People Describe The Creepiest Thing That's Ever Happened To Them While Home Alone
Why is it that some of the most unsettling things happen when we're alone at home?
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.
"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.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Hilarious Insults That Actually Sound Like Compliments At First
Who doesn't enjoy a compliment every now and then?
But have you ever thought you were complimented only to realize you've just been insulted?
For some people those backhanded compliments are unintentional, for some they're very much deliberate and for some people it's actually their love language.
Whatever the purpose, some of these veiled insults are downright clever.
Redditor Ad3quat3 asked:
"What’s an insult that sounds like a compliment?"
Ah, family...
"My uncle once said to me 'Nice tattoo, did you do it yourself?'."
"It's on my back."
- mikkelfromthegalaxy
GiphyWhat do I usually look like?
"You clean up well."
"Wasn't sure if compliment or insult or even how to respond."
Lord, it's hard to be humble.
"You are very modest and have much to be modest about."
- Gitaarfreak
Who else?
"Did you REALLY do that?"
- justthatrandomartist
Stay home next time.
"Thanks for coming!"
"You know, you really didn’t have to.”
- Little_LexiYT1
GiphyHow highly?
"No one could possibly think more highly of you than I do."
- sandyposs
Who cares?
"I love how you just don't care how you look."
"I could never do that I'd feel too awkward."
- meme_squeeze
GiphyDepends on the person, right?
"I hope your day is as good as you look!"
- tantoB
"I hope you get what you deserve."
- majesthiccbb
"May your day be as sweet as you are."
- twitterpated202
While some may consider it passive-aggressive, others just find these insults funny and clever.
So what's your favorite complimentary insult?
A good story—whether it's a book, movie, manga or TV show—can really draw us in.
We can get invested in the story to the point we begin to have real feelings about the characters.
That's why having a favorite character die can cause real grief.
Redditor Iridescent126 asked:
"What was the saddest fictional character death for you?"
Spock
"Spock, in Wrath of Khan."
- Lisa_Anns_Ass
"'I have been, and always shall be, your friend'.”
- MadMacs77
"'Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human'."
- bozoconnors
GiphyStoick the Vast
"Stoick the Vast How to train your dragon"
"Dude literally just reunited with his wife after over 15 years of being gone and spends a total of about 15 minutes with her. Cause of death: basically took a bullet in the chest to protect his son."
- 24Nitro-gamer
"I saw it in theatres and a bunch of kids started to cry. Not like sniffing but out loud wailing. It added to the atmosphere."
- ThePurpleMister
"I cried, 20-something y.o. dude just ugly crying"
- leotushex
The Iron Giant
"The Iron Giant will ALWAYS have me ugly crying when he goes up to stop the missle"
- muhfckinuhhh
GiphyWhere The Red Fern Grows
"The dogs in 'Where the Red Fern Grows'."
- johnny*mseed
"Came here to say this. This book destroyed me in grade five but also really demonstrated grief in such a profound way."
- such_sweet_nothing
Bubba
"Bubba in Forrest Gump. That whole scene had me wrecked."
"From Bubba's weak, 'I wanna go home,' to Forrest's narration saying he died by that river in Vietnam while showing him holding Bubba....."
"God damn, I'm crying just thinking about it."
- ChuckZombie
GiphySaving Private Ryan
"Saving Private Ryan has two of the saddest, most brutally gut wrenching deaths I’ve ever seen on screen in Wade and Mellish."
"Wade trying to talk the guys through his injury that goes from panic and terror to acceptance of his own death as he cries out for his mother and says 'I want to go home'? Jesus Christ."
"Mellish is brutal for all the more uncomfortable and raw reasons you’d imagine. War is horrific. Young men are sent off to die, and their lives are cut short for no reason."
"It’s tragic and heartbreaking, and this is one of the only movies to really nail that feeling"
- Tuna-No-Crust
Ellie From Up
"Ellie from 'UP' gets me everytime"
- MaterialScientist420
"Sometimes I wonder how movies ever took off when the first ones were short with no sound."
"Then I remember the time a 10 minute animation with no dialogue absolutely wrecked me. It's a god-damned masterpiece and I hate it."
- cycloptian_tit
GiphyM*A*S*H Had A Few
"Henry Blake. MAS*H. The scene in the operating room. The actors weren’t told about it, just called back for one last scene shoot and Radar walks in and tells them. The silence is amplified by the sounds of instruments still working. Haunting"
- Salami_sub
"Piggy backing off this, the guy they tried to keep alive so his kids wouldn't remember Christmas as the day their dad died. That one gets me just thinking about it."
- GaussfaceKilla
"I just saw that one like a month ago! That was totally heartbreaking. Hawkeye spins the clock forward to twelve o five December twenty sixth and they all conspire to forge his death certificate"
- The_Dynasty_Group
My Girl
"'He can’t see without his glasses'"
- peesherman42
"What made this especially shocking/sad is that the entire movie was a huge bait-and-switch, but in a really effective way."
