Doors have locks for a reason, folks! And these real-life creepy stories about midnight intruders and dangerous strangers provide nine chilling reasons to make sure you’ve locked up the house tonight.
1. “There was only one window in the house…”
Just to give you some background information, I am a 29 year-old female, and this happened to me 4 years ago. My family lived on a farm in rural, Western Australia in a modest-looking wooden farmhouse.
My son and I lived here alone most of the time, while my husband worked on rotation up north on the mines.
We had no neighbors, no mobile phone reception and very little connection with the outside world with the exception of the television.
There was only one window in the house, situated above my bed in the bedroom. It was a small old wooden framed window with no curtains. However the window was completely jammed, and as much as I had tried to close it, there was about 2 inches of opening near the bottom of the window frame.
My husband and I had spent a while trying to oil the hinges and loosen it up the day before he left to go to work again, but we gave up as it wasn’t a huge issue at the time…
Fast forward to a couple of nights later, I am standing in front of the television doing the ironing and watching ‘Sex and the City’ reruns while my son is asleep in my bed.
As I walk up the hallway to enter the laundry to grab another load of washing, I pass my bedroom and pop my head in to check on my son.
My heart stops.
The window frame above my bed is shuffling from side to side, my eyes scan down, and what I see next will never leave my mind again.
There were two hands squeezed through the gap of my window trying to lift up the jammed frame.
I screamed the house down, grabbed my son, grabbed the phone, locked myself in the bathroom, and called the police.
I’d hate to think what would have happened if I wouldn’t have been walking past my bedroom at that exact moment… – theelusivechanteuse
2. Time to move out…really, go.
About three years ago, I moved to London. I was looking for a flatmate, but had no luck. I turned to my friend, Marcus. After a week or two, Marcus and I moved in together. After we moved in, he put some of his stuff in storage so that he could make room for me in his flat.
When I moved in, everything was fine and well.
Fast forward about a year.
I went to get some stuff out of the storage locker that Marcus put his stuff in. As I opened the door, an absolutely RANK scent hit me like a bat. I switched the light on, saw a couple old boxes and a couch.
I was looking for the source of the smell, but I couldn’t find it. I grabbed what I came for, and left before I could vomit.
Now, fast forward to about a month ago.
I went back to the storage unit to get something else, and the smell was even worse than before. I had to hold my nose as I walked into the storage unit. I saw an open box, and I decided to look into it.
I found stuffed animals. Like, dead animals that were stuffed. I looked into the box under that one, and I found rotting animals.
I was competently disgusted, so I went to Marcus to confront him. As I walked into the flat, I shouted “MARCUS, YOU’RE SICK. WHY ARE THERE DEAD ANIMALS IN OUR STORAGE LOCKER?!”
He came out of his room and sat me down on the couch. He told me that he wanted to be completely honest with me, and he told me that he was into necrophilia.
Let’s just say that now I’m moved in with my parents. – glitteryclouds
3. “Always lock your car doors.”
I was driving home from work at 2 am. I’m a nurse, and I live in a small city. The roads were totally deserted, and it was a freezing night.
I don’t live far from work, maybe a couple of miles. I’m driving down a residential street around the corner from my house, and I see a man laying face down in the street.
Now remember, I’m a nurse. My first thought was “Great, gotta help this guy up.” I was coming off a long shift and falls happen all the time. As I slowed down the car, I suddenly realized what an idiot move that was. I’m a 100 lb woman, and I don’t carry any weapons.
I thought I should do something to help the guy, so I called 911 as I drove past him and slowed to a stop at the end of the block. While I was stopped at the light I explained to the dispatcher that there was a man in the road who might need assistance.
All of a sudden I hear a loud BANG! BANG! from the driver’s side window. I screamed and looked over. A man was pounding on my window and jiggling the handle of my locked car.
I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that there was no man lying in the street. Still on the phone with 911, I screamed, “I’M SO SCARED!” to the dispatcher and floored it through the red light. I quickly told him what had happened and even though I was right by my house, he told me to keep driving. After a few minutes I had calmed down, and he told me to loop back around.
I pulled over down the road from my house and stayed in the car. I didn’t see the man anywhere, so I got off the phone with the dispatcher who told me he was sending a police car to cruise the area.
