I’m going to preface this with the important detail that all of the garages in the neighborhood that I grew up in were detached from the houses.

Until I was about 12, my bedroom was on the ground floor of our house and my parents’ room was right across the hall. We had a dog, Oreo, that we adopted when I was 2. When she was about 5 and I was about 7, she went blind. Around that time, she became the world’s best watchdog and this is why I believe that.

It was the middle of winter when I was maybe 9 or 10, and there was snow on the ground. It was a quiet night. Oreo was restless, and we didn’t know why. Her hearing seemed to improve immensely since she lost her vision and she would bark at kids playing down the road or the mailman two houses down. But it was close to midnight at this point, and the neighborhood was asleep. Oreo wasn’t. She barked at our back door and scratched at it like someone was taunting her. Oreo paced from my room, to my parents’ room, to the back door, again and again and again. It woke me and my mom up, and my mom finally got up and followed Oreo to the back door and coaxed her back to bed.

The following morning, we wake up to some terrifying news. Our neighbors across the street lost their garage in a fire. The empty house for sale behind them completely burned down. The grown ups around me are throwing around the word “arson,” and my mom explains to me that someone burned down the empty house, then our neighbors’ garage. The police were following footprints in the snow. They never found who did it.

Years later, my mom told me the rest. The footprints weren’t lost after my neighbors’ house. The footprints continued across the street, past our backdoor, and right through the narrow walkway between our garage and my room. Then they back-track to the street and disappear.

I don’t know if the arsonist would have burnt our house or our garage that night, but either way, Oreo woke us up and I think they knew that. She passed away last year at 16 and I miss her every day. She was my best friend and she never let anything happen to us, ever.

toothpastenachos , Old Rollei Report

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A bears nose pressed against my tent.

I politely asked him to go away, and he did.

I slept the rest of the night in my car.

tapecave , summonedbyfells Report

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Didn't see it but heard it, for years after midnight I would always hear children playing in the distance. Couldn't ever see them but I could hear them. A couple years back was walking my dog on a late night stroll and I heard it closer than I ever have before. Like right next to me. Looked around and there was about 3 coyote about 100 ft away from. Apparently they sound like small children.

kermeeed , Mike's Birds Report

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I live in a ground-level studio. My bed is near the window. I reached to turn off the bedside lamp and saw someone in a white hoodie through the gap in the blinds. I went “what the hell” and moved closer to get a better look and hopefully scare the creeper off. The person in the hoodie aggressively moved closer and put his face directly into the blind gap. I jumped back and he ran away. Installed a security camera the next day.

Sea-Estimate-4075 , Underway In Ireland Report

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When I was 18 I got my first apartment and I had to be at work by 7 am and always took a thermos of black coffee with me.

I come home from work one day and find coffee creamer in my fridge. I live alone and I know I didn't buy it. Then I find the toilet seat up in my bathroom.

After several times coming home to find the toilet seat up and pleading with the landlord to change my locks, turns out the maintenance man was a drug addict and had been fired, and he had been enjoying my coffee maker while I was at work. Very weird.

AudraGreenTea , Ben Seidelman Report

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F**king laundry on a chair can be terrifying

snail-f**ker , Javier Kohen Report

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Got up to use the bathroom. I saw the shadow of a cat sprint down the hallway. Our cat had died over a year before that happened.

Speedemon12 , Jennifer C. Report

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Saw a guy ... with a shotgun... in my house. My brother and I were sleeping in the TV lounge. Woke up and saw a guy with shotgun near the front door. Thought it was a dream. But, just in case I woke my bro up and asked him who is that. The guy heard us and ran out. We were 7 and 8 years old at the time.

It was June. We (2 bros 1 sis) just had summer vacations and we were planing a trip to my aunts house in some other city. We were not rich but relative to the area we lived in we were considered quite wealthy. (Both of our parents were Govt. Officials)

At the time we used to sleep in the same room as our parents (because of Air Conditioner). But this particular day we decided to be rebellious and sleep in the TV lounge while watching the TV. To the right of the TV lounge was the main entrance and the sofa was placed in such a way that the guy entering would not see if someone was laying on it. We watched a scooby doo movie and while watching it we went to sleep. Our parents decided its probably best to leave us boys there.

