Ok, so this happened when I was around 9 years
old, I’m 25 now and It’s something I will never forget. It gives me goosebumps to this day. I live in a terraced house, which for those
of you who don’t know, is four houses combined. And my neighbors and I each have our own little
patio. There’s a small road 10 meters from my yard
where people do their Sunday walks and so on. Only a small fence separates my small yard
and patio from that road. I live in a pretty crowded area, with several
of these terraced houses spread around in my neighborhood, so seeing people walking
on that road is pretty normal for me. Seeing random people standing on my patio
is not. When I was 9 I usually got home from school
about an hour before my mom got home from work. I live maybe 50 meters away from school so
my mom figured I was mature enough to be home alone for around an hour before she got home. This particular day I got home from school. I did the usual thing which was to make sure
I locked the front door, and double checked that the back door leading to the patio was
also locked. (I mean I was 9, being alone was a little
scary even though it was in the middle of the day and only for about an hour) I then
rushed to my room upstairs to play as much PlayStation as possible before my mom came
home and made me do homework. While playing, I heard this noise coming from
outside my window. (My room was located one floor over the patio,
with a view to the road I told you about earlier) It was kinda like the sound of a cat. But my cat had been missing for over three
months. Hope sparked and I thought “Oh my god, did
he finally come back?!” I ran downstairs to check if it was my cat,
but the sight that met me gives me goosebumps just writing this. There was a guy standing on my patio. A tall guy with black hair covering half of
his eyes, making him look like a male version of the ring women or something. I could hear him making high pitched sounds,
almost like a cat meowing. A brown liquid was running down from his mouth,
and I could see him spitting out my dads stomped cigarettes. He was actually eating from the ashtray. I was frozen observing this, eventually I
snapped out of it and screamed so loud that the man must have heard it. He didn’t react, he just kept on eating
from the ashtray. I ran upstairs to my room, locked the door
and called my mom who then called the cops. I’ve never been more terrified in my life. Laying in bed under my sheets, shivering with
fear, as I hear these creepy high pitched noises from the guy eating cigarette stomps
from the ashtray on my patio. I kinda blacked out for a moment, because
the next thing I remember is the police arriving on the road by my yard. I hear them talking to the guy saying stuff
like “what are you doing?” “Get over here or we’ll come arrest you”
and so on. He didn’t respond, but the high pitched
sounds was more frequent and louder. I decided to look through the window, feeling
safe now that the cops were there. I could see two police officers standing by
my fence, one man and one woman. I didn’t see the creepy man however, because
he was standing directly one story under me and my field of view. The police jumped the fence, and I remember
hearing the creepy guy screaming louder than anything I’ve ever heard before. He charged the female police officer with
full force, and he fucking knocked her out cold. The male officer then immediately tazed the
guy, leaving him shaking on the ground, screaming still. The police man struggled to keep him on the
ground while putting handcuffs on him, but eventually made it. After a while he managed to wake up the female
police officer, who seemed to be badly hurt. He called for backup and an ambulance, and
then he sees me standing in the window above him. The expression on my face must have been something
else, because he just looked at me and said “I sure as hell hope you didn’t see all
that” I started to cry. By this time neighbors started to arrive wondering
what the hell was going on. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, made
me come down and she took care of me until my mom came back home. The police took the creepy guy with them in
the car and left. Before they left they promised me to come
back and talk to us about what had happened. This is where the story takes an unexpected
turn. The male police officer came back later that
night and sat down with me and my mom to talk. He explained that the guy on the patio was
actually diagnosed with severe autism. He had escaped a facility where mentally challenged
people lived, located around 5 km from where I live. He explained that the guy had actually been
living in my house 5 years ago but he had been forced to move when his mom, his only
caretaker, died. The poor guy probably thought he would find
his mom in my house. He missed the routines and he missed living
there with his mom. The police had to move him from the house
that time 5 years ago, because he was extremely strong (From what I heard he had extreme tensions
in the body because of the autism, making his muscles grow stronger and stronger throughout
