42 Creepy Moments People Can’t Forget That Keep Coming Back To Them

I was at an internal work event/party at a fancy hotel in a different state — it was 80s themed. I started talking to some dude, I barely knew anyone there so I was trying to network, and he tells me he doesn't work for my company. Okay, no worries, I make a joke about free food. He stares me straight in the eye and picks up one of my French Fries off my plate, dips it in ketchup and eats it without saying a word.

I kind of freaked out and dropped the food in the trash and just walked out of the room and decide not to think about it. A few minutes later, there he is, staring at me. I change rooms again; I'm short so I hid behind people and pretended to talk to people I kind of recognized from my home office. He follows me, every few minutes I see him.

I finally got the courage to approach a woman I knew the name of from some meetings and seeing her around the office. When I asked if the party had any kind of security she immediately asked if it was about the dude in the blue jacket and white hat. Apparently she'd noticed him staring at me creepily, so I didn't have to try and convince anyone.

Security took him away and everyone moved on but I was scared and paranoid for the rest of the business trip.

Edit: thank you every one who has sent kind words and awards, I was just telling my story for my own sake but I'm glad so many people have seen it and I feel for everyone who has had similar experiences

To all the people who keep sending me creepy messages: wtf is wrong with you that you read this and that's your response?? Seriously stop.

When I was in the early years of secondary school, probably 12-14ish, my mum asked me to take a bag of suger over to my elderly neighbour’s house as she’d lent us some sugar the previous weekend. Being a bit bratty, I didn’t want to take it as I didn’t feel like interacting with anyone. But I took it anyway... stood at my neighbour’s front door (timber frame, frosted glass panel in the middle) and knocked. Saw her walking down the hallway to the door and decided that I really didn’t feel like chatting (so rude of me but anyway!). So I put the bag of sugar on the doorstep and legged it back to my house, obviously didn’t say anything to my mum about leaving without talking to the neighbour.

Three days later, my neighbour pops round to our house and asks if we noticed anything strange around her house in the last couple of days. Naturally my mum says “oh honey-bee went and dropped the sugar to you, I thought you’d have spoken then”. So I was caught out and had to explain that I’d rudely dropped the sugar and essentially ding-ding (edit: ding-dong) ditched.

Neighbour goes on to explain that three days ago her alarm was triggered and her house was robbed. She had been interstate and forgot to let us know.

It wasn’t her walking down the hallway to the front door but the people burgling her home... sometimes your intuition speaks to you in weird ways but that day I just did not want to talk to anyone and I still think about how lucky I am that I bailed when I saw that figure walking down the hallway. Who knows what could have happened.

Edit: thanks so much for the awards! Much appreciated.

When I was a child I was playing out in the front yard of my house when a white van pulled up on the road, the sliding door opened and a guy in his early 20's waved at me to go over to him.


Luckily I was a shy kid and got scared and ran inside and told my parents about a strange man in a van calling me over. My parents raced outside but the van was gone by then and it is was only as an adult I think back and I realize what a serious situation that was, I could have been abducted that day and worse.

When I was maybe 10 I was over at a friend’s house hanging out. Her neighbor was out of town and my friend was feeding the cat while they were gone. So my friend and I went over to feed the cat. Immediately upon opening the door, we heard someone walking upstairs. They were loud, heavy, slowww footsteps - like didn’t even sound human.

My friend and I just looked at each other and sprinted back to her house. The worst part was we told her mom and the mom didn’t believe us and made us go back and finish feeding the cat alone! We were terrified but did it.

When the neighbor came back, they found that their house had been broken into.

ETA: As for my friend’s mom’s reaction: we were in upper end suburbs in the early 2000s - at the time I think people thought these were incredibly safe with no crime (not the magnets for robbery they often were). It also probably totally sounded like we thought it was a monster/ghost! At that age we didn’t really understand what it was. But definitely in the future when my kids are scared - even if it’s a “monster” - I will know better to listen to them!

When I was little I was sleeping over at my friend's house. I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom (dark/far end of the hallway, away from her room). When I stepped out of the bathroom, her older brother was standing outside the door, in the dark. He never said a word, just walked up to me silently and put his hands around my neck.

