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Many people have at least a few scary stories stored in their heads, in case they’re ever in a position to tell one; for instance, when friends decide to share spooky stories sitting around a bonfire or at a Halloween party, where, just like the costumes, each story is more creative than the last one. But some horror stories are not the fruit of someone’s creativity; they are real accounts of real things that happened to real people, making them all the more spine-chilling.

One netizen became curious about such real stories, so they turned to the Reddit community, asking netizens to share the scariest stories they know to be completely true. And share they did. On the list below, you can find their answers, some of which are firsthand accounts; so if you’re interested in terrifying stories, too, continue scrolling to browse them, but please be aware that some of them can get pretty upsetting.

#1

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True A Soviet officer saw on his computer that America had launched nuclear weapons against his nation.

Instead of ending the world he went, "Must be a faulty computer, I will check."

How there isn't a statue of him in bronze in every city on the planet I'll never know.

His name was Colonel Stanislav Petrov.

Lizzy_Of_Galtar , pickpik Report

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Yayheterogeneity
Community Member
5 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've read that quite often by now! But agree! That man deserves his statue!

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#2

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True A guy I used to work with, who was in his early 30s, in great shape, didn’t drink or smoke, and always showed up to work with a smile and an almost annoyingly positive outlook on life, got diagnosed with a rare and aggressive hard to cure form cancer. He was very open about his lifestyle, proud to not smoke and not drink, was really into music, worked out every day. I’m talking this guy was the exact poster child for someone who would live a long life. The chemo reduced him down to a bald husk of his former self for several months, but he still came into work a handful of times in a wheelchair to fill us in on the details.

Finally it went into remission, he told everyone. He was still pale and skinny but he gained strength back and was able to walk. Facebook posts about his recovery and thankfulness to be alive, able to enjoy food again and play music like he wanted. One year after remission the cancer came back aggressively and k**led him. This man was as innocent as they come, just a happy go lucky dude. He was brave. and gave cancer a run for its money for a couple years though. F**k cancer you f*****g absolute f*****g f**k.

rlm236 , stockking / Freepik Report

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#3

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True My cousin picked up a hitchhiker about 20 years ago. Nice enough guy. Cousin was hungry so stopped at McDonald's, grabbed the hitchhiker some breakfast, too. Dropped him off where the guy had said he was headed. No big deal.

Next morning, my cousin's watching the morning news and sees that hitchhiker's face. Dude was a serial k*ller and had k*lled someone that picked him up. Cousin calls the cops and they have him come in. Turns out the hitcher had k*lled the very *next* person after my cousin that had given him a ride. He'd k*lled a few people that had given him rides, that was his MO.

They asked the hitcher why he didn't k*ll my cousin. He said "eh, I'd planned to, but he was a really nice young man, he bought me breakfast. I couldn't k*ll someone that bought me breakfast."

TrailMomKat , Altas Green / Unsplash Report

#4

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True That during covid and other crises many political leaders would happily sacrifice your life (and probably any but their own) for gain.

Heavy_Direction1547 , Anna Shvets / Pexels Report

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#5

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True This is a personal one, and I find it terrifying on a couple levels, but the main one I'll elaborate on at the end.

In early 2007 my father seemed to be in otherwise good health. He'd been working with his PCP to get his cholesterol under control, his heart seemed healthy from EKGs and whatnot. The outlook seemed good.

He catches a nasty strain of the flu during a business trip to South Korea and is still dealing with it 2 weeks after he gets home. Like a jacka*s, he takes no time off from work, even working longer hours. His coworker finds him one morning dead at his desk from a massive heart attack.

The coroner opens him up and there's a huge amount of damage to his heart that she claims would normally take years to occur.

My family is devastated. His PCP attends the memorial service and is completely beside himself trying to logic out what could have gone wrong, because all tests and scans showed that my father's heart health wasn't at risk. He'd specifically dedicated a lot of time and energy to working with my father to ensure that, due to a family risk of heart disease.

We eventually learned that the influenza virus increases your risk of a heart attack exponentially. My father further increased his chances by constantly working to the point of physical exhaustion, and making it harder for his body to fight off the virus. The damage to his heart was caused by the virus itself getting into it and directly attacking the tissue.