the years) This was the reason he reacted the way he did when the police came that day. Still frightened I told the police officer
that he needed to make sure this would never happen again. He promised it wouldn’t. After a few sleepless nights my life got back
to normal. The years went by and the guy didn’t ever
come back. Until one year ago. At this time my mom and dad had moved out,
I bought the house from them and I’m still living there today. I was enjoying my morning coffee on the patio
when I see this random guy stopping on the road by my fence. He just stands there, looking at me. I look at him and give him a nod. And then I hear the high pitched noises. “Holy shit it’s him” his hair had turned
grey but the high pitched sounds had made me recognize him. My heart started racing and I instantly remembered
the reason why he was back. I realized that he must have managed to escape
again. Because I kept my cool a bit longer then when
was 9, I started to realize how sorry I felt for the guy. 16 years later and he was back to look for
his mom. I decided to carefully ask him if he wanted
to come down to the patio. He instantly jumped the fence. I started to think he would knock me out like
he did to that police officer. But he didn’t. He smiled. He looked at me and smiled. I offered him to sit down, but he didn’t
respond. I offered him to come inside. He started laughing. We went inside and his face lit up, pure joy. He was home. It reminded him of the life he had with his
mom. It almost made me tear up. All of a sudden he sat down on my couch, turned
on my tv and switched directly to the cartoons. I observed him for a while, he was just completely
focused on the cartoons. I just wanted him to enjoy the moment so I
didn’t say anything to him. I realized I had to call the facility to let
them know. The caretakers arrived 10 minutes later. After a lot of convincing he got back up,
crying, and they went back to the facility. I called the facility two days later. We made a deal. His name is Tom, and I now consider Tom my
friend. Every Sunday from the day he returned, Tom
and his caretakers visit me to watch cartoons. They say it’s the highlight of his week. It honestly makes my heart warm. Now, for several years my thoughts were “Let’s
NOT meet, guy on my patio eating from the ashtray” but now my thoughts are “Let’s
meet every Sunday to watch cartoons, my friend Tom” One time I went to the bar with one of my
friends. I had just turned 21 so I havent been to much
bars up to that point. My friend was drinking on the way to the bar
so he was already pretty drunk when we got there. When I sat at the bar a cute girl came and
talked to me and my friend. She said her name was Candice and I noticed
she had really really bright red hair. I assumed she dyed it. It was pretty, but unnatural. Anyways. The girl was flirting with me and my friend. She could tell my friend was already very
drunk. To be honest I played along like I was drunk
already too since it seemed to be working for my friend. I didnt know if she was just trying to get
free drinks so I told her we didnt have much money. She then offered to buy us drinks. She kept buying us drinks and I started to
get confused as to who she liked between me and my friend. My friend went to the bathroom. Before he came back he was kicked out by the
bouncers. He was way too drunk. Candice and I went outside with him. She kept telling him to go home with her. He was so out of it he could barely answer
her. I told her he was too drunk and that I couldnt
let him go anywhere. I didnt want him to wake up hungover in some
random house with no car and no idea what happened. Candice kept pushing it, saying that she would
take good care of him but I told her no because I had to stay with him, I was more sober than
him he was my responsibility. I told her the only way he was going anywhere
was if I tagged along. I assumed she thought that I was jealous or
cock blocking but my friend could barely stand and lost interest in Candice already at that
point. She immediately started flirting with me and
offered to get my friend a taxi to drive home and said we could go to her place alone. At this point I had a few drinks and I was
pretty buzzed so I agreed. We took my friend to the taxi and walked to
her car. I slightly stumbled on the way to her car. "Wow youre pretty drunk huh?" She said smiling as she held held onto my
arm "yea" i said. I dont know why but I just felt slightly shy
and anxious. Everything was just happening too easy for
me so I felt uneasy. We got in her car we drove down the street. "Wanna stop at the liquor store and get some
more to drink? I'll buy it so dont worry about paying" she
offered. I didnt want to drink anymore than I already
did. I was already buzzed and wanted to be able
to carry myself throughout the rest of the night. Sometimes I made myself look stupid when I'm
drunk so I didnt wanna ruin anything with Candice more than I already did earlier with
telling her my friend was too drunk. I told her I was already drunk enough but
she insisted. I didnt wanna seem lame so I told her to get
me a pint of liquor with some apple juice to chase it. She went in the store and came out with a
