People Describe The Creepiest Thing That's Ever Happened To Them While Home Alone

People Describe The Creepiest Thing That's Ever Happened To Them While Home Alone
Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash

Why is it that some of the most unsettling things happen when we're alone at home?

Could it be that our minds are playing tricks on us and we're imagining things that aren't there?

Probably, at least that's the hope.

Because someone with a burlap sack over their head with two eye holes cut out and attempting a home invasion would be an undesirable situation.


Curious to hear from strangers who have experienced disturbances, Redditor VagariTurtle asked:
"What is the creepiest thing that has ever happened while you were home alone?"

Someone was trying to break into these Redditors' homes.

It Wasn't The Stepdad

"My brother and I were home from school because we were sick. We had a craftroom in the mostly unfinished basement and we were down there playing with miniatures. Around noon we heard, VERY CLEARLY, the front door unlock, open, close, and someone walk in shoes across the foyer tile to the kitchen and turn on the sink."

"They then turned off the sink and went up the stairs to the second floor. I figured it was my step dad and called my mum to let her know he came home for lunch."

"She had just got off the phone with my step dad and he was in his office at work. She called him back and he came ripping home while we hid in the basement. Although we never heard the person come back down the stairs we didn't find anyone in the house."

– JamesonZane

Early Morning Disruption

"Someone started trying to force the door of my small garage apartment open, while I was laying in bed inches from the door, at around 2am."

– RainWindowCoffee

Evidence Of Forced Entry

"Years ago, a stranger smelled weed outside my apartment and knocked on my door. They wanted to join and smoke. I apologized and said no."

"Later that night, I left to go out. When I came home my air conditioner was knocked in and there were signs of someone trying to force entry."

– tassadank

Voices Carry

"I wasn't technically alone as someone else was in the house, but because of his medication, he couldn't do anything to help if there was an emergency."

"I was downstairs with my husband snoring beside me. I heard from the top of our basement stairs 'Hello?... Hello?... Is everybody okay?.' I went up to figure out who it was and thought maybe we'd accidentally left a door open somehow."

"Searched everywhere, nothing even slightly amiss. Made a phone call and also got my neighbor over. Both doors were shut and locked. Did a thorough check behind every door, the tub, under furniture, etc. Nothing. No one."

"This has happened several times and my only explanation is that it's our neighbor. For some reason, when we're in the basement, everything our neighbor does sounds like it's in our townhouse. Though I still have no idea why he's walking around his own house calling out 'Hello' and asking if everyone is okay."

– CuriousRelish

These Redditors had it ruff and later had a laugh.

False Alarm

"I was awoken in the middle of the night to something pulling on my comforter at the foot of my bed. I look down the foot of my bed and see this three or four foot shadow figure trying to climb on my bed. I panicked thinking I was about to get murdered. I flipped on the light to find my 15lbs dog trying to drag my 4 foot teddy bear onto my bed. It was terrifying in the moment, now I just find it hilarious."

– Accomplished-Gap5856

The Hairy Entity

"I was in my late 20s possibly early 30s when i woke up to see this black mass staring at me on my bed in the dark. I was terrified. I threw the blankets over my head and I was shaking. I peaked out after what seemed like an eternity and was licked. It was my black ungroomed schnauzer."

– CinematicHeart

Barking Order

"It was like 2am and I had to take my dog out to go to the bathroom. As I’m standing out in the yard, I notice there’s this really big dude walking down the sidewalk towards my house."

"The big dude looks over toward me and screams 'Hey! Come over here, right now.' He sounded really pissed and I definitely did not go over to him. I locked myself in the house and watched him from inside."

"He was pacing back and forth on the sidewalk just staring at my house and looked really mad. As I’m watching him, two cars pull up to the curb and a bunch of people get out and join him to stair angrily at my house."

"I’m very confused at this point because I don’t have any enemies and I wasn’t sure what all these people wanted with me."

"The guy who originally scream at me starts walking toward my house and screams 'I said come over here! Right now!'"

"At that moment, my motion activated light on my porch went on and I could see a giant goofy looking dog sitting on my porch. The dog sprinted away when the light went on and the big dude went chasing him up the street. The people got back in the cars and chased after the dog too."

