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30 People Who Have Security Cameras Are Sharing The Worst Things They’ve Caught On Them
Installing a home security camera seems like a great way to get an extra pair of eyes to watch over your property. More than a third of Americans own a home security product, and 18.2 percent out of those report owning a video, a doorbell camera, or both. While having this technology might make you feel safer in your own house, it can also reveal some weird, creepy, and straight-up disturbing behaviors.
Pepperoniplayboy21 decided to find out what shady activities people with security cameras have ever witnessed. They posed a question on r/AskReddit, "What is the creepiest thing you’ve caught on video?" From batty neighbors to people with horse masks right there in your backyard, hundreds of spine-chilling responses started pouring in.
We have collected some of the most unexpected stories from this thread, so continue scrolling and share your thoughts about them in the comments section below. And if you’re hungry for some more things people saw on their doorbell cameras, be sure to check out our previous post about it right here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Breaking the rules, but I caught something that ended up being surprisingly wholesome. I have a brick house, and the mailbox is bolted to it. Somehow one side managed to come loose, so it had been dangling for a couple of weeks since I just didn't have a chance to get to the hardware store. I get home from work one day and it was bolted back properly. I checked to see if there was a note or anything, but nope. On the one hand, I was really grateful, but on the other, was kind of spooked/wondering if I was totally losing it and maybe it had never come loose after all. (Also, I've kind of half-kidding half-serious thought my house was haunted, so this definitely added to that feeling.)
A couple days later I remembered I have cameras and could check to see if they caught anything. Turns out an older guy with a tool belt just casually walked up, fixed my mailbox, and left. He wasn't there for more than three or four minutes. Eventually I was able to piece together that one of my neighbors was having some roofing work done and this was one of the workers. I guess he had just seen my mailbox dangling for a few days and decided since I wasn't making any moves to fix it, he would. I hadn't been living there for that long, and it really warmed my heart to know someone would go out of their way to perform a simple good deed for a stranger.
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#2
I installed some security camera's at my place after my neighbor told me they thought they've been hearing someone walking around my yard at night. I scanned through the footage the very next morning and saw a guy come into frame wearing only boxers and laced up combat boots. He stood by my bedroom window, stared in for about 45 minutes then walked back out of frame. I was able ti get a pretty good look at his face, and thats when I realized that I've been f**king sleepwalking. I have no idea how long it's been going on or where the f**k else Ive been at night, and that f**king terrified me. I honestly think I might've preferred seeing an actual intruder.
Tobias Rieper 2 years ago (edited)
it can be quite scary seeing yourself sleep walking i used to do it sometimes i once went to sleep at night wearing shorts and t-shirt woke up wearing tracksuit bottoms and a different t-shirt
#3
I've got cameras downstairs that cover my living room, kitchen and front door, and one in my 2nd closet where I have 2 large gun safes.
Maintenance came in to clean and test the smoke detectors and change the AC filter.
One of them opened the gun closet and started poking around at the keyboards on my safes. He tells the other guy: "I'm gonna figure out this code one day".
The other guy was in my nightstand commenting on the condoms, lube and other assorted coital aids.
I simply called the police and met them here. The guy in my nightstand was wearing one of my watches. They both went to jail.
To learn more about security cameras and what experts say about them, we reached out to Rebecca Edwards, a lead safety reporter for SafeWise. She told Bored Panda that there are many benefits of owning a home security camera, especially if you have one with a two-way talk.
"Not only can you use it as a tool to keep an eye on potential intruders, but you can also watch out for package thieves, see when the kids get home from school, verify the landscapers came, and even catch the dog when he makes a break for it," Edwards said. A security camera is a great option for those who do not "have the budget for a full-blown monitoring home security system."
The expert mentioned that a camera, "particularly one that’s watching the front entrance of your home," is one of the most effective devices to maximize safety at your own home. "Burglars and even folks who break into cars don’t want to get caught. They want to be in and out as fast as possible," she added.