lot more than just a pint. I assumed she wanted to drink more also and
thats why she got a fifth instead of a pint. On the car ride we passed the bottle back
and forth but she took tiny sips. I tried to take tiny sips but she kept passing
me the bottle and telling me to drink. I somehow managed to drink all of my apple
juice, and pretend to drink the bottle by spitting the liquor in the apple juice bottle. I tossed the apple juice bottle full of liquor
out the window before she saw it. I didnt want her to know i was acting drunker
than I was she actually believed I was sloppy drunk when I was simply buzzed. I took a couple more sips of liquor and finished
the bottle. Throughout the car ride I called her the wrong
name a couple of times to get a reaction out of her. She didnt react to it. She just kept letting me call her Carla without
correcting me. For some reason I thought she lied to me about
her name initially. We drove up to her house. I pretended to trip and stumble into her front
door. She helped me walk inside by holding me up. She opened her front door, which was unlocked,
we walked in her house, she closed her front door and then locked it. I thought that was strange but assumed she
didnt want anyone walking in on us. I told her that I had to use the bathroom. I walked into her bathroom, locked the door
and looked in the mirror. I just felt strange, i felt like something
was off. I felt myself becoming more drunk from finishing
the bottle ealier. I turned on the sink to make noise and made
myself puke up the liquor I drank. I flushed and went to the sink and started
drinking the tap water out of my hands to sober up. I just didnt want to be drunk but I still
wanted to hook up with Candice so I wanted to pretend to be drunk. I turned the sink off and I could hear her
talking to someone "he's drunk as hell. He can barely stand up. You do it." Who was she talking to? And do what? I walked out of the bathroom and into the
livingroom. The moment i stepped into the livingroom i
saw her walking into another room. All i could see was the back of her head,
that strange very bright red hair go into another room. I didnt see her face or anything. I just saw her kind of walk fast into the
room. The livingroom was pretty dark. "Hey where you goin?" I slurred like I was drunk. She walked back into the dark livingroom and
up to me "let's go in my room" she said. I looked at her bright red hair and then into
her eyes. They were different. Her face was different. It was another girl with the same hair. Thats when i realized. It was another girl with the same wig on. It was a wig the whole time. She had changed it with the girl from earlier
for whatever reason. My heart felt like it stopped. But i tried to look like I had no idea it
was a different girl. I kind of smiled at her and told her I just
needed to use the bathroom one more time and told her sorry I was so drunk. She said "its fine just hurry up in there"
i went into the bathroom and locked the door. I heard her whisper something to someone again
this time I think I heard a male voice whisper back. I honestly didnt concentrate on listening
to exactly what she said, something sketchy was going on and I had to get out of that
house. I opened the bathroom window and jumped straight
out of it and ran faster than I have ever ran in my life. I didnt look behind myself or anything. I just ran through the back yard, jumped the
fence, ran through someone elses back yard, hit a road, and ran toward the main road. I kept running down the main road until i
saw a star CVS I ran into the CVS and stood straight at the front of the store in front
of the camera. I called a taxi and went home. I try to think what happened that night. What was she, or they, planning that night? Why did she tell me a fake name? Why was she trying to get my friend and I
so drunk? I thought maybe a robbery but she kept spending
money on us. She kept buying us drinks and even paid for
my friends taxi cab. And mostly, why did she wear a wig that she
gave to another girl to wear? Who was she talking to? What did it mean? And what was in that room they tried to lure
me into? The next day after this incident I went back
to the house with a couple of friends to see just what was going on. Nobody was there. No cars, no people, nothing. Just an empty house. I ended up finding out that the house was
a summer rental and whoever those people were, they broke into that house and used it for
only that night and never came back. Anyways, that’s my story So last night, I was at a classmates house
working on a group project we have due tomorrow. I live in an apartment in the town where our
university is located and my classmate lives at his parents house which is in the foothills
just outside of town. In order to get to the house, you have to
drive along a relatively secluded and narrow two-lane road for about 5-6 miles. We started working on the project at about
6 pm and I ended up hanging around for a while after we had finished our working. So I left his house pretty late at about 11
and started down the road back towards town. I didn't realize how tough it would be to