"As it turns out it the big goofy dog was their family pet and it had escaped from their house. It saw me in the yard with my dog and was running towards me to play (I never even saw it until the light came on). The big dude was just yelling at his dog, not me. The people in the cars were his family members trying to help catch the dog."

"I actually saw them walking down the street a few days later and introduced myself. Both the dog and man were very friendly. It was a happy ending for an initially creepy situation."

– MrBigTimeJim

Funny Games

"Slightly similar, I looked out my window and it was and episode of black mirror with 15 people standing in front of my home and people in their cars all looking down at their phone emotionless… Pokémon gym is in front of my house apparently."

– LA_LOOKS

It Was A Scream

"As I'm laying on the couch watching TV late at night, I hear a tapping on glass. I brush it off, only to have it happen again about a minute or so later. I turn to look out our sliding glass back door, which had always given me the creeps with its no blinds or lighting in the back yard, to see of all things someone standing outside wearing a scream costume."

"My mind started racing as to who it might be, perhaps one of my sister's friends? I wasn't about to go outside and find out! They slinked away into darkness before I found my nerve. Turns out my 70 yo grandma decided to scare the sh*t out of me lol."

– AmbivalentEnthusiast

People recalled their hair-raising events.

Strange Bedfellows

"So I lived in an apartment by myself. And every once in a while I'd be about to fall asleep and I'd feel a weight next to me as if someone else got into the bed (it was a queen size bed). So at the time I was dating a woman who would sleep over from time to time but I never mentioned this to her. So one night while she was over I had to leave due to a family emergency. I told her it's okay if she sleeps at mine alone if she would like and that I would be back the next day. I get home that morning and she tells me 'the weirdest thing happened last night, as I was falling asleep I thought you had come home and gotten into bed with me bc I definitely felt someone get into bed on the other side, but when I opened my eyes you weren't here.' Freaked me the f'k out."

– ManyRanger4

The Murderer

"My neighbor shot 2 people in his house. Then proceeded to hide the gun behind my house. I was home and watched him out the window. I didn't know what he was doing at the time. It wasn't until later I found out what had happened. The victims both died."

– offtuna

Eight-Legged Freaks

"Once was watching arachnophobia as a 13 year old on Halloween. Went to go to bed, got a little nervous because of the movie, decided to just shake out my bedspread. Found a solid 3 inch wolf spider sitting like an Andes mint on my pillow. Slept in the bathtub that night. Idk why that felt safe but it did."

– kharmatika

Wailing

"I was about 10 or 11 years old. We had woods behind our house. My parents were out one night, and I heard a shriek from the woods. My blood ran cold and I called my parents immediately. While on the phone, the terrifying scream happened again from the woods, and my mom could actually hear it from the phone."

"Later we figured out it was a fox."

"What does the fox say? Apparently foxes scream like someone getting murdered."

– morethanlemons

The Unstoppable Chair

"I was 11 or 12 yrs old. Internet was not a thing on my country yet, but the first PCs with Windows 98 came in and we have one at home. I was playing with wordart (yeah, good times tho) at like 12pm, then suddenly a chair from the kitchen table start to shakking, like with violence. Of course nobody was there. I ran out to the frontyard and wait for my mom to come home, she was there by 1pm."

"20 years later I still don't know how the f'k the chair was moving like that, because a lot of thing that happens to us when we were kids have a reasonable explanation. This on the other hand could be my mind playing with me but never happen again and i was a normal kid with normal parents and friends, no traumas or psychologic problems."

– outerspace69

If you're alone and not expecting anyone and you suddenly hear the front door rattling, would you check to see who it is through the viewfinder or pretend you're not home?

I pretended I wasn't alone once under the circumstances.

When I heard someone trying to open the door to my apartment several years back, I faked a conversation with someone who wasn't there to ward off the possible intruder.

I never found out if it was a tenant mistakenly arriving at the wrong apartment or a complete stranger who managed to bypass the secured vestibule door to the building. But I wasn't going to find out if my apartment was going to be broken into by somone who assumed no one would be home.

Time to invest in a Ring doorbell cam, I suppose.

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