A lot of people seem to think the flu is just a minor cold that you get over in a week, but in reality it's a deadly virus that *will* k*ll you if you don't take the proper precautions. That, to me, was terrifying to learn.

This is also why when people were like "Oh, it's just like a flu" about COVID-19, I could feel the bile building up in my gullett. It can k*ll you, and it definitely will if you indulge in the same buffoonery people did for COVID.

bloomingfireweed , DC Studio / Freepik Report

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Ty Stratton-Quirk
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6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, anyone who said COVID-19 was nothing to worry about was a grade-A moron.

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#6

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True My friend got kidnapped and drugged when she was 13 and the only reason she didn’t end up a victim is because they happened to get pulled over while the police were looking for a totally different guy with the same car.

They basically realized something was up right away and yolked him out of the car. F*****g wild to think about what have happened to her otherwise.

bashbishcrawls , Kindel Media / Pexels Report

#7

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True There’s an extremely high number of child ab*sers that apply to be foster carers. I lived in over 60+ homes growing up and in all apart from one I experienced either physical, emotional or sexual abuse. There’s not a single person I know that was in foster care that hasn’t been abused.

One foster family in particular used to really creep me out, and they always made me take a ‘night drink’ before bed. One night I didn’t drink it and I was woken up by my foster father getting into my bed in the middle of the night. I told social services but they didn’t believe me, I kept crying about it at school and telling everyone and all they done was move me to a family that after a few months started physically abusing me instead.

anonymous21123 , Kindel Media / Pexels Report

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Bay Bo
Community Member
6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

F**k all those twisted perverted animals. Please feel real love and healing, you deserve it

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#8

My great grandfather came home from world war 2 with shell shock and my great grandma refused to sleep in the same bed as him because he would keep repeating “no don’t k*ll Tom!!” Which was what he said before he witnessed his childhood friend getting k*lled.

He luckily managed to get therapy, and was ok, but wheelchair bound up until I was about 11 where at Christmas dinner he sat while we all ate, completely frozen, my granddad asked “you ok dad?” to which he started crying and suddenly let out a very loud and hurt filled “don’t k*ll Tommy” and started crying.

Ik it’s not “scary” but it freaked me out :(.

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JJ
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6 hours ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm pretty sure it is scary to a child. PTSD sucks.

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#9

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True Outside of batombong town, in Cambodia, there is a cave, the floor of the cave is I think 20-30 feet below the entrance. The khmer rouge used it as an open air grave. They would shoot people then throw the body into the cave.

But sometimes they didn't want to use bullets, so they would beat the person with rifle stocks, and then throw them into the cave, if they were lucky they were dead by the time they landed. Sometimes the khmer rouge just threw people into the cave, and maybe they broke some bones when they fell.

People spent their last days on earth dehydrating in a cave full of bodies in various states of decomposition, in near pitch black, very likely being able to hear other people who were also dying. There is also a decent chance that a person would be on top of a corpse. And, because it is Cambodia, it would have been hot, humid, and full of mosquitoes that can transmit malaria and dengue fever.

I have seen the cave, when I was there the bodies were all undisturbed. Just piles of skeletons. They have since collected the remains and made a monument in the cave. The knowledge that so many people ended their time on earth with such barbarity, fear, and pain still haunts me.

ndraiay , wirestock / freepik Report

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#10

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True Bayer knowingly sold HIV contaminated medication to South Americans in order to not lose profit.

They were caught and fined but their profit was far higher than the fine, so literally infecting and k*lling hundreds of thousands of innocent people was lucrative.

anon , Pixabay Report

#11

Western capitalist countries will never move to effectively address human caused climate change because the changes necessary will force corporations to take losses. It will never matter what the human cost has already been or will be. The rich will not accept the costs to their earnings or lifestyles.

knotsbygordium Report

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iseefractals
Community Member
1 hour ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They have not motivation to do so, because consumers and voters don't care enough to actually do anything of substance. It took a matter of months during the pandemic for global oil prices to go NEGATIVE...corporations only exist so long as people continue to give them their money. All the rich people that everyone on here loves to hate, and blame for everything, got that way because consumers buy their $hit, and use their services. It doesn't matter how much you complain, or how many insults you throw around....so long as everyone keeps doing the same old thing under the logic of "i'm just living in the world we have" while repeating "the only thing that can save us is legislation!" nothing will ever change. Ever. At all. Profitable companies have no motivation to do anything different.....which is why individuals need to stop making excuses, and stop trying to blame everyone and everything else, and start making better choices that aren't based around what is easiest for them.