#4
Worked in one of the oldest buildings in my college town. Was once a Wild West saloon where 2 people were documented to be killed in a shootout when the state state was still a territory, in the 20s it served as someone’s house, where the youngest daughter was documented to have died in childhood. When I got hired on, even the owners talked about it being haunted. I’ve never truly “seen” a ghost or had an encounter, but something about the building, particularly the office to the back and definitely the dirt basement did not feel right to me at all. Not malevolent, but always “off”.
My first closing shift after I get promoted to keyholder, I’m also helping a new girl who has really taken the whole ghost spiel she got a few days prior to heart. This particular store ranged from small little treasures that were almost too easy not to steal, to a few items that cost 5x the going rate for tuition at the local college. Naturally, the owners had 15 cameras installed that played on a live feed in the office and in the storefront for customers to see to know they weren’t being slick. I’m counting the drawer and she’s anxiously watching the security camera just waiting to see something crazy. I’m putting the final totals into a calculator and she SCREAMS. She calls me over to the camera feed, and there it is on the top right feed, very clearly there is what looks like a figure in a white, boxy nightgown-type dress. We are both near pissing our pants, but we can’t leave. There’s still a bunch of stuff to get done and the owners and the opener tomorrow will be pissed if we just ditch the last half of the closing responsibilities on account of a ghost. We watch it, stunned as it appears to sway. Suddenly, a huge spider obscures the view of the figure.
We, two grown women, have been near tears for what feels like ages because we’ve been watching a fucking spiderweb that the AC blew into view of the camera.
#5
... A Chinese gentleman visiting my house every day just after 1pm. He would come in my gate, sit on my lawn and eat a bowl of noodles. When finished he would say a little prayer and be off on his way. One day when I was home from work sick I went out to join him. He couldn't speak English, we both sat there in silence. He ate his noodles, I ate my sandwich. He shook my hand and left. Never saw him again.
#6
When we first installed a video security camera, I knew my husband was anxiously awaiting the first thing to trip the motion sensor and get recorded, sending him an instant notification on his phone. He went out for a beer, so I quickly put together an outrageous costume with a crazy headdress and did an eclectic dance past the camera, complete with a kazoo marching band song. If only I’d had a camera to view him at the bar as he spewed his beer with laughter!
"The presence of a camera can make them think twice and move on to another home." In case something bad happens, you "have a lot more for the police to go on if you caught the bad acts on camera."
When asked about the most common types of cameras, Edwards told us that it has to be the wireless ones that use Wi-Fi to transmit and store video images and clips. "These cameras typically use a mobile app so you can get updates about what’s happening at home no matter where you are."
She continued: "Of all the wireless cameras out there, I think that doorbell cameras are probably the most widely used. They usually have a good price point, are easy to install, and give you the freedom to talk to people at your front door even if you’re out running errands or in a meeting."
#7
So we have two cameras at back of my house. 3 people show up with horse masks on and spent probably 15 mins pretending to be horses. Then left a small bag of meat with flowers in it. My wife was so freaked she didn't sleep for a week.
#8
Good friend of mine has a camera that also shoots treats for his dog. It notifies him of barking and people movements. Can speak through it. Record videos etc.
He got a barking alert. Logged in to find two complete strangers in his house. Just chilling on his couch.
He rushes home. No one is there. House is all locked up.
Still cant figure it out.
#9
It started out being slightly creepy, but it ended up being really funny. I have external cameras with night vision all around my house. My family and I were on vacation several time zones west of our house. One night, right before I was about to go to bed, I got an alert and logged in to see what was going on. I saw a car pull into my driveway and 4 people get out, acting all sneaky and stealthy. It was well past midnight at my house, and this didn't look good. I called my wife and kids in to watch it. I was preparing to call the police in my home town. We saw them all sneak away and toilet paper a neighbor's house. They then ran back to their car in my driveway and sped off. My family and I laughed so hard. It was a highlight of that vacation.
So if you want to upgrade your home security system and are in the market for a new camera, there are some features you should consider. Edwards noted that one of the most important qualities would be motion activation. "This means your camera starts recording when it senses motion. So if someone is creeping up on your porch, you’ll be alerted," she explained.
