.

Every so often, however, we would look out the window and the same car would be there. The people always watching us. This carried on until about 1:30 am when the three got out of their car and knocked on our door again. Nick opened it to see what they hell they wanted (he's an extremely intimidating-looking guy) and the blonde girl said with virtually no expression, "We just wanted to know if we could come in. You guys look fun. Like, beer pong-fun."

We politely declined, since it was late and people would be leaving soon, and she got irate and started screaming at us that we were idiots. We closed and locked the door. They walked back to their car and watched us again.

Everyone started to leave around 2:30 am. The only people left were my roommate and I, two 20-year-old females. The car was still there, still watching. My roommate and I sat at the kitchen table, talking about what we should do, and the car started flashing their lights into our window, which went on for a few minutes. We shut the lights off and closed the blinds, but peeked through them to see what was going on. The car sat there for a few more minutes, then drove away. It was one of the most bizarre moments of my life.

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11

Aunt Takes Prank Too Far

From Redditor /u/planeteater:

When I was younger my aunt used to say, whenever she babysat us, that if we were not good, she would take us to Wally Booger's house. We called BS one day to her while we were driving. We were acting like little asses, so she turned around and drove to what she thought was an abandoned house to show us where Wally Boogers lived. When she pulled up in the driveway she said, "Do you want me to drop you off here?" All of a sudden, some skinny old man in just sweat pants came running out of the house screaming and waving a big knife. We started screaming (including my aunt) and we got the hell out of there.

We cried for an hour and begged her to never take us there again. Years later, I found out the gentleman has lived in his home for 15+ years without electricity. He died about five years ago, and they found some creepy stuff in his home, including bones of animals he had butchered and set up in a shrine-like fashion in one of the rooms in his house.

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12

Friends Have Uncanny Experience With Beggar

From Redditor /u/JesusHog:

I lived in Ecuador for a few years in high school, and my friend from Illinois came to visit. We took him to various tourist sites, which included a number of small towns known for woodworking and hand crafted items. In one town, they had a market that sold baby chickens. My friend thought it was funny and bought one. He carried it around for a while, named it, and said it was his pet. When it came time to leave, he handed it to a beggar lady as we were getting in the car. We closed the door and drove to the next town.

The road between the two towns was the ONLY road and my dad drives like a bat outta hell. We pulled up in the next town and immediately the SAME beggar woman is asking for more. We couldn't believe it was the same woman [until] she smiled at us and had the chick in her hand. We all freaked out. There was NO way she could have physically gotten from one town to the next faster than us, and yet... somehow she did.

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13

Woman Has Sleep Paralysis

From a deleted user:

I had woken up early in the morning, and after getting up [I] was doing some housework when I decided to go back to bed (a usual routine for me). I quickly fell asleep on my stomach. After a while I became aware that a male figure had walked through the curtains that divided the bedroom from the rest of our room. The figure then stands at the end of the bed before walking around to my side and staring at me... All the while I'm trying to grab my boyfriend's hand to wake him up, but I couldn't move.

It was only after the figure was over me and I felt a weight on my chest that I was able to wake up and proceed to freak out. But the worst part of it all was that I was able to open my eyes and see this grey, featureless figure wandering around our room.

Ever since then, I can't sleep on my stomach in fear of it happening again.

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14

Family Possibly Encounters The Devil

From Redditor /u/t_rezz:

When my mom was about 12 years old, her family packed up the car and moved from LA to Chapala in Jalisco, Mexico. My grandma, my mom, and grandpa were driving home late at night down a dirt road. Now typically, people are advised not to do that because of bandits and also because it's said the devil walks the road at night.

They were about halfway home when they saw a man in a white suit and hat, who looked really wealthy, walking alone down the road. He didn't look lost, just casually walking. The man appeared to be very attractive and they were tempted to stop the car and see if he needed help, but my grandma insisted they keep driving because she had such a heavy feeling of dread in her stomach.

The closer they got to the man, the more they could tell there was something off about him. He was extremely pale, so much so that his skin glowed, but he was absolutely beautiful. When he turned around to smile at them, they saw that his eyes were red.

My grandma hit the gas and they [got] the hell out of there. My mom said they said about 200 Hail Mary [prayers] that night and drank a ton of holy water.