Now I used to be a light sleeper. As soon as there was even a little sound I would wake up. And arround about 1-2 am I heard some sounds and woke up. The sound was from our main gate. I craned my neck to look at the door.

When I looked towards the source of the sound I saw a guy standing inside the house, near the door. He was wearing all black and covered his face with a black cloth so that only his eyes were visible.

My first thoughts were "wtf is dad doing so late". My father used to lock the doors at night before we went to bed. But then I saw the most important detail... he had a black pump action shotgun in his hands.

This guy probably heard me move (he definitely didnt see me) so he just stopped there as a statue.

Then my thought was "its a dream" because why would there be a guy with a shotgun in our house at night?.. right? I woke my bro up and said "look at what's dad is doing". He got up... looked at the guy... then towards the centre of the room. Then he told me "dad is sleeping in the middle of the room".

At that point we both looked at the guy and said "thief". As soon as the guy heard that he bailed out. Got out and closed the door. We stayed up for a few more minutes and then got back to sleep. Because we were stupid little kids.

The next day however I told my parents what I saw but they didn't believe me at first saying that it was probably just your imagination. Thankfully I had my bro to back me up. Once he told the same story both the parents freaked out.

Next day we had better locks on our doors and a German Shephard named Jacky (best pet ever... also RIP).

Tips to take from this: Listen to your kids. Tell your kids to tell you immediately if they see something out of the ordinary or if they feel threatened.

TheSilverTounge , Liz Lawley Report

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I was about 5 and had just moved. I was in my bed, looking up waiting to fall asleep when two eye peered from the AIR VENT right at me. I was told it was just my imagination. 10 years later, when we replaced the air conditioning unit, one of the guys found a snake skin shedding in the old air shaft.

Embor12 , Fulvio Spada Report

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My sister screamed one night in our rented apartment because she saw her phone floating right above her face. Then she screamed some more because she saw a man at the window. A thief coated a long stick with really sticky goo and was using it to steal stuff. We did not call the police but alerted the landlady. She did not do anything. Guess who got her phone stolen a month later? The landlady.

doth_taraki , Marc Lacoste Report

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My parents were driving us home through a suburban area of Buffalo NY in the early 1980s. It was late spring I think. The windows of the car were open a little. I heard a woman scream "help me!!!!!" Noone in my family heard it. It happened again. I started crying but noone else heard it. Still haunts me 40 years later.

dreamermom2 , Ken Lund Report

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When I was around 13 I woke up to what sounded like someone knocking on a glass window, I look at the clock and it’s around 4 am. I get out my bed and walk out into the hallway where I could now tell the knocking was coming from the front door, which had two large glass windows on both sides of it. My dad wasn’t home and my mom was asleep so I decided to check it out, I turned the light on, slowly crept down the stairs just enough to see the front door. The first thing I saw was a bloody mess on the entire window, and on the floor was a man all bloodied up and slowly knocking on the window. I immediately ran upstairs and woke up my mom who called the police. It ended up being a drunk driver who flipped his car near my house.

Devan826 , Fotos_PDX Report

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A mountain lion glaring at me right against my window

TrystenConn , Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Report

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There was a cigarette butt floating in my toilet bowl. I don’t smoke, and I lived alone.

Insomniac132 , dirtyboxface Report

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Woke one night when I was about 5 years old. Was gazing around the room for a bit. I looked at the window and there, staring wide eyed at me was a man. Hands pressed against the window just staring with his head cocked to the side. Didn't even flinch when I noticed him. I hid under the covers, then peeked out to see if he moved. He was still there. I decided to just stay under the covers. I don't know why I didn't scream.

[deleted] , Greg Grossmeier Report

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I woke up one morning at 3.30, got on my bike and started riding to work. I was pedalling up a hill where there was no lights except for my bike and there was fog. I could see something in the middle of the road. It looked like a person. As I got closer I could see it was moving toward me and it was over 7 foot tall. I turned and sped home.

I called in sick, told my wife I was sick and haven't told anyone the truth.

I wish there was someone there to see it with me

Antmon666 , TimothyJ Report

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Actually made me reach for my gun. My dog was standing on my bed growling into barks at something and I saw it move.