As I gather up my things, I do a final scan of the area, and I see the man. He is walking with two other men. I hunched way down in my car until they were far down the road, then bolted into my house.
I don’t know if he had ill-intent, but it freaks me the hell out that he wasn’t alone.
ALWAYS LOCK YOUR CAR DOORS.
And carry mace. – Reddit user
4. “Stay at least 3 yards behind her…”
I live in a semi-sketchy town in the Pacific Northwest. About two blocks from where I live, there’s this bridge over the ocean (with a little beach), where a lot of crime takes place. Lots of things like bodies being found there, sexual assaults, etc.
So I got off the bus that takes me to this bridge (it’s the closest bus stop to my apartment), and three teenage boys cross the street towards where I am.
I cross the street away from them to get to my building.
They cross back.
I thought that was weird but whatever. I start taking this narrow path up the beach towards another street, and they’re following me. I pick up the pace and glance over my shoulder. I’m a 21-year-old woman and these guys looked maybe 16 but I’m 5’4 and pretty skinny, so I’m doing that thing that a lot of women do when they think perhaps they’re being followed and weigh the odds of fighting them.
This path I’m taking is desolate, and no one’s around, but there’s still some light out, and I was glancing over my shoulder as they were filling the gap between us.
I couldn’t be totally sure they were following me until I heard one boy say, “Stay at least 3 yards behind her or she’ll notice.”
When I turn the corner out of sight, I sprint behind a hedge and wait for them to head out once they realize they lost me. I text my boyfriend and tell him I’m being followed. He agrees to leave work early to meet me where I am, just in case.
They turn the corner just then, and I realize the middle one, the tallest and possibly oldest, has a knife on him.
I hear one of them say something like “She’s probably on the street over there,” and they leave.
My boyfriend meets me soon after. I’m so glad they didn’t figure out that I lived right there. – belindaaa
5. Check those beds…
This incident happened to my mum before she had me over 20 years ago…
She worked at a local pub, and the pub mainly catered for fisherman, as the town is on the coast of Western Australia. So, she knew most of the people who would come in for drinks or a feed.
However, every now and again, people from town would come in. She told me one bloke used to come in whom she’d known from house parties around the place and always wanted to talk to her while she was working, and she would say sorry and keep doing her thing.
One night she finished work around midnight and started walking home, which was a few kilometers away.
She lived with a few housemates who were blokes, all good mates. When she got home from her shift, she decided to have a shower. Making her way back to her room, she realized her door, which is normally shut, was open.
All the fellas were asleep, so she blew it off as wind or something. She laid down in bed to go to sleep but something didn’t feel right and for reasons she cant explain to me, she felt the need to look under her bed.
What she saw under the bed was the bloke from the bar who had followed her all the way from her work.
She tells me that she just stared at him for ages and he didn’t move, not even a breath, to the point that she thought he was dead. She calmly went out of the room to one of the guys’ rooms to tell them she had a dead bloke under her bed.
They raced in with baseball bats to find the guy half way out the window.
He managed to escape and run away. The police were called, and because they all knew who he was, the cops picked him up the next day. – jesska_hezza
6. “That’s not my dad!”
I was living in a Scottsdale, Arizona at the time. I believe it was around 2000 and I was 8 or 9 depending on the month… I’m not 100% sure.
There used to be a huge park just behind the row of houses that were facing mine. I could walk there in less than 5 minutes, and I did frequently, because I was new to the neighborhood and was hoping to me meet some friends to play with. After a while of doing that, I had a few people I would call friends.
One weekend I head over to the park after Saturday cartoons, and everything was going well until some alcoholic man pulls up and starts yelling at me from his pick-up truck.
I ignore him and keep playing on the monkey bars.
He gets out of the truck and starts chasing me.
I was always playing tag and running with the friends that I had made, so I easily ran through the playground and avoided him for a little while. But I was really scared, and then, I see a woman with a baby-sitting in the shade 60 yards away, so I run as fast as I can to her.
And then he decides to walk over to her to avoid suspicion.
He tells her that he’s my dad and I’m grounded and shouldn’t be outside. I explain to her that I’ve never met him, and he’s trying to kidnap me. She confronts him and tells him to go away.