Someone stirred and he dropped his hands. I immediately called my mom and left without even saying anything. Friend never believed me, and I never went back.

When i was a kid, maybe 10 or so I was home by myself. Pretty normal since i was a latch key kid. I was just hanging out and shooting a cardboard box with one of those cheap airsoft guns you have to rack every time you shoot. I hear a knock at the door, and see a bald man through the peephole. It seemed like he was looking through it and saw me. Being a stupid kid that thought adults could get me in trouble (do not teach your kids that) i opened the door. He said he had a leak in his apartment downstairs and came inside to “look for a plant or some reason for a leak” I was sketched out, and being a kid I thought maybe i should shoot him with my dinky little plastic walther and run. He said something along the lines of “huh thats weird” turned around to see a little boy with his hand around a pistol grip at his waist. That guy got the hell out of there! Nearly spun out on the hardwood. That was the day i either stopped a weirdo from breaking into my apartment, or the day i made my downstairs neighbor think the weird kid upstairs will shoot him.

Two days after I was assaulted by a man, someone left flowers on my doorstep without a note.

If it was him, he knows where I live.

When I was in middle school, my girlfriends and I rode the bus home most days. The bus driver was this older guy who was super nice & fun and would allow us to play whatever radio station we wanted, and he would drop us girls off at home last so we could dance around on the bus. I remember he would let us stand at the front of the bus while he drove and he would purposely swerve to make us fall on top of him. I remember thinking it was weird, but it wasn’t until I got older that I realized how wrong that all was.

I decided to google his name (I’m now in my 30’s) and found that he is a convicted s*x offender and is currently incarcerated. Scary part is when I think back, he obviously knew where I lived, and I remember there were several times when he’d drive past my house on the days I wouldn’t ride with him. Keep in mind driving past my house was out of the way of his normal route, so it was intentional.

In my teens and early 20s, my best friend and I used to have lots of sleepovers. His mom worked the night shift as a nurse and his little brother usually stayed in his room and went to bed early, so we had the house for ourselves. We'd cook/eat dinner together, watch TV and especially talk a lot. We also had a tradition that we called "night walks". Always around 11pm or midnight, we'd leave the house and go for a long walk, 2-3 hours. It was especially nice in the summer because the air was warm but there was a coolish breeze and the fields and pastures smelled amazing.

There was one particular route we walked very often. Towards the end of it, there was a big forest that we had to cross and when we emerged from it, we were on a hill that overlooked the city. There was a bench and sometimes we sat down to enjoy the silence, the distant lights and to relax a bit before going downhill and home again.

One time we did exactly this. Walking through the forest was always a bit scary in the middle of the night, so once we got out, my friend suggested to rest on that bench for a few minutes.

We left the trail, walked 20m across a meadow and finally got to the bench. The bench was located in a place where it was surrounded by trees and bushes, except in the front where you had a great view.

We sat there for maybe 20-25 minutes, had a smoke and just talked about random stuff like space and philosophy.

At one point my friend remarked that he was getting cold because this happened in late fall (October or November). So we decided to get going and walk home again.

When we were almost back to the trail, my friend asked me if I had brought the lighter. I told him that I thought he had picked it up. We turned around and went back to the bench. For a while we just kind of touched around on the wooden surface but couldn't find it. Since this spot was mostly surrounded by trees, it was very dark. My friend took out his phone and turned on the flashlight to find the lighter. He waved the flashlight around... and that's when we saw him.

There was A GUY sitting RIGHT BEHIND THE BENCH. Like, maybe 2m (6ft). He was completely dressed in black and sat there, motionless, on the cold, wet ground just staring at us. We hadn't heard any noise, which means he must've sat there for the entire time while we were sitting on the bench... just staring at the back of our heads. That alone is super creepy to think about still today.