Another important trait is the two-way talk (or two-way audio): "Cameras have both a mic and a speaker that let you hear what’s going on and let you talk through the camera to any person or animal who’s activated the camera."
Then there’s the night vision. The expert told us that most burglaries usually happen during the day, "but car break-ins are more common at night. A camera with night vision lets you capture valuable information that can help you identify a thief or capture license plate numbers if they have their own getaway car."
#10
Had a Ring doorbell when I lived in South Florida. Kept getting motion notifications one afternoon but couldn’t see anything. Finally saw what it was, a 6 foot gator chilling out in the entrance way. Thankfully he left before I got home.
#11
My old apartment had incredibly unprofessional repair staff. I'd call them because my AC would be out, and they'd come over while I was at work (rather than at the agreed-upon time while I was home) and they'd use my bathroom, poke around through my stuff, type on my keyboard, f**k around with my pets, etc.
Needless to say, I was pretty livid.
I setup a camera and caught them, then took the footage to the front office. I got a personal call from the owner of the apartment complex to apologize, and almost the entire repair staff got fired.
#12
Bit of backstory I rent the upper floor of my best friends house so we see each other quite often and i use the kitchen and the washer and stuff like that. One day wile we were at uni someone broke into the place. Nothing was stolen but the house was a disaster.
So I check the footage of the camrea we have out front
See the guy go in.
Dont see him come out.
Called the police.
Checked the entire house.
Nowhere to be seen. I dont have neighbors to add to the strangeness of the situation
Well turns up the guy was ON THE F**KIN ROOF.
He was up there a good week before we realized anything.He is now facing trail.
Tess the ferret 2 years ago
Im so sorry but when i read he is now facing trail, i immediately thought of trail mix behind a table wielding a huge mallet:i am the god of the trail mix!!
Lastly, see if the camera can be connected to a mobile app and could send you notifications. "This lets you know what’s happening at your home in real-time," Edwards said. "It gives you the chance to call for help or try to scare off an intruder before they actually break into your home. It literally gives you eyes on your property from anywhere."
However, these devices also come with a few drawbacks. Edwards warned that cameras aren’t as big of a deterrent as they once were. "Many criminals have gotten savvy to cameras and obscure their identity rather than choose not to swipe a package or do some other bad act."
#13
I live alone and have had some truly weird s**t happen. At my last place, which was a townhouse, I had security cameras set up in my backyard after I noticed the screen pulled off my back window. I also put a padlock on the gate (which I usually didn't do so the landscapers could come in and mow.) One night I got a notification that there was motion in the backyard. I looked on the camera and didn't see anything. Then I noticed the gate was shaking. I saw a hat appear over the top of the gate, and some guy peeking over it. As luck would strangely have it, my bf at the time was on the SWAT team in my city and had just gotten to my place to spend the night after a SWAT hit. He ran in the back, half dressed in all his gear, tackled the guy and I called the police. It was my neighbor's boyfriend, who also had a gun on him. He was high as a kite. They ended up arresting him, my neighbor, and a bunch of people in the house because apparently the gun he had was stolen and inside the house, there were a ton of drugs and stolen guns (her parents owned a gun store in the next city over and had had a ton of guns stolen recently).
Brian Bennett 2 years ago
would have rather contended with the gator above than a high human with a gun!
#14
I installed a Ring cam and lock on my gate as couriers and postmen kept leaving it open and my dogs would run down the street.
Nothing too out of the ordinary for the first year. I just bought a solar panel for it as I always would forget to charge it, installed it and let the solar panel charge up the camera from flat to see how much charge it would give the camera.
Worked like a charm and in the low amount of sunlight it got in the morning during winter was more than enough to keep the camera going non stop.
Literally two days later I get home from work and my camera is missing, ripped off the post and solar panel destroyed.
Check the footage, someone came up and ripped it from the post put it in their pocket and walked off with it.
However, the person that stole it was an ex work colleague who looked directly into the camera and then stole it. Previous footage shows his car driving past the house and parking down the road.
Haven't worked with the guy for over 2 years and I never told him where I lived.
Anyway now that guy has a criminal charge against him and I've got cameras and floodlights absolutely everywhere around my house.