"At the time, 11-year old me thought -- based on the trailers and the marketing -- that I was about to watch a lighthearted coming-of-age movie."
"And while it does have some of that, boy did it have a macabre edge to it."
- Geekboxing
Littlefoot's Mom
"Littlefoot’s mother’s death"
- 2-DMan
"My son fell in love with this movie when he was 3 or 4, and every time that part would come on I would have to leave the room because no matter what age I am, I will always get emotional. Something about the music and the overall vibe that really just punches me in the gut."
- isurfnude4foods
"The music plus the quote 'Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely'. It's so beautiful and tragic."
- fiofo
GiphyThe sign of a great story is how it can touch our hearts and sometimes break it.
So what was the saddest character death for you?
There is always a way to make money.
We can start to collect coin as early Pre-K.
We just have to be creative.
And who is more creative than a person who thinks they have nothing to lose?
Every school has a black market system.
Things are being sold and traded for that would shock us all.
Redditor AWESOMEKITTY7364 wanted to discuss the school system's biggest entrepeneurs, so they asked:
"What 'black market' did kids at your school run?"
I know a friend who sold pickles laced with vodka in high school.
She made a killing.
Mixtures
Mix Lab GIF by BrownSugarAppGiphy"Used to crush up warheads and mix them with sugar. Sold them by the straw with the ends melted. .50 a piece."
timelydemise13
'you got the goods?'
"I used to deal in whiteboard markers for teachers in high school. One teacher had a tendency to hoard them, leaving none for other teachers. I would take markers from him and provide them to other teachers in need."
"While there was no formal payment, I was given a little bit more leniency at times (e. g. Requests to leave the classroom for a moment etc)."
"Once the marker would start squealing on the whiteboard because it was almost empty, I'd get teachers giving me a nod as if to say 'you got the goods?' I'd then supply them with the marker color of their choosing (usually black)."
"It was actually a lot of fun, and I never heard teachers talk about my systems or chastise me for taking markers."
stoic4somethings
An Unfair Edge
"I was in elementary school when pogs were big. Everyone had cool slammers and stuff but I didn't have money for good ones. My dad made one out of 1/2' mild steel for me and used an engraving pen to make a simple pattern. Everyone was asking me where I got them from."
"I didn't wanna lose my unfair edge but i also knew i could make money. My dad had a big sheet of this 1/2' steel. I told them I was the only one who could get them. I sold them for 15 bucks a pop. My dad kept 10 I got 5. And thats when I learned what overhead was."
FNC1A1
Dress Code
"I went to a private high school with a strict dress code, ties, belt, etc. So I bought a bunch of ties and belts from a thrift store and ran a lucrative rental business out of my locker."
ccrawsh
"If you forgot your gym uniform more than once, you would get fined $5 to rent a uniform from the teacher or serve a detention. I would buy an extra set in the beginning of the school year of each size, and then rent them out/wash them myself undercutting the teachers 'fine' at a cost of $3. Very lucrative over my middle and high school years."
exorthderp
Got Pepsi?
Fail Diet Coke GIF by MOODMANGiphy"I used to sell coke (the drink) because they didn't allow fizzy drinks to be brought in."
Seventy0
Everyone loves a good fizz...
Copy-Sell
King Yes GIFGiphy"The only guy in the school who's family had proper TV channels used to tape wrestling events and rent them out."
221
Knock-Offs
"I have family in NY and would go visit a couple times a year back in high school. Every once in a while we'd visit Chinatown in NYC and I'd end up buying $100s worth of fake watches (Rolex, Tag, Gucci, etc) return to school and sell them for double than what I paid for them."
firkin_slang_whanger
"A lot of people still do this. They fly off to China, buy cheap knock-offs and sell them for a huge mark-up wherever they’re from. It’s big business here in the Philippines."
Mist3rTryHard
Currency
"My school used the metallic ends of pencils as a currency. Bronze was rarest, so it was the most expensive. Green was most common, so it was the least. We traded for erasers or pencil cases or a spot up in the four square line. Eventually got banned but we still operated with people acting as banks to keep the currency hidden and to keep transactions hidden."
Flavory_Boat50
Deals
"Pokemon cards we would hide under playground equipment and trade them because the teachers would take them if they saw them. So we always set up 'deals' in class and created a whole Pokemon card trading network."
immapengoon
"We did something similar in my school. We also bet cards on matches. That got shut down pretty quick. We didn't see anything wrong with it at the time. Ahhh, those were the days."
an_elaborate_prank
Bag Full
Black Friday Christmas GIF by TargetGiphy"At my school they too all sweets out of the vending machines and replaced them with healthy snacks."
"In the local town there was a sweet shop where you could buy a kilo of mixed sweets for £5, so every week I would go there and buy £1 of small paper bags and spend the Sunday night before school repackaging them all ready for the week ahead."