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#12

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True Robert Pickton a serial k*ller who operated a pig farm in the Vancouver area and would feed his prey to his pigs and his bacon was the best in the area! Many people grew up eating his pork products.

richglassphoto , Samuel Walker / Pexels Report

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#13

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True The guy who died in the Nutty Putty Cave.

blue_taco_tree , pxhere Report

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OpheliaPoe
Community Member
7 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This story haunts me. I can think of very few things more terrifying than being trapped in a tiny space made out of solid rock, upside down, in the dark.

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#14

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True The story of a continuous days-long shark attack following a US navy ship sinking as told in Jaws was real.

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#16

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True My childhood friends took over a gas plant in Algeria, held the workers hostage and then k*lled 37 people and themselves.

CWB2208 , Tom Fisk / Pexels Report

#17

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True My father's ship sank in the North Atlantic. Most of his shipmates(including the friend he enlisted with) died of exposure while awaiting rescue.


The bodies remained in the lifeboat.

blarg-zilla , teksomolika / freepik Report

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RosenCranzLives
Community Member
7 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I was in the Navy, we were told that the North Atlantic would kill anyone who flipped overboard would have only about 5 minutes or less to live before their body temp had fallen so far and so fast that they would go into shock and stop breathing.

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#18

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True People have not enjoyed me telling them that my neighbour was dead in his flat for at least 2 weeks and was only discovered when I called the police to request a welfare check as he hadn't been seen and there was a weird bin juice smell in the hallway.
I know this happens a lot, I've heard many stories worse, even but I know this one happened coz it was the guy next door.

Unihornella , Rosemary Ketchum / Pexels Report

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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
Community Member
6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here is an example of someone dying and nobody noticing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Vincent

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#19

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True One of my friend's neighbors had a secret basement dungeon where he used to keep kidnapped women.

SixicusTheSixth , Pixabay / Pexels Report

#20

The m*rder of Junko Furuta. A handful of her classmates abducted her, tortured her in repulsive ways for almost two months and then disposed of her body when she died.

OutrageousOnions Report

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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
Community Member
6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Read about this after seeing this mentioned in another bp post. I wish I hadn't. Those f*****s got light sentences given what they did.

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#21

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True My dad got into a car crash head on with a convertible with a young couple in it and the top part of the convertible window decapitated them instantly. He ended up falling into something red (berries,blood). And when the cops and medics showed up they were freaking out and telling him to lay down, he was actually fine, witnessing that screwed him up though.

fandasti , aleksandarlittlewolf / Freepik Report

#22

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True Anything cult related. Especially mass s*icides like Jonestown where people k*lled their spouses, children, and themselves by the hundreds with poisoned koolaid. Makes my stomach turn to think about it.

Itsme_annab , Kyle Miller / Pexels Report

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Rebelliousslug
Community Member
1 hour ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ego and charisma can be a very dangerous combination. Add in a little schizophrenia and things get much worse.

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#23

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True My wife's neighbor completely lost his s**t. He k*lled his whole family, the dogs, and he even shot the houseplants and the fishtank.

O51ArchAng3L , cottonbro studio / Pexels Report

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#24

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True My brother in law roomed with Jeffrey Dahmer at Ohio State freshman year.

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#25

When I was 13-14 I got into play-by-post role-playing. It was on the forum section of the official Harry Potter website lmao. Not that we would RP as students or anything, it was all made-up characters and took place in a bar. The "leader" of the group was a very talented writer. We got to talking OOC and eventually linked up on MSN Messenger.

He was the first internet friend I made. We found out we both were from Minnesota and not too far from each other, but never met in person. I got to know him very well over two-some years. He was a year older than me, but was an extremely talented guy. Very well spoken, well read on topics I wasn't even thinking about at that age, and made very impressive Flash animations. Stick Death was big around then, so it was stuff like that.

He lived with his grandmother, 'cause his mom was a drunk and his dad was dead. He talked about being bullied at school, his s**t home life, etc. I remember once he said he told his grandma that he wanted to k*ll himself and that her only response was to do it outside so he doesn't make a mess of the house...