#15
My ex wife sneaking up to the front door and peeking in the window. At 10pm one night. Right after divorce was final. Probably a full 4 minutes worth, Ordered 3 more cameras from Amazon that night.
Also, as with all things that connect to the internet, there are some privacy risks linked to security cameras. Firstly, there’s always the possibility of being hacked.
"We’ve all seen stories about cameras being hacked and people talking through nanny cams and doing other creepy things. But this type of breach is the exception, not the rule," she added. "If you secure your device and your home Wi-Fi network properly, it will be very difficult for someone to hack into your camera feed."
If you’re concerned about privacy, Edwards advised you to look for a camera that is compatible with end-to-end encryption. "This is the best way to keep your video footage private—even big tech companies like Amazon or the maker of the camera itself can’t access video or images that are protected with end-to-end encryption."
#16
I have cameras in my house for my dogs that alert me when they bark and I can send them treats, etc. It basically functions as a security camera. Anyways, we went on a vacation and I warned our dog sitter in advance that we have cameras in common areas of the first floor of our home. One day during my trip (at 3am) I review my dog footage because I get an alert on my phone that my dogs are barking like crazy. I normally wouldn’t creep but I was concerned that maybe there was a fire or break in, or the woman fell, etc. The footage shows the dog sitter (a 70 year old lady) running around the house swearing at my dogs, in underwear only.
#17
I'm a Property Manager, and one of the communities I worked at had cameras installed. One night, person in all black clothes with their hood up gets let in by a resident. Black clothes goes to elevator, goes up to a specific floor, then to a specific door, and knocks. Resident opens the door, black clothes produces a pistol, and bang shoots him the face, and walks off. Back on elevator, out the same door, never looked up. Creepy AF.
#18
BAck when I managed a donut shop I saw a guy staring at me (a young woman) and the other employee (also a young woman). He was dressed in dark clothes and a dark hat. When he realized we could see him he ran off. I locked all the doors and the drive-thru window. Thankfully it was closing time anyway. Coworker called her best friend, a very large young man on the wrestling team, who walked us to our cars.
Where he was standing was a point of poor visibility from inside after the sun went down. Our store had a deep porch and along the window he was staring through there was a wall-mounted bar counter. At night we turned the stools over and put them on the bar, so the chairs were blocking the view of the window. If he hadn't moved suddenly I might never have noticed him.
Before we left I decided to review the cams to see if I could see him get into a car. I went back to the moment I noticed him and kept rewinding. He'd been staring at us from the dark of night for three hours.
The security expert would like to remind you, dear readers, that it's not always legal to record videos and audio of other people. There are certain security camera laws and regulations you need to consider, but "the rule of thumb is to keep security cameras out of places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. Places like bedrooms, bathrooms, and your neighbor’s backyard are all off-limits," she concluded.
#19
My stepdad woke up one morning and found a bucket of fried chicken in our driveway. For some reason he didn’t think it was odd at all. I did and checked our camera recordings. Ends up being this lady walked up to my car at like 3am with a bucket. She was obviously homeless and probably on drugs. When the camera light turned on she yelled I brought you some chicken and left the bucket on the ground by my car. To this day I wonder what was up with the chicken lady.
#20
Not my camera but posted to my subdivision’s Facebook page by a neighbor: They had a guy come in the middle of the night and take his clothes off before jumping in their pool. He swam around naked for about ten minutes before getting out and grabbing a beer from their outdoor fridge. He went over and sat on the couch naked while he drank it before leaving. Weirdest part was that his clothes were still there in the morning.
#21
In my town there was a fairly popular restaurant that everyone went to all the time. Everyone loved the place. The owner was this short, adorable, loveable guy that everyone liked. A few years ago, someone noticed something off in the bathroom. Upon investigation they found a camera set up in the bathroom. Apparently the owner had been videoing people doing their business for years and was even found to be a part of a child porn trafficking ring on the deep web. Needless to say our small town was shocked. Everyone used that bathroom at one point or another.
#22
A neighbor came up and pressed his face into our door to look inside. I am a young woman and disabled, and was home alone at the time. His face print was still there when I looked.