Of course my friend and I both got really startled and my friend said something like: "Holy s**t man, you almost gave us a heart attack haha. What the hell are you doing there??" But the guy didn't respond anything. For a while we just stared at him confused and he stared back at us. Then I asked: "Why are you sitting there on the ground?!" No response. My friend asked: "Uhm... are you alright?" Still no response. It was a really surreal situation but something about it didn't feel good. I can't say what but something about that guy gave me a really bad feeling in my stomach (my friend later told me that he had felt the same way). Suddenly, the guy got up and began to walk towards us. I said: "Uhhh what's happening?" And now the guy answered... but all he said was: "Yeaah". As he walked around the bench to come towards us, I felt my friend's hand grab my coat and pull me backwards. He quietly said: "Let's get the f**k outta here man." We walked a few steps backwards because we didn't want to turn our back on the guy. Then we turned around, ran back to the trail and another 100 meters. When we turned around, we were relieved to see the guy hadn't come after us but we still walked home as quickly as possible.

To this day I don't know why the hell that guy was sitting there, who he was, why he was silently staring at us for almost half an hour, what he planned to do when he got up and walked towards us etc. All I can say is that my gut feeling tells me it was the right decision to run away rather than wait to find out.

My mum used to start at work at like 3AM and she was up at about 2-230 having her coffee, I heard her up and went to see her. She joked that she heard something outside and me being a bit silly opened the blinds up wide as a joke and there was a guy just standing there staring into the lounge room.

That was creepy enough as it is, but what sticks with me is the fact he didn't run or really react for what felt an eternity. While I ran to get my old man and brother apparently he just stood there and then slowly walked off.

When I was around 8 years old, I lived in a nice, quiet neighborhood and would frequently take walks around the block, sometimes alone, sometimes with my mother. One evening before sunset my best friend and I decided to go for a walk together, we were about halfway through when we were approached by an older man who was walking with two dogs. He was panting and seemed frantic and asked us if we knew whose dogs they were, we said no and kept walking, trying to get the f**k home as quickly as possible because his presence alone gave us goosebumps. Even though we were walking away quickly, he followed us and asked us to help him find out whose dogs they were, to go knocking on all of the neighbors doors and ask everyone. We continued to say no and picked up our pace, which he then matched and continued following us, shouting “let’s check this house!” “Help me find their owners!” At this point we sprinted the f**k back to house, he ran behind us for a bit but tired out really quickly.

I have no idea if he was just somewhat socially challenged and didn’t understand that two 8 year old girls are not the people to ask for help, or if he was hoping we would knock on that door (which I now suspect was his house) and then push us in and do who knows what but I’m happy our instincts told us to NOPE the f**k out of there and go home.

Pretty sure I almost got kidnapped when I was a kid. I was 10 years old walking home from school and an elderly couple driving by stopped and asked me for directions. They were looking for the street I was walking towards, so I pointed them in that direction. Even though my directions were very clear, both were acting confused and asked if I can get in the car and guide them there and then they would drive me home. I told them it was fine, my house was right here (I lied). They were pressuring/guilting me a lot and being TOO nice about wanting to drive me home. It gave me a really weird feeling in my stomach. So I pretended to walk towards a house that wasn't mine and they drove off.

A friend of my parents put his arm around my (18f) shoulder and told me that one of the life lessons he'd learned was to never ignore an erection. It was very f*****g creepy and I noped out of the situation pretty fast.

The guy that assulted me told the cops he had the intention of k**ling me. But my dog made him rush.

This dude was someone I thought of as a close friend.

Used to dispatch / call-take 911 in a moderately sized city; was working overnights once and we started getting tons of calls about UFO's over the area. It was a weeknight in summer, and lots of people out walking or drinking or whatever were seeing this thing. We probably took 100ish calls about em (for reference, I might handle three or four hundred calls myself on a shift) and as the supervisor that rotation, I took over trying to resolve it so everybody could focus on the typical stuff.

We had a "hot" phone to the airport ATC for air emergencies (got to use that once for a plane crash, that was fukin terrifying) and they had absolutely no idea about what was going on and actively resisted getting involved. Little while later, got ahold of an FAA hotline and they definitely had a UFO policy, but were only interested in taking info. They didn't disseminate *anything*, talking to them felt like an interrogation and I left my badge number instead of my name.

Eventually got ahold of a duty officer at an air force base relatively close by. He told me they were aware of the situation, they were monitoring it, and to consider it a "closed issue".