We talked a lot and got to know each other really well over our friendship. He'd disappear occasionally a week or two at a time 'cause of his depression, but would always pop back up. Until he didn't.

Breaking news was all over the TV one afternoon. There was a school shooting in the town he lived in. I immediately knew who the shooter was, well before the news announced it.

He k*lled his grandpa and his grandpa's girlfriend, fellow students, teachers and then himself.

The FBI came to my house the weeks following and questioned me, but I didn't know his plans to do that. They took my computer to examine our interactions.

I grieved him privately, but he's forever going to be a school shooter. That's the scariest thing I've ever been involved in.

thespookshow Report

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Yayheterogeneity
Community Member
5 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm sorry for your loss and for the losses of everyone he killed because he couldn't deal with the experiences he had made. As long as guns are as easily accessible as they are this will be a repetitive occurrence.

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#26

I gave Aileen Wuornos a ride a couple days before Christmas in 1990.

For context, she was a serial k*ller in the central Florida.
In hindsight, it's kind of a funny story. When I was 16 I hung out with a rougher crowd, they let me hang out at one of the bars they owned in Daytona, these bars were generally in rougher areas of town. One night I was leaving at the same time she was, she was pretty drunk, and I offered her a ride because the neighborhood was dangerous. I dropped her off at the hotel she was staying at (cheap, by the week hotel) and headed home. A couple weeks later, I saw her on the news.

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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
Community Member
6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Aileen may have killed in self defence, she was a prostitute and attacked many times, she had a brutal life. Yes technically she is a serial killer, but I am not sure Aileen deserves that title, she was not hunting people down.

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#27

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True The Cuban missile crisis. It was “almost” the end of the world.

okguy57 , freepik Report

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El Dee
Community Member
1 hour ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It ended in a compromise for both sides. Missiles removed from Cuba and missiles removed from Turkey (Turkey - as far as I remember) It's not often reported that the US removed missiles but it gives a completely different context to the brinksmanship..

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#28

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True A friend's father just dropped dead while brushing his teeth with his youngest daughter (6y/o), they never found out what happened, so they figured he had a brain hemorrhage.

vanishing_vision90 , Mizuno K / Pexels Report

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#29

My uncle and his girlfriend were hitchhiking down the mountains of colorado and were picked up by a man. A little ways down the road, he stops the car and asks my uncle if he can check the tire, he thinks he ran something over.

My uncle gets out and the man drives away with his girlfriend and pulled a weapon on her. She immediately opens the door and jumps out while he’s driving.

My uncle and his gf reconvene and were okay, just were trying to process what happened. At a later time on the news they saw a story about a serial k*ller and it ended up being the man who picked them up. It was Ted Bundy.

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#30

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True Someone at my school vanished for a week with no leads other than a video of him on a security camera at a McDonald’s 2 towns over. A week later his body turned up in the lake in a Bay. They never figured out what happened to him.

james-HIMself , Fred dendoktoor / Pexels Report

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#31

My high school gf called late one night after I was home and in bed. She said that something had happened and asked if I could come over. She was clearly shaken and not full of details. So I told my parents and drove over towards her house.

At the top of her subdivision I was met by a cop with lights on. He asked where I was going and I told him about the call from my gf. He lets me go by and I come over the hill to the cul de sac where she lives and I see multiple cop cars around the circle. They watch me pull up and get out of my car. My gf comes running out of her house and meets me in the street. She explains that someone had broken into her neighbor’s house and started beating her with something heavy. The neighbor managed to get out of the house and headed to my gf’s house where she started banging furiously on the front door. My gf’s dad was out of town, so her mom answered the door and the neighbor just fell into the foyer bleeding profusely from the head. Her mom looks up to see the attacker headed up the walkway towards the front door. She pulls the neighbor into the house and closes the door hitting the attacker with it before it fully closed. He then took the heavy tool he had used to beat the neighbor and smashed the little window at the top of the door. Her mom started screaming and the attacker just turned around and walked up the street into the darkness.

I spent the night there that night (along with two or three cops outside in their cars) and in the morning we could see blood still pooled on the floor in the foyer and splattered blood above the front door from where the attacker had swung the bloody tool to smash the window.

