40 Hilarious Moments When People Mistook Something For Being Paranormal, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community

One time, at my in-laws' house, my husband's mom was saying how recently she had been hearing this low moaning sound every once in a while coming from somewhere in the living room. We stayed over for a while and sure enough, we too heard this odd sound coming from somewhere in the living room. We couldn’t place the sound but it was definitely eerie. Naturally, the conversation about the house being haunted started, but we decided it was probably something more realistic. This went on for a few days until one day she called us laughing uncontrollably. We asked what was so funny and she said the grandkids had come over for a visit, and the youngest, Charlie, wanted to play with his farm book. Now, this book was one of those interactive books where you press the animal and it makes a sound. He had left it in the toy box in the corner of the living room. He pulled it out and pressed the various animals only to discover most of them didn’t work, he pressed the cow and this low moaning sound came from the book. The batteries were so low from it being jammed in the toy box and being pushed up against another toy, it would go off occasionally, draining its battery. This farm book cow was the culprit for making the ghostly sounds! We laughed over it for years.

Have you ever heard a fox at night in the woods? They make ungodly noises. Also, I didn't secure my food properly and raccoons invaded my campsite. I huddled in my tent, not sleeping, convinced the Blair Witch was going to take me. I was 34.

I was 16 and my mom worked the night shift. We lived in a small cottage deep in the woods, with no neighbors. Watching TV when I suddenly saw a book dislodge from the shelf and fall. Like Ghostbusters. Another one did the same thing. Too terrified to move, wondering if the police would believe me if I called. Finally mustered enough courage to actually walk to the shelf and have a closer look, as a third book was about to fall. The cat was behind the row of books, pushing one out with his butt every time he turned... He stared strangely at me as I almost fell to the floor, laughing hysterically.

Just moved into the house. Slept in the main floor bedroom the first few nights so we could paint our room. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Didn't turn on the light because I "knew" where the bathroom was. All of a sudden, I'm in a pitch-black portal. I can feel the walls on either side but ahead, nothing. I called out my husband's name a couple times and asked, "Where am I? Help me." Hon, you walked into the cedar closet. Try door number two.

I worked at a daycare in the early 2000s. Since I was in grad school, I’d open so I could go to my classes in the evening, which meant getting there at 5 to clean before the kids started arriving at 6.
So, one morning I got there, it was dark, I’m alone, I’m turning on every light I can find, and I hear the most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard coming from the toddler room. So, I locked myself in the office until some other people get there (my army of 6-year-olds!). Then I went to see what it was.
It was a Tickle Me Big Bird whose batteries had been ruined by going through the washing machine.

So I was laying in my bed, half asleep, listening to Hamilton. Then all of the sudden, I felt something touch/move on my stomach. I had my hand on my stomach. And moved it. Turns out, it was just me being an idiot and literally forgetting where my hand was. I still dunno how I managed that. Freaked me the heck out.

I live in an apartment building. Alone in my study, I had been listening to creepypastas on YouTube and it is 11:00 at night. I cranked open a window and lit a cigarette. Then I start hearing whispers coming from my closet. A clear, soft voice: "Don't!" I froze. The voice continued: "Don't! You hear me? Don't! Come here..." I got up. And then realized the voice belonged to the neighbor. He was in the parking lot, just underneath my window, scolding his dog. *facepalm*

Two words. Coat hangers. I can't count how many times they looked like a person in the dark.

I was on a trip with my friend. She had invited me to go with her and her grandparents to watch her little cousin while the family was on vacation. Anyway, I end up sleeping in the kid's room. He had mirrored closet doors which are already creepy enough. In fact, I find them SO creepy that I opened the closet so there would only be one door. So I'm almost asleep when I distinctly hear a menacing laugh coming from the closet. I have a great imagination so I'm questioning the reality of the situation when I hear it again. This time it laughs and says, "Scared yet?" in a mocking tone. Now I'm quietly freaking the f**k out because the boogeyman (or IT) is in this kid's closet and I'm going to die. The thing laughs again and I'm like "YOLO" and fly to the light switch. I'm determined to get to the bottom of this because I am a huge skeptic, even if I still thought the boogeyman might turn out to be a bigger problem than I had anticipated, but I was gonna fight this thing if it was. There was no boogeyman in the closet, what I *did* find was a talking shark Hotwheels toy where you have to race the cars through the shark's mouth. It had settled in the toy pile and the switch had been triggered to make it talk. I was going to fight a toy car accessory. I went to bed and slept soundly.

A couple of years ago, I was up early to get to work. Driving through the empty town in the grey early morning light, I stopped at a traffic light. Ahead of me, there was something crossing the road, about a yard high. It had a big head, and small thin body, and seemed to be barely moving its legs as it almost glided across the pavement. My brain did a quick search and said 'nope', and I suddenly felt this shock of 'that's not something in the real world'. The light changed and I slowly drove towards it - turned out to be a mylar balloon that was mostly deflated, with ribbons hanging down from it, moving in the breeze. But for a minute there...

My daughter was convinced she heard a ghost. I heard it too. An eery almost melodic sound, barely audible. Discovered it was the next-door neighbor learning to play the flute.