Hit the light and it was his reflection in my TV, what a f**king dope

pirate737 , Bill Smith Report

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This happened when I was maybe 12-13ish. It was recently enough for cellphones, but they were bricks. I grew up surrounded mostly by farmland in a rural area. Not far from the suburbs and nearest city, but far enough that traffic was pretty sparse and foot traffic was basically nonexistent. We could see our neighbors houses on either side (maybe 1/4 mile down the street each direction), but the nearest house behind was around a mile or more through pretty dense woods. Nobody lived across the street for maybe 1/2 mile or more in either direction. Now that you have a feeling for the setting, on to the story.

My parents and sister went to eat dinner in town one night and I stayed home. Our living room was all windows facing out of the back and since we didn’t exactly have neighbors out there, we didn’t close the curtains. I was sitting on the couch watching TV in the living room, looked outside, and saw someone walking through the back yard. He was walking across the property parallel to the street, and stopped about dead center of the yard and just looked at the house. The lights were off, but the TV was on, so he could very likely see me seeing him. He just stood there.

After what felt like an hour, but was probably 30 seconds, I jumped up, grabbed the phone, and booked it to my parents bedroom (also the location of the gun safe). As I was opening the safe, I called my mom and told her what was up. My dad grabbed the phone from her, told me to stay in the bedroom, load the 12 gauge, and wait for them to call back. He told me that if I heard a person and it wasn’t them yelling telling me they were home, to shoot. They were maybe 5 minutes from home and would call when they were in the driveway. They got home, swept the whole backyard with the headlights when they pulled in, and nobody was to be seen.

I, of course, never found out who it was or what they were doing, but they didn’t belong where they were. That experience scared the living s**t out of me then, and probably still would now.

helloiisclay , Yann Cœuru Report

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I was driving to one of my buddies houses back in high-school. The road I would take to get there ran through some dense woods for a few miles and was very dark. On my way there, I saw a man just standing on the side of the road, just staring into the darkness with a blank look on his face. Not walking, staring at nothing. There isn't anything but woods for several miles. On my way back home, at least 4 hours later he was still there. In the same spot. Staring at nothing. Maybe not scary, but super weird and creepy.

thecoolestb***h , Tirthankar Gupta Report

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Beautiful clear night in the suburbs of Baltimore in the 70's. I was a kid chasing lightening bugs, then I noticed a blue sphere in the sky. Small at first. A fraction of the diameter of the moon, but it grew larger in size. As it grew, I could see dark and light sections. The dark sections looked like craters. It kept grow and was many times larger than the moon. My father was drunk and couldn't tell me what it was. That was before the Internet. All I could imagine was that a planet was rapidly approaching earth and that we were all going to die.

I fell asleep scared to death under my bed. And woke up the next morning just fine.

My teacher in school explained that NASA had launched a rocket into the atmosphere that released a dye that allowed observers to see how the atmosphere moved. In the end, it wasn't scary at all. But while it was happening, I was sure I was going to die.

I_Transmogrify , Uroš Novina Report

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It was the middle of the night and I crawled to the end of my bed and looked out the second story window in our farm house, maybe 40 feet away and 20 feet up, was a light blue, electric looking ball of light about 6ft by 6ft, it slowly arched from left to right untill it went behind my barn. The only thing I can think is it was is ball lightning, or I was dreaming but I doubt it.

shadowpierce117 , Nathan Vaughn Report

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Not something I saw exactly but felt. I was maybe 10 and I woke in the middle of the night to something whooshing past my head. When I turned on the light, my pillow was on top of my dresser. I’m sure I must have thrown it in my sleep but it scared the crap out of 10-yo me!

MammmaJenny Report

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My cat screams at night. And not just any type of scream, like she sounds like a human baby when she screams. Anyway the night this happened, it was also during a power outage, so the lights were flickering, and my sister is freaking out. We go and find the cat looking possessed and trying to attack us. Weird because normally she is very affectionate towards us.

Yamii_rats , LongitudeLatitude Report

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One night when we were in the fifth grade, my sister and I were hanging out in my bed with the lights out before we went to sleep in our separate rooms. We would do this sometimes and goof around/chat after we were supposed to be asleep.