Luckily, there was a nice lady with a baby. Otherwise, I might not be here. – imj666777
7. Seriously! Lock your doors!
My dad was out for a job interview, so my sister and I had the place for about 2 hours. I watched TV downstairs and went outside, and when I went back in, I left the door unlocked for my dad, since it was getting close to the time he said he’d be home.
I went upstairs and hung out with my sister for a while. I heard the front door open, and rummaging through cabinets as well.
I just assumed that it was my dad, since he always likes to check everything is in place before relaxing. I also heard my dad’s door open and close, albeit slowly, a few times.
I was talking with my sister when the phone rang. To my surprise, it was my dad on the other end. He told me that he was going to be getting home late and that we needed to make our own dinners.
It felt like my heart fell to my feet as I realized that it wasn’t my dad that had entered the home.
I hurriedly rushed downstairs to see if everything was okay. Several things were gone, and the front door was wide open.
I then heard what sounded like breathing, coming from the downstairs bathroom. I choked the urge to yell as I saw a hand wrap around the door, and a face peer around my corner.
As soon as the guy saw me, he ran like hell out of there. I chased after him, but he was long gone.
Later, on the floor in the bathroom, I found a box-cutter knife.
I’m not sure what his intentions were with the weapon, but they probably weren’t good. – Fridaycreep
8. Reflexes
I was driving home from a big city near my little town late at night after a day there with this dude on our first date sometime in March of 2012.
My date was asleep, and his seat was reclined really low. We got into town at around 1am, and I noticed this guy standing on the corner I was about to stop at for a red light.
He looked like he was probably on something. He was talking to himself and pacing. I was a little nervous, but whatever. I’m a little too quick to judge people sometimes.
So I stopped, and we accidentally made eye contact… At least I accidentally did. I could tell he was yelling at me, because I kept hearing “bitch” and some other… Uh… Things as I was stopped at the LONGEST RED LIGHT EVER!!!!
All as the guy I was with was sleeping cozily in the passenger seat (really really reclined.)
After about 10 seconds of the guy cussing me out, he hops over to my car and swings the passenger door open REACHING FOR ME.
I started screaming bloody murder, and the guy I was on the date with woke up suddenly and started smacking the guy (I think it started as reflexes).
The crazy guy is yelling, “I didn’t see you! Oh, I didn’t see you! This bitch!” Etc., and my date pushed him out the door as I zoom off, running the red.
He closed the door and yelled, “WHO THE … WHAT WAS…?”
I’m hyperventilating and then I started half laughing / half crying, because my nerves were shot.
We got some ice cream at 1am. Then, I took him home and went home myself.
We laughed about it. But, I don’t like to think what would have happened if he hadn’t been there. – mollypatterson3
9. Check the closets, while you’re at it.
I’m a karaoke DJ. I usually get home between 2-3 AM, but tonight I got off around 11, because the bar had a power outage. I live alone in a triplex behind a house.
I live in the middle of a city, but the property I’m on is rather large. So there is a big back yard behind my apartment.
As I was coming home tonight, I noticed that my cats weren’t waiting for me in the window. They can hear my van pulling in the driveway- They are in the window every night. No exception- I thought it was odd.
Then I noticed that my kitchen light was on… I never leave my kitchen light on. At this point I was a little freaked out.
That’s when I thought I saw movement in my kitchen.
I called 911 and the dispatcher told me to lock my van doors and remain in the vehicle and stay on the line. Officers showed up very quickly (less than 5 mins). They parked on the street and walked up to my van. They asked me to stay quiet and give them my house key. One officer went to the back of my apartment, and the other used my key to unlock the door.
When he opened the door, all was quiet. Then he yelled REALLY loud telling someone to come out.
I heard the police officer that was in my back yard start yelling and the other officer ran out to join him. My neighbors had come outside at this point and I was freaking out.
It seemed like a long time, but they walked a cuffed woman towards me, and it turns out it was a patron that I had 86’ed this last weekend.
I don’t know how she found out where I lived. She was hiding in my bedroom closet with a very large knife and a bundle of rope. (?!?!)
I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I had gone to bed with her waiting for me. – queenlardass
[Source: Reddit’s Let’s Not Meet]Want more creepy stories? Sign up for The Lineup’s newsletter, and get the strangest tales delivered straight to your inbox.