"Come Monday I would go into school and load my bag up every day selling the bags for 50p."
HeisenbergCooks
Kids are shady, yet diligent.
What kind of sneaky operations did your school have? Let us know in the comment below.
Love itself and the search for it can be a total mess.
But no matter how much we thirst for it, we have to be diligent and look out for warning signs that a potential partner isn't a good fit.
Red flags and warning signs are always jumping out in front of us.
Follow your instincts and trust your guy.
If you think there's something off, they probably could be!
Redditor Artistic_Pop_3323 asked:
"On the first date, what were some immediate red flags that made you not go on a second date?"
On a first date years ago the man I met was easily twenty years older.
Found out he used his son's photo. Whacko.
Sales Pitch
"Dude spent the whole date talking about how he used to sell drugs."
bluecrowned
"I had a first date like this, too! Guy admitted when we first met years before, he was selling drugs and was also still in a relationship with a girl while trying to go out with me."
ultravioletblueberry
That Guy
"On our first date, he told me he was in med school, at the University in the town we lived in. I knew immediately there was no med school, but thought perhaps he was taken his pre-med classes or something, so went on a second date. He had spent an hour telling me how when he got done with his military service he had worked as a military contractor doing 'spy' work in Iraq and 'if I only knew the things he’d done!'"
"We stopped by his apartment to pick something up and while there I noticed all his mail was in a different name than he had given me. I 'magically' got a text from my work, told him I had an emergency and had to go immediately into work and handle it."
"After I told him there wouldn’t be a 3rd date, he got spooky angry and I caught him in the bushes outside my apartment, late at night, several times. I eventually had to get a restraining order - in the name he gave me. After that, I never saw him again! Thank God!"
PracticeLeading2814
worst date ever...
"She was still married and said she just wanted to know if she’d 'be able to still get dates if they split up'… worst date ever."
ohmybaddudeI
"Was hit on by a married woman, not my wife though. We talked for about an hour because I wanted to see what her game was. After telling her that I was married, she got really angry at me. I thought, WTF? Is there some kind of weird double standard going on here? She got really pissed off when I asked her why it was OK that she was married but not OK if I am married."
SpecialpOps
Need to make an order...
"Few years ago met up with a guy at a bar and like the entire time he would not stop talking about how he couldn’t wait to go to Russia and get a mail-order-bride."
rainbowcanoe
"Maybe he was trying to make you jealous. Like, 'Oh no, I might lose out on this prime life partner opportunity, better make my move posthaste!'"
maygpie
Twitcher
eye twitch GIFGiphy"He was about 10 years older than his pictures, he didn't stop twitching the entire time, and he kept pressuring me to go back to his place. I noped the f**k outta there."
SandMost7515
Umm... maybe get through the first course before offering your place?
By the Knife
Mad Addams Family GIFGiphy"She pulled out a switchblade mid conversation to slice up a passing ant."
OffWhiteDevil
For My Own Good
"I was planning a first date with this guy years ago and he suggested bowling. I said it was fine, but I've done it once a few years prior and I was legitimately terrible at it. The group I was with at the time made it fun regardless of me being totally uncoordinated."
"He offered to teach me, but I said another time- I just wanted to get to know him in a relaxed environment. He suggested we still bowl, minus the lessons and he could also share in the hilarity of my lack of skill. I was down. The night came and the lessons started almost immediately."
"How to stand, where to stand, everything I'm doing wrong, I'm not taking it seriously, he's trying to teach me 'For my own good.' He became mean. Not one smile except when he saw me at the start. I told him this was not the fun/chill night I said I was looking for and he told me it would be if I took the game more seriously. He was actually angry about the whole night."
Kihana82
Order Again
"He tried to change my order with the waitress because I didn’t order what he’d recommended."
MaggieLuisa
"Oh my God, I came here to say this exact same thing! He suggested something, but I wasn't feeling it. I ordered, and he grabbed the waitress as she tried to walk away, and said 'No, she'll have [xyz] instead, thanks.' And let her go, and that was that. It didn't even occur to him that she wouldn't listen or that I'd be pissed. Walked right out of the restaurant."
starlightsmiles31
Comparisons
"I once went on a first date with a guy who was clearly not over his ex. He spent the entire time talking about her, comparing me to her, and even showing me pictures of them together. It was a huge red flag for me and made it clear that he wasn't ready for a new relationship. Needless to say, I didn't go on a second date with him."
selective_girlfriend
Slug
wrestlemania 22 eating worms GIF by WWEGiphy"He told me he had worms. Not in a casting, fishing, or terrarium kind of way. Full on internal parasites."
verite_404
"Hahaha, I once had a date graphically describe the time he had to remove a tapeworm from his own butt.. while I was trying to eat spaghetti at an expensive Italian restaurant."
Enceladus89
Oof... this is why I'll never date again. #Singleforlife
Do you have any other singles stories? Let us know in the comments below.