There was a parking lot with streetlights about 20 feet from my windows and it cast quite a bit of light on my wall every night. Never thought anything of it until this night. As we were laying in bed chatting, one of us noticed that the silhouette of a man’s head was suddenly prominent against the wall. The best way I can describe the visual is when you see old bits where they have a sheet hanging in front of a light and do silly things with shadows, except this was just a shadow cast on my wall from a man looking into my bedroom window!

Obviously, were freaked the f**k out and both crept into the corner of the bed under the covers. The shadow stayed there for what felt like forever.

We eventually tried to calm ourselves down and convinced each other that it was just our stepdad trying to mess with us. So we ran out of the room to see what was up anddd there he was, just sitting in the living room. It wasn’t him outside. He would have had to run around the house in a split second to make it to the living room.

We told him what was happening and he came to the room to see. The shadow was gone. He thought WE were trying to prank HIM with our story before he saw how scared we were.

Never figured out who was outside my window that night, but it still freaks me out just to think about it.

KayteeBlue , Seika Report

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Oh man I actually had forgotten about this, but my original xbox scared the ever living s**t out of me once. As an adult.

I left my original xbox plugged in and idling on the home screen, and went to sleep. I woke up later to hear ghostly voices mumbling and talking to each other coming from the tv. It sounded just like EVP from those crappy ghost shows, where you can hear it's voices but not what it's really saying. And to top it all off, over the voices were scary mechanical sound effects and spooky music. I have never, and I mean never, left an xbox idling since.

The explanation is Microsoft thought it would be neat to use some free astronaut transmissions for their "futuristic" console, and wanted space music to go with it.

Madmorda , Rodrigo Denúbila Report

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About 3am on a deserted highway I drove by what looked like a body wrapped in a white sheet, discarded on the median.

I took the next exit, drove back and took that exit, and came back. Passed it and parked a little ways up. It still looked like a body wrapped in a sheet. Got out to go look closer when I heard loud rustling in the scrub/trees of the median, so jumped in my truck and drove off.

Pre-cell phone so I didn’t call police. I looked in the papers but never saw anything.

[When I’ve posted this before I got chastised about being reckless. I know.]

peuxcequeveuxpax , Teri Ellis Report

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A few weeks ago, my older cousin was sitting on the toilet with the lights off so she didn’t wake anyone up. So I have to go pee and I walk into the bathroom and she was tired so she sounded like some ghost girl and it scared the hell out of me.

Spideytb , apasciuto Report

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We were driving home after visting family that lived about 7 hours away. We had left late, so it was about midnight when we were still about an hour away from home. Coming up to an overpass on the highway, I noticed movement from the right side of the embankment, which was closest to me since I was sitting in the passenger seat. As we got closer, I realized it looked like a person, laying on their stomach on the ground. I thought maybe someone had gotten hit by a car and was hurt, but before I started to say anything to my dad, we got closer and I fully saw what was happening. It was a woman, wearing a tattered dress or longish tunic shirt. She was on her hands and feet, and was quickly crawling up the embankment towards the concrete underside of the overpass. Something about the way her limbs were moving and crawling freaked me out, so I just stared in shock and horror as we passed by her, as she continued to jerkily climb upwards into the darkness of the overpass. Freaking terrified me, and I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep until we got home. I don't like driving out that way past town anymore.

ImABansheeB***h , Don Graham Report

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Walking out of Taos canyon from the hot springs with my buddies around midnight during a new moon. It’s about 40degrees so pretty chilly, and we hear this mumbling in the dark ahead. As we approach this scraggly man comes shuffling in bare feet down the trail. He had no flashlight, wearing filthy pinstripe blue pajamas and talking to himself incoherently. As my friend and I back up to the side of the narrow trail I asked “how’s it going man?”. “Another beautiful day!” He said in a super cheery voice, and went right back to taking to himself. He continued down the trail into darkness. We hauled ass back to the cars where Our other buddy was. She said she had watched him walk in off the mess.

IncrediblyShinyShart , David Baron Report

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I’ve never had an explanation for this, but when I was about 10 I woke up in the middle of the night to what I thought was my dad watching something about trains which was turned up loud. There were lights and shadows, and again just the sound of like a train coming and going. It wasn’t sleep paralysis I’ve had that and I could move. Bright white light, and just a noise, i hid under the covers scared. I asked the next day and nobody was up or heard what I did.

buenoooo , qrevolution Report

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