In 2002, I bought my first house. I’m a city boy and my house was in the country 1/4 miles from the nearest neighbor. Not long after moving in, one morning before sunrise, I swear I heard the faint voices of a man & woman talking in a normal tone from my backyard. I jumped out of bed & looked but there was nothing there. But I heard it again a few days later. It was a brand new house so I didn’t suspect that it was haunted by any previous owners. But it happened again & again over the next several months and I just didn’t worry about it anymore. What was it? I had a clock radio that was set to turn on the radio instead of the alarm at the appointed time & it was tuned to a religious station at a barely audible volume never loud enough to make out the words. Just preaching- no orchestral music or anything that would’ve given me a hint. Was glad to know I wasn’t losing my mind.

One night, I was hanging out on my bed watching TV with my puppy and she all of a sudden gets up very alert and crawls timidly to the corner of my bed and just stares at the corner of my bedroom. It freaked me out! And then she slinks back to me and just kept watching and staring and staring at the corner of my room. A few hours later, this cute little lizard came crawling out from behind my bookcase. I returned it back outside. She must’ve smelled it.

I was once driving home from my night job and it was the proverbial dreary night. Foggy, and I had to drive through a swampy area that was reputed to be haunted anyway. This was a classically scary-looking place, deep south, Spanish moss, etc. But this shortcut took a good ten minutes off my drive. As I was going along, I noticed approaching me, two HUGE glowing yellow eyes about 18 inches from the ground, about 200 yards away. I slowed down, thinking to see that it was the reflection of my headlights on the fog, but to my bowel-loosening horror, the eyes sped up, as if now aware of my regard, they were coming in faster. I nailed it, with the intention that I would get past whatever it was, and get home! I don't mind telling you I was absolutely terrified! This THING was coming at me faster and faster, bobbing, but with intent! Every scary story I'd ever heard about all those spooky lights, I was about to have my own. Closer... And closer... The eyes... Kept... On... Coming... I came to the bridge just a bit before they did, just in time to see...the fog part. And then, a Volkswagen Beetle and its antique headlamps come into view. The reflections of the swamp had given the lie to where it was located and it looked closer than it was. But no lie, it almost scared me into having to buy new underwear that night!

I would swear our house was haunted because I could always hear scratching noises coming from the corner of the basement rec room at night. Sometimes it would get so loud.

I kept telling my dad we had ghosts, but he didn't believe me. He decided to get to the bottom of it and went outside to investigate. He came to the door laughing and said, "Come see your ghosts."

I went out and my dad had disconnected the downspout for the gutters which led to a drain pipe. Inside the pipe were about 20 frogs that apparently would work their way up and down the pipe at night so they could find something to eat. He relocated them to a nearby pond.

Our cupboards close with magnets. They make a loud *click* when they close and open. (Now, we've had a few unexplainable sounds from time to time, and some of the sounds I have traced to things that just don't make a noise without someone tapping them. And it's just me and my daughter in this small space.) Sometimes we'll be in the living room or in bed at night and hear the cupboards clicking.
Last night, after years of hearing this, I walk into the kitchen, along the shifty, squeaky floors and hear one of the cupboards. I've now realized our cupboards come off the magnets and close when someone's walking around close by. We live on the top floor apartment, and people who walk around below us shake our floors slightly.

This one is from when my grandpa was young (the 1920s):

His sisters once became very scared hearing some eerie sounds in one of the bedrooms, like laments. One said it was a penitent soul for sure, who couldn't go to the Other Side. Later, they found out that a chicken had snuck in, hid under the bed, and was cooing because it couldn't get out.

It was way past midnight and I had just stopped working on my studies and threw a scrunched-up piece of paper in the bin, went to bed, and shut off the light.
I heard a soft rustle and a "plop" so I turned the light on to investigate. The scrunched-up paper lay beside the bin. So the bin was filled up high, I thought I missed the bin the first time.
I got up, threw the paper in the bin, and got back to sleeping, but again: rustle... rustle... plop.
With something of a "dafuq?" moment. I got up again and the scrunched-up paper lay beside the bin again. Now I was fearing I was hallucinating or having a strange form of deja-vu or something.
I got up again, threw the paper back into the bin, back to sleep and... rustle... rustle...
Now I really was frightened about what was happening and didn't wait for the "plop". Much more fearful, I got up a third time and investigated carefully.

A little scarab beetle was shoving my paper back up to the rim of the bin, surely wondering why this scrunched-up piece of paper was turning up again and again in his bin!

This actually just happened last night. I woke up around midnight and quietly tip-toed to the fridge looking for a snack. I’m standing there trying to focus my eyes due to the dark room being lit up by the fridge light and suddenly catch movement out the side of my eye. I knew everyone else was asleep so as soon as I see this movement, I ball my fist and swing HARD! Only to realize I had just tried to assault my own shadow. Paranormal or paranoia 😂😂

My sister and I each had a room in the basement when we were teenagers. Good old wood paneling walls. One night, I turned out the lights and saw Red Eyes looking at me from the closet. I freaked out and turned on my bedside lamp. I had a piggy bank that was yellow and red, sitting on a shelf in the closet and the crack in the wall between the wood paneling had a beam of light from the next room over, shining right on the red eyes of the piggy bank. I had to sleep with the closet door closed for a few years.