No one was ever caught or even identified. It was just completely random.

The neighbor survived and to my knowledge had no permanent physical injuries beyond scarring from having her scalp stapled shut. She moved away shortly after the incident.

TLDR: gf’s neighbor was brutally attacked in her home. She ran to my gf’s house and the attacker fled after nearly getting into their house too. No one was ever caught.

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Heir of Durin
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6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How in the world do you ever sleep peacefully again after something like this happens??

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#32

“A Party To Die For”: 57 People Share The Scariest Stories They Know To Be True Vet friend was lightly kicked by a horse (happens in ag, not usually a big deal at all) with a bottle of ketamine in his pocket. It shattered. He did not survive.

rhinestonecowf-ckboi , Pixabay / Pexels Report

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GB
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6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm confused. What role does the ketamine play in this story? Can someone please clarify?

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#33

My mother-in-law, and husband, saw a motorcyclist lose control and fly off over a hedge into some trees. They pulled over and went to help him. What they found was a full leather suit without a head on the ground, and a head, still wearing a helmet, stuck between two branches in a tree.

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Yayheterogeneity
Community Member
5 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's why I will do anything to deter my children from riding a motorcycle.

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#34

Slid under an 18 wheeler on the highway in a blizzard bc of road conditions. Poor guy thought he k*lled me as thetrailer dragged my car half a mile before he could stop and I shot out into the median. Car totaled and saved my life but insurance still tried to double rates even after being deemed not at fault. Classic.

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Bay Bo
Community Member
6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Insurance is a b***h sometimes, but that's so nice how you called the trucker "poor guy". Glad you have a positive outlook and your life😁

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#35

I’ll tell a very personally scary one.

Good friend of mine from high school. Was driving his perfectly normal family in their perfectly normal minivan, on the highway. They were on vacation, headed to Disney World.

A pickup coming the other way crossed the center line and hit them head on. He and his two sons were k*lled instantly. His wife and daughter (the youngest child) were critically injured but survived.

He was literally one of the two or three genuinely kindest people I ever met. Got up that morning all set for a fun family adventure. Cruising along the highway, and then lights out. In an instant. And his wife/daughter left behind to go it alone.

Bad things happen to good people. To anyone. And you don’t see them coming. As a parent, that’s scary.

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Donald
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29 minutes ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The same thing happened to my friend Pete when he was moving home from Florida. Whole life packed in the back of a U-Haul and someone fell asleep behind the wheel, crossed the median and hit him head-on. Gone in an instant.

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#36

Close friend of the family. Single young woman.

Back in the 80's. Bought her first house. Small house in a quiet neighborhood (They all were in my town).

So ya know she's moving in her one small U-Haul worth of stuff. Nice summer day. Most neighbors see this and come up and introduce themselves.

Anyway, as the story goes, it was warm, summer, no AC (you could get houses with no AC back then) so she has the windows all open to try and let some breeze through.

Now it's night. She's absolutely exhausted from the move, so she walks into her back bedroom, and flops on her bed. All the lights were on in the front living room / kitchen part of the house, but she didn't turn them on in the bedroom. She said she was just gonna rest for a few minutes and get back to putting stuff away, but she fell asleep.

She said she didn't know how long it was, but she woke up to a sound. And then she realized what it was once she got her bearings. Someone was slowly and trying to quietly, cut the screen out of that window with a razorblade. After the fact we assumed the idea was they would secretly enter the dark part of the house assuming she was still up in the lit part and lie in wait for her.

She sat up in the bed and yelled "I have my magnum right here next to me, and if you don't GTFO i'll shoot!" or something to that effect. She said she heard the footfalls of whoever it was hauling a*s away.

Which was lucky for her. Because she had no gun. She didn't even have phone service hooked up to the house yet. (no cell phones in the 80's for most people). She had successfully bluffed her way out of God knows what...

I've heard a lot of scary true stories in my life - but this one has stuck with me ever since I was a teenager. In that moment, she shot her shot and it worked.

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Yayheterogeneity
Community Member
5 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes I wonder. Is America really that scary? You forget to close the windows and get killed or robbed right away?? Here we leave the doors and windows unlocked all day...