navigate the road at night; there were no streetlights and the road was unkept and riddled
with potholes. On top of this, I had no cell service so I
had to drive very slowly to make sure I didn't blow out one of my tires since I had used
my spare a couple of weeks back. I figure I was about 3 miles from the house
when I rounded a tight corner and saw a pickup truck with a camper shell parked diagonally
across the road. The manner in which it was parked completely
impeded my path and I couldn't drive around it because there was a gully on both sides
of the road. The only way for me to go at this point was
backward, where there was a pulloff that I could use to turn my car around. At first I couldn't see inside the cab, but
when I turned on my high beams I saw that there was a man slouched over in the drivers
seat, his head resting against the steering wheel as if he had been knocked out after
a bad accident. I immediately sensed something was wrong,
the way his car had just "coincidentally" come to rest in a position that totally blocked
the road was a big red flag for me. I had heard stories of people playing dead
in the road as a way to lure unsuspecting people out of their cars so they could rob
them. I decided "fuck this shit" and elected to
go back to my classmates house and explain what was going on. I threw the car into reverse and kept my eyes
darting back and forth between my rearview and the truck. I looked and saw that I was almost to the
pulloff where I could turn around. When I looked back, my heart skipped about
five beats. The man who had been slouched over in the
drivers seat was now walking at my car at a hurried pace while a few other men jumped
out of the camper shell and started moving towards me as well. I panicked and accelerated backwards into
the pulloff, which messed up the undercarriage of my car pretty bad. As I put it into drive the guy was already
at my passenger side door tugging on the handle which, thank the lord, was locked. I only caught a brief glimpse of him but his
face appeared to be scabbed and leathery, definitely a meth head or some sort of drug
abuser. I sped away and didn't slow down at all until
I reached the house, constantly checking my rearview to see if they were following. Thankfully they didn't tail me, and when I
reached the house I explained what had happened to my classmate and we called the cops. I was grateful that my buddies parents were
kind enough to let me stay the night. They didn't find anyone on the road matching
the description but I filed an incident report and they told me they would be on the lookout
for similar vehicles and suspicious activity. But holy shit, I'm still so shook up over
it. I keep getting the same adrenaline rush I
got when I saw the guy charging me whenever I think about it. I was 21, recently became a Police Officer,
and was also recently dumped. So my friend suggested Tinder. As a 21 year old and new cop, I had the "I'm
invincible and I can take on anyone" mentality. I matched with a very good looking, out of
my leauge female. We chatted, and eventually set up a date to
meet. She said she had a great open field to look
at stars and hang out. And we could meet up at her house. So the night came, I was excited and she seemed
to be excited when I picked her up. She guided me to the field, and it looked
nice! Open space, woods, deer and other wildlife. In the field, I noticed really dim headlights
in the distance. Then, the van started driving towards us,
and pulled up in front of us, almost close enough to block me from going forward. I told her to stay in the car and I'll go
say hi. I grab my flashlight I had in the car, and
walked up. In the front driver side of the van, there
was a decently sized man. I asked him what's going on and if he could
back his car up a little bit. He was very polite, said he was the owner
of the property and said he didnt mean to scare us. He told me hes been having trouble with poachers
on his property and just wanted to make sure we weren't going to be shooting at anything. I ensured him we only came out to look at
some stars and wild life. He was perfectly ok with that, told me to
have a nice date, and drove away. After that, the girl was texting non stop. Around an hour later I saw headlights coming
towards us again, this time at a really fast pace. We hopped in the car and I moved it to a more
"defensive" position. The same man came close enough to almost hit
my car. She hopped out of the car at that point and
ran towards the guy. I immediately knew I was fucked. I got out, and gave them commands to back
up and get on the ground. Neither of them complied. Obviously. He then proceeded to charge me, and knock
me to the ground. Luckily I was able to get him on his back
and get up. I saw my "date" grab a metal pipe from the
van. She told me they had a gun, and to give them
my money and truck, and I won't get hurt. Of course with my "I'm invincible mentality"
I said no. She started to cry and saying they didn't
want to hurt me. He then started to go back towards the car. At that point, I told them I was a cop, drew
my concealed firearm, and to lay on the ground. After a moment of shock from all of us, they