 

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15

Homeless Man Makes Accurate Prediction

From Redditor /u/creepycarbs:

Being the manager of a chain clothing store, I sometimes help other locations out. A few weeks ago, I was asked by my boss to work a night shift at a store located in a different mall. I've never been to that mall before and figured working there would be interesting, so I took the shift.

The mall closed at 10 pm and I left the store by 11:30 pm. Walking back to the parking structure was kind of creepy. The concrete structure was dimly lit. There were still several cars left in the structure, probably belonging to mall employees.

I had completely forgotten where I had parked, so there I was, aimlessly wandering the parking structure looking for my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an elderly homeless man coming towards me. He asked me, "You looking for your car?"

And not wanting to be rude I responded, "Yes." The homeless man nodded and beckoned for me to follow him. Not really knowing what to do, I decided to follow. We walked for about five minutes across the structure and up a flight of stairs.

Then he stopped right in front of my car and told me, "It's not safe to drive a car that's low on motor oil, you know," and then proceeded to walk away.

Getting into my car, I noticed that it WAS low on oil. I have no idea how he knew where my car was or how he knew it was low on oil.

 

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16

Stranger Makes Eerie Prediction

From Redditor /u/EthanMcMuffin:

I was working at a grocery store one day and this woman came to my register. Up until this point, she had been completely silent, but I noticed she had been staring at me the entire time I was bagging her stuff. Finally, she looks me dead in the eye and says, "You're going on a trip soon, don't go." Then she just took her stuff and walked out. I was stunned.

Later, I was offered to goon a band trip and refused. Nothing happened to the people who went, but still, it freaked me out.

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17

Old Stranger Tells Man He's Already Died Once

From Redditor /u/1_point_21_gigawatts:

I was getting gas in Portland, OR, about six years ago, shortly after leaving the a pub after having dinner with a couple of friends. It should be noted that in the state of Oregon, you're not allowed to pump your own gas.

The station attendant was an old, bearded white guy with a steely look in his eyes. I told him to fill up the tank, and he did so, saying nothing. After he was done, he leaned in close to my window and whispered in a gravelly voice, "You see that guy over there?" He motioned toward the corner of the building where a young... man was pacing nervously, "He's getting ready to kill me."

I said, "Really? How do you know?"

"I can see it in his eyes. I ain't afraid of him. I already been dead once."

I had no idea what to say, so I just paid and got the hell out of there. My friend who was in the passenger seat was really drunk and it freaked him out so bad he was on the verge of tears. I am still completely dumbfounded and creeped out by that experience.

 

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18

4-Year-Old Refers To Something Scratching His Face

From Redditor /u/fl2re:

I was babysitting my 4-year-old cousin last week. Everything was normal. I put him to bed, read him a book, and he fell asleep. Twenty minutes later I'm... on the couch and I hear him whispering from the hallway. I get up and sneak up to hear what he's saying.

"They're scratching my face, they're scratching my face." He said it in a calm voice and I asked him who, but he didn't answer. I walked him back to bed despite my racing heartbeat. It seemed like it was straight out of a devil possession movie.

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19

Couple Has Experience With Strange Neighbor

From a deleted user:

When my wife and I had our old house built, one of the first things we noticed the night we moved in is that the house behind us had a square window that seemed to be right next to their toilet, but probably five feet above the floor. We figured this was the case because at various times during the night, we could see just the profile of a dude's head there. He would stand there for like 30 seconds, and then he would leave and the light would go off.

It became sort of a running joke - once in a while we would just look out the back window and go, "Yup, Russell is taking a leak again."

One night, it was storming pretty badly and the power went out in the neighborhood. I was just looking out the back window at the storm, and I happened to notice what I thought was the profile of Russell's head in the little window when lightning lit up the area. I had some funny thoughts about trying to aim in the dark and wondered why he wasn't peeing with a flashlight or something. Five minutes later, a lightning revealed Russell was still standing there. Man, that's some epic piss. I ran and got my binoculars to see if I could figure out what was going on over there. More lightning strikes and I was fairly certain Russell's head was still in the window, but it looked strange.

Then suddenly the power kicked back on and my sights were filled with the image of a female mannequin head in Russell's window, facing directly at our window.