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#37

My Grandmother inlaw's house burned down with her parents and two children inside while giving birth at the hospital, to my wife's father. In Unionville CT. The fire department drove by and said it was out of their district, once the other fire department arrived they said it wasn't their district either. Only thing left was a foundation.

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#38

I was hiking down from doing two weeks of trail work in Colorado a few summers ago. A guy hiking up stopped to chat with us about our work and asked if we had seen anyone make the summit while we were up there. We told him that the first summit of the season had been done a few days prior and wished him luck. A friend of mine hiked in that area the next day and there was a helicopter circling around. The guy had taken the wrong gulley back down and died. It’s still crazy to me to think about.

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#39

When I was a kid, there was a peeping tom in the neighborhood. But the weird part is we all knew who he was, a little older guy named Ralph who lived a couple streets over and smoked like a chimney. We knew because he was caught once early on by a neighbor while on their roof, watching them through the skylight (the neighbor had left a ladder against the house when doing work earlier that day) but after that he was like a ghost, impossible to catch.

People would find footprints and cigarette butts outside windows, smell cigarette smoke, and occasionally see the red cherry on the cigarette glow in the woods. Occasionally angry dads and teenagers who spotted him out in the darkness would give chase, but he moved like a deer through the woods and no one could put hands on him. The cops were involved a few times and they dragged him in, but it was never for long (partially I think because he had a disabled wife for whom he was the sole carer.) He was sorta a neighborhood boogie man, though thankfully seemed mostly harmless if terribly creepy.

Many years later, there were a rash of break-ins around the neighborhood. People even joked at the time that it must not be Ralph, because we all figured he had copies of everyone's hide-a-keys already if he wanted to go inside (sidenote: we later learned that he definitely DID have keys to some houses.) Anyway, everyone's guard was up.

One night, one of the neighbors heard a commotion outside, and ran outside to find a stranger laid out in his driveway, beat to s**t. They called 911 and when the police arrived, they were able to identify the guy as someone who had previous arrests for B&E and found items from the previous break-ins in his vehicle nearby and later at his apartment. As for how he ended up taking a bloody nap in the driveway? He said he was jumped from behind in the dark and never got a good look at the guy. All he remembered for certain was that the guy stunk of cigarette smoke.

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#40

This one is personal.

My family and I are staying in a rental house for a few months because my dad was s**t with money. This particular house was owned by a fairly wealthy friend of his who was going through a divorce because his wife had developed a long and nasty d**g problem. So, we're staying there pretty cheap.

One night near Christmas, I groggily wake up and see a woman wearing white going through drawers on the other side of the room. I must have made a sound because she turned and rushed over to me and gently said, "shhh, go back to sleep little boy." Weirdly, I did. She looked like Liza Minelli, if that's at all relevant.

Next morning I wake up to my parents acting weird and I hear one of them make a comment like, "I can't tell what's gone and what's not." For some reason, I didn't connect the dots until I was older and never told them what I saw (I thought it was a dream).

So, yeah, the former cr*ckhead owner of our rental house broke in (probably had a key) and I saw her but didn't do or say s**t. I was probably 9 or so.

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#41

Worked at a pizza place in a small town, had this lady come in every Friday and get two pizzas for her family, two kids. One Friday she comes in like normal, seems normal, chit chat is normal, grabs the pizzas and heads out. Less then an hour later she stabbed her two kids and husband to death, decapitated them, and when the police arrived tried to decapitate herself. In jail she somehow was able to get something sharp and stabbed herself several times but still survived. Not sure what came of the trial and whatnot after as I had moved, but yeah it was wild, super nice lady I saw every week, just snapped I guess.

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#42

A friend of mine drives 18 wheeler tanker trucks, and he was on some highway in Ohio or Illinois or somewhere in the winter that was infamous for icing over. He was northbound and one of the cars from the southbound side lost control on the ice and went across the median and right in front of him. He had no chance to get out of the way or slow down.

It was a woman driving and her 18 month old daughter in the back, the impact k*lled them both instantly. The worst part is that the husband/father was in another car following them, and had to watch his wife and daughter die without being able to do anything about it.

My friend had to go to therapy for a while after that and I'm still not sure he's ever gotten past it.

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#43

The champawat maneater, she was a tiger from nepal and northern India who had 436 confirmed human k*lls before she was shot by Indian born british hunter Jim Corbett.