Whole thing was a trip, definitely got vibes like I was an extra in the opening of Independence Day. This was before the days of neighborhood Facebook groups or yik-yak, the local radio stations had tons of pictures up on their websites for awhile afterwards.

About 10 years back I moved into my brother's floor apartment. It was in the hood, but that never stopped me from walking to the corner store at night when I ran out of smokes. It was a 5 minute walk at best, I could see the store from my front door. Just cross the street, walk a couple minutes, cross a major intersection and you're there.

So I head out as normal. As I got to the store parking lot, there was a man in a car, demanding my attention.

Man: Hey. Hey you girl. Hey come here. Come here. Hey come HERE. COME HERE. HEY-

At this point, I had already walked past and was seconds from entering the store, and I hear him suddenly yell, "I LOVE YOU."

I just cringe a bit, but shake it off and buy my stupid cancer sticks. When I exit the store, he's still there. But something is different. As I'm walking back across the intersection, I notice that dude quickly pulled out the lot in my direction, seemingly pursuing me. I'm thinking, "probably just imagining this", but felt it in my gut. I turn to see him at the intersection, he pulled onto the same street that I was suddenly desperately running across.

The entrance to my brother's apartment was on a side/frontage road running parallel with the road there.

As I made it to the side road, I turned to see that guy was indeed following me, which meant he had to drive for a few seconds and basically make a weird u turn to get to me. But he didn't know that my destination was the first building there. I was already watching from my front door as he erratically drove down the side road looking for me, angrily swerving all over the place. I was terrified and super lucky that the apartment was so close. If I had lived in the next apartments over, I might not be here today. Now I know better and carry protection and won't go walking at night without my dog.

When I was around 13/14 I was home alone, upstairs, when I heard somebody busting open the kitchen door yelling “FIRE FIRE GET OUT”. I didn’t smell anything nor did I think that there was that could ignite a fire (I had ordered take out and all the things that could set a fire were off), so I decided not to get out, and called 911 explaining everything. The police came, and found muddy footprints in the kitchen, along with the kitchen door busted.

My dad told me to rake some leaves in our front yard when I was like 12. I ended up working for a few minutes then felt eyes on me (you know the feeling). I turned around and my neighbor across the street was taking pictures of me so obviously. Right when he saw me he put his phone down and turned around. I immediately ran inside and told my family- none of them believed me.

I’m 18 now and he’s still my neighbor and I have been creeped out ever since. I have to close my window blinds all the time still because I always feel like he’s watching me.

When my grandparents passed away, my family moved into their house to help take care of my uncle, who was slightly special needs, and had lived there his whole life. I got a lot of creepy vibes in that house, and had a lot of nightmares while living there.

One evening, I had the worst nightmare ever that was super realistic. Towards the end of the dream, I saw the scariest demon smiling at me with the blackest black eyes (or lack of, more like emptiness), hundreds of razor sharp teeth curled into a smile, and strange c*****d white skin, almost like bone. The demon somehow conveyed to me that he was going to murder me just by smiling at me. This nightmare made me not want to sleep for weeks out of fear of seeing this thing again.
I did not tell my family about this dream.

I did not get along with this uncle who we lived with, and I rarely spoke to him unless completely necessary. The next day after that nightmare, he asked me a question. He said "Hey, do you still have that app on your phone?" The app he was referring to was some stupid phone app for reading emf. I downloaded the app just for s***s and giggles a few weeks prior because as I said, the house was creepy and I tried to see if I could pick up any messages from ghosts or demons in the home. I told him "yeah, I still have it.... why?" He said "oh, I was just wondering because last night I saw something standing at my doorway." And then proceeded to describe the EXACT demon from my nightmare.
I was so freaked out I don't even think I properly responded to him. I told my family about this, and they agreed that something was in the house. None of us slept well the rest of our time there.

Luckily, we didn't live in that house for very long before selling it. I still think about that demon from my dream sometimes and hope I never encounter that smile again. Also, there's no way my uncle could've known what I dreamt, because like I said, I didn't tell my family about the dream. I fully believe that he saw the same demon in person that I saw in my nightmare.

A dude in a yellow ford pinto offered my brother and I some candy when we were
young but we refused and walked away. Good thing, because it was child serial k**ler Westley Alan Dodd.