F**king creep.
#23
My next door neighbour creeped into my back garden and stole something off my washing line, and then when my girlfriend said she had missing underwear I realised he had stole my girlfriends knickers, he was a 55 year old veteran
#24
Guy walked up to my front windows, put his ear against it, then walked away.
I see him around the neighborhood sometimes, not sure what his deal is but he hasn't come to my place again so far.
#25
A neighbour walking by, which he does every day, and realising the cameras were being installed (CCTV van, etc.).
Next day, on his walk by, he stands still, and just looks at the camera. Could understand him looking for a few seconds to see how they were wired, what brand, what they might be able to see, etc. but he stood there, just looking at a single camera, for about 14 minutes.
#26
Came home from dinner one day (f**k you covid) and there were feathers all over my lawn. Pulled up the security footage and a hawk had dive bombed whatever those feathers belonged to mid air down to my lawn then took off for it's dinner.
That was metal.
Grumble O'Pug 2 years ago
We sat in the driveway a couple months ago while a young Cooper’s hawk finished off his sparrow while sitting on our deck. He was about 15 feet from our car.
#27
One night about 3 am the dogs went crazy. Checked the cameras and there is this guy just sitting on a windowsill beside the front door. Wasn't being threatening or trying to break in, just sitting and looking around.
Called police non emergency. They came and realized he was a neighbor. He was thinking our house was his job site and he was just waiting for the plumbers to finish.
I am not sure if it was a weird Ambien sleepwalk or one of the odd stories about UTIs or CO causing delusions. He got taken for medical evaluation and it appears got the treatment he needed. Ended up moving out a few months later after what looked like being in and out of the hospital to me.
#28
caught my mom's boyfriend physically abuse her, box her in with his body, mocking her for calling him a bully, etc
I had just woken up when it happened and didnt realize what went down until my mom showed me the video footage. This wasn't the first time he had done this and it's not the worst thing he had done, we're trying to get rid of him but we need a 30 day's notice and a secure way to make sure this doesn't go down with a murder suicide on our hands
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
Why wait for a 30 day notice? Pack your stuff and move to a safe place. If you're in fear of your life, you do not stay with the psychopath. That's how people get killed. After all, sleeping in your car is better than being dead.
#29
Not mine but I read a story of a guy working security at a rail yard. One night on camera a train hit a deer killing it next to the tracks and a guy walked out of the nearby woods completely naked, got down on all fours and started eating it raw. Just walked back into the woods after
#30
I put one of those $30 cube cameras in my car after my mentally unhinged coworker put a nail under my tire. Instead I filmed myself driving down the highway for five minutes, having a conversation with myself about grey hair and buying a taser.
What do you think ?
Stephanie Keith 2 years ago
Cameras catch the most fascinating and interesting stuff. I'm currently watching neighborhood wars on Hulu. You guys have got to check it out. Some humans are awful as it is. To catch them on camera doing crazy stuff is mind blowing. I've always thought it was odd given todays technology being everywhere. That anyone would behave out of line or in an insane way. Cameras are watching our every move. You'd think it would make people way more mindful of their behavior. But nope! You can't fix or stop the crazy awful ones.
Craig Silberman 2 years ago
y'all need an English dictionary to learn what the word "worst" means; half these entries are not bad in the least
2 years ago
A remote cabin deep in the woods has never been so enticing before... People are weird.
Stephanie Keith 2 years ago
Cameras catch the most fascinating and interesting stuff. I'm currently watching neighborhood wars on Hulu. You guys have got to check it out. Some humans are awful as it is. To catch them on camera doing crazy stuff is mind blowing. I've always thought it was odd given todays technology being everywhere. That anyone would behave out of line or in an insane way. Cameras are watching our every move. You'd think it would make people way more mindful of their behavior. But nope! You can't fix or stop the crazy awful ones.
Craig Silberman 2 years ago
y'all need an English dictionary to learn what the word "worst" means; half these entries are not bad in the least
2 years ago
A remote cabin deep in the woods has never been so enticing before... People are weird.
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