He wrote a book about it too thats actually a pretty good read.

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hwatinternation
Community Member
2 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When big cats do this, it's often speculated that it's because they have issues with their teeth or mouth in general and so need to take down weaker prey. On the occasions that the carcasses have been studied, this has frequently been found to be the case.

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#44

My brother and I were racing on rollerblades outside our apartment complex down the alley to the street. He beat me there and when I arrived he was talking to a stranger who was walking on the sidewalk. My brother looks at me and says “let’s go ask mom, come on!” and rushes inside to which I quickly follow. My brother begins to beg my mom to go help this guy find his lost puppy. We follow our mom outside and this guy is nowhere to be seen.

A week later, the neighbor kid at the house just across the street was abducted. His litter brother was playing in the front yard. A car drove up and got the little boy to come up to window to talk. The guy tried to grab the little boy and pull him in the car. The older brother ran up and fought off the attacker only to be pulled into the car himself. He was only 10 years old. The kidnapper was Joseph Edward Duncan, a convicted serial k*ller.

Chilling to think it could’ve been my brother instead.

Teach your kids not to talk to strangers! And if they do to always come get you before going anywhere with them. The chances are slim but it’s a sick world and it could quite possibly save their life.

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G A
Community Member
1 hour ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

M8 and I were playing down by the river (ages about 10 and 11) when a guy approached us to ask about taking Photos on the land. We were clearly kids so no idea why he approached us. Fortunately we had our bikes, so we picked them up ready to ride or otherwise jump in the river. It was very strange, he was wearing a business suit approaching us from a car on the bridge, through a cow pasture. Fortunately he f****d off, maybe he saw we were uncomfortable.

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#45

A really popular athlete that I went to school with got married to his HS sweetheart and had 3 kids. He also was having an affair with a woman from Sweden. She apparently convinced him to k*ll his entire family. He was on some kind of antidepressants at the time and not acting himself. After he k*lled his family he flew to Sweden and k*lled the woman he was having the affair with. He then shot himself. It was the craziest thing I had ever heard but so scary at the same time. I knew this guy. I grew up with him and he had good parents and a nice childhood. Scary to think what made him turn into a monster.

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Bobby
Community Member
1 hour ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a Swede i can't finding anything online that supports this claim but maybe someone else can idk. Seems fake.

#46

I was in the house alone with a corpse for hours.

My brother OD’d about two weeks ago in the bedroom across from me and I or my mom didn’t know. The next morning, very weird and sort of scary, my mom texted (she was at work since 6:30 AM) me and told me to check on him saying she had a dream he was dead. I went to his door to check(10:30 AM), calling his name, and getting no response. I manually had to unlock the door since it was locked. I walked in and didn’t see him at first but eventually walked inside enough to see him hunched in the corner, purple and bent over. One of the most traumatic experiences of my life.

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Bay Bo
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6 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm so sorry honey. Wish we all had magic mind erasers sometimes. Hope you heal and help others with your unfortunate life experiences

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#47

Someone rang our doorbell and my mom answered the door. A man was standing there and he asked if he could come in and use our phone. She didn't like the look of him and he gave off some bad vibes. She said he also didn't smell very well. She told him to wait and he could talk to her husband. He mumbled something and just walked off.

A few years later she saw him on TV. He was Henry Lee Lucas.

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#48

One of my elementary school friends ended up working as a gunman for a Cartel, he was k*lled this year in a gunfight with the Army.

Not really a scary story, but it messes me up every time I give it a thought, just reflecting in how different our paths in life became, I'm actually happy and doing good in life, both emotionally and economically, he on the other hand, had d**g addiction issues too young and unfortunately ended up joining with the wrong people in the wrong place.

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#49

My ex-brother-in-law is John Strutz.
He's my ex-husband's little brother. He lived with us from 1998 to 2004ish.

He m*rdered his wife in 2009. They only found her torso - he'd disposed of the rest of her but for some reason had her torso in his trash can on the curb when the cops came.

John was much, MUCH nicer than his brother. Super dumb. The crazy, convoluted story he told? Absolutely sounds like something my ex would come up with.