complied. I was able to call 911, tell them my name
and badge number, I had two at gunpoint, and needed back up immediately. I gave our dispatcher the best directions
I could to this field, while on the phone, they both fled. Again. Stupid new cop young guy mentality, I chased
them. I took off after the man, who ran into the
woods around the field. I chased him for maybe 30 seconds and heard
3 loud pops, and saw muzzle flash. My I'm invincible mentality went right out
the window. I ran like hell back towards my car and peeled
the hell outta there. I went back to the area I picked her up in,
called dispatch again, and had officers come to that location. Of course, the first officers to pull up,
was my Sergeant and my Field Training Officer. Of course they were both COMPLETELY understanding
and didn't give me any shit about it AT ALL! The most used words were "Dumbass" and "Stupid
fucking rookie". I hopped in their car and went towards the
field. Luckily, the van was still there. I was told to shut my mouth and only come
out if they start getting shot at. They cleared the area. And started looking in the van. They found meth right on the center console,
and searched the car. What scared me the most was when my Field
Training Officer and Sergeant came back to the patrol car, let me out and told me to
come look in the back of the van. Both of them were pale, looked horrified. I went to the back of the van, where there
were several knives, duct tape, lighter fluid, a decent ammount of rifle ammunition, handcuffs,
and what looked to be dried blood. In the front seat passenger side, we found
an AR-15 style rifle, and two more handguns. We called for immediate backup, and detectives. When they investigated the blood, it turned
out it wasnt blood. The plates had been stolen, and the van was
a reported stolen. I still get shit about the whole encounter,
but luckily no one got hurt. I will never use online dating again. Ever. I was about 7 years old; my brother about
10. It was well past our bedtime when our mom
woke up off the couch to put us to bed. Our dad worked construction out of town back
then, so it was often just us three at the house for weeks at a time. Up the stairs and to the immediate right was
our parents' bedroom. Going left put you in the middle of a hallway. Taking another left down that hallway led
to my brother's room. The opposite end was my room which was also
across the hall from our upstairs bathroom. At either end of the hallway are windowed
doors we always kept locked and rarely used. The door on my end led to a balcony overlooking
our front yard, and the door on my brother's end opened to our back porch (the house kinda
leans into a small hill). My brother and mom both had a habit of waking
up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I only knew this because I was always a light
sleeper and they just couldn't help flushing with the door wide open. This night, however, my brother stopped on
his way to his room and came back towards the bathroom, "I'm gonna try to pee before
I go to bed. The past few nights I've been too afraid to
walk to the bathroom. I keep seeing a man wearing stripes at the
end of the hallway.". I don't know if my mom wrote it off as my
brother telling ghost stories to try to scare me or if she was already half asleep and didn't
catch it, but she didn't react at all to my brother's confession. I, on the other hand, was terrified by it. The fear of seeing a ghost like that at the
end of the hallway or through the windows is the reason I started running from the stairs
to my bedroom at night. Years later, when I was about 18, my mom and
I were having a conversation in her car about a dog we had for a very short time when I
was little. We were sharing stories about Max's tendency
towards destroying my shoes and other unruly behaviors when my mom blurted out, "Do you
remember that time I opened the front door for the cops and Max ran inside to the kitchen
and started tearing open that big bag of dog food we had?". This really caught me by surprise, because
in all the years I lived in that house we never once called the cops (gun owner family
in a quiet, rural WV neighborhood, etc.). I asked her what she was talking about and
she looked equally surprised as if she had just revealed something by accident. "Oh, that's right! I never told you because you were too young
at the time. One night, I woke up hearing noises outside
my window and when I looked I saw a man staring into my bedroom.". She went on to describe how turning on the
lights caused him to take off running and how she grabbed my dad's pistol before calling
the cops. "I can't remember all the details I gave them
when they showed up... tall white male, wearing a striped shirt and jeans, short dark hair...
something like that. They said it matched the description of a
man they were looking for in the area. It turns out he had escaped from jail on a
murder charge." Now, I know it sounds so obvious hearing those
two stories back to back, but it wasn't until a few years ago, in my mid-twenties, that
I pieced together that my brother had unknowingly warned us about a murderer who spent multiple
nights casing our home.