I can't prove it but I know in my soul that John probably accidentally k*lled/grievously injured Kristan during some fight. Panicked and called his brother instead of calling 911. And Mike told him what to do and what to say. John's dumber than a sack of hair and didn't wipe his a*s without consulting his psycho but smarter brother. Mike is intelligent but batshit insane and evil as f**k. John stuck to the story and will die in prison. His brother changed his name and washed his hands of him. I don't know what really happened that night, but I know that the whole hacksaw dismemberment and wild OJ type story sounds way more like my ex than something John would concoct on his own.

I'm only shocked that my ex wasn't the one with a torso in his trash can.

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#50

I’m walking my dog in Philadelphia and light is turning red and car slows down and is it turns green and I enter the intersection the car speeds up and I have to avoid me and the dog getting hit.

I yell “A*****E” at him and he slams on breaks and pulls into a parking lot and parks ahead of me. I can see at this time the car had Illinois plates and as I walk up he says very calmly “I wouldn’t call me an a*****e I’ve k*lled people.” I just keep walking.

Next day I see spree k*ller Andrew Cunanan had k*lled somebody in New Jersey and stolen his truck leaving behind the car he took from Chicago after he k*lled the owner.

100% who I called a a*****e.

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#51

My English teacher of my senior year was missing after I graduated. The only other teacher that I knew was friends with him called for a wellness check, and when they burst into his house they found his dead bloated corpse lying in his bed.

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#52

One of my good friends who used to drive me around was about ten years older than me

We both went through some pretty messed up s**t in our lives but one time I was sitting in a cafe with him swapping stories and he casually just mentioned about how funny it was when he (at the age of 11) went to some government soldiers, said he knew where insurgents were hiding and then directed the soldiers into a ravine and said the communists were down there

Then after they went in he pulled a hand grenade and dropped it in after them.

Dude laughed about it like it was the funniest "lmao gotcha" prank ever.

The regime was f*****g evil but the casual attitude this super friendly and nice guy talked about luring a group of people to their deaths and m*rdering them with a grenade in a dark ravine struck me as deeply cold and unsettling.

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#53

Was a teenager and my parents and I went to rural Wisconsin to buy a Boxer purebred. We show up and were greeted by a warm family and puppy heaven, clearly these dogs were happy and well taken care of. Except maybe a month or two later it turned out their 17 year old daughter was kept shackled in the basement, teeth hammered out, abused and forced to eat s**t, shock collar around her neck they'd zap until the battery died. She escaped and they had a shootout with the police, now in prison(still, I hope).

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#54

This happened just this month. Daughter of my school principal was drunk-driving and ran over a small passenger rickshaw with an entire family on it. K*lled the father, the mother, and two children. One kid remains in the hospital until now. School principal's daughter got bailed out and escaped into another country. She's now a fugitive.

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#55

My family literally had a party to die for. We hosted a super late Christmas party in March, we invited a few neighbors over including an older couple, beyond a few weird comments from the old husband like "I'm so glad I could have one last good meal" we all had a good time, everyone kept telling us how great the party and food was.

Eventually the old couple go home a bit earlier than the rest of the guests and we don't think anything of it, about an hour later as another guest was about to leave they come rushing back into the house yelling about police and medics on our street. Turns out the husband of the old couple simply dropped dead about 30 minutes after they got home.

I guess to be fair a big talking point at the party was how he was already basically on his last leg thanks to health conditions and it was only a matter of time but we didn't think it'd be that soon.

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El Dee
Community Member
48 minutes ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least it was nice how he got to be in company of friends for a celebration before he passed..

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#56

I once lived next to this elderly man whose wife had a history of doing d***s and being unfaithful. He was very nice and even let me use electricity whenever our were turn off till we got it paid which was often. ....... so later finds out he attacked a guy with a machete over said wife. Never really know some people till you hear about them trying to off a guy over a d**g addict wife. Turn out he had a history of family violence, and the guy was trying to defend his ex-girlfriend, not his wife. Either way, I never truly knew someone until it revealed that they are machete wielding manic trying to hurt someone for whatever reason. Scary the idea of never knowing a person.

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#57

I was reading the list of people who disappeared mysteriously page on Wikipedia. One was about a politician in Chicago. He voted against a large housing development project. The next day he drove into his driveway, and a group of men appeared and forced him into a car. Never seen again. No other details in the Wikipedia article.

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