Police officers have a hard job and they sometimes have rather frightening experiences while at work.
Here, officers and other professionals share their experiences, inspired by Redditor TerrorBirb who asked today's burning question: Police officers of Reddit, what is the scariest/creepiest thing too happen to you on the job?
"It makes my hair stand up to this day."
Dispatcher here.
Had a woman call in on 911 whispering. Could barley understand anything but I managed to get an address. I kept the line open until the officers got there. Officers get to the house and a male steps out. They asked him why someone dialed into 911. He says must have been an accidental dial and theres no emergency. They obviously find this suspicious so they hang around talking outside to the male and one officer manages to spot a tiny hand stuck out of a small window waving around. They go inside the house and save a female who was beat bad and charged the male with forcible confinement. It makes my hair stand up to this day.
"Was dispatched..."
Police officer here. Was dispatched to hold a scene of a domestic assault where the female was attacked with a metal hook until our forensic team arrived. Was there for approximately three hours in the house by myself. Got a call from a detective assigned to the case to search the house again as the woman's two very young children we're still missing. Found them both dead in the bottom of a closet tied up. I'll never forget this one.
"I responded to a call..."
I responded to a call for a subject shooting a shotgun in his house. When I arrive his mom runs out screaming "He's in his room!!" I have her wait by my car.
Me and another officer enter, I am point man. We make our way to his bedroom and I turn the corner. He is sitting in a chair with a shotgun and looks at me.
He casually greets me, (I had dealt with him before from a past arrest). I attempt to talk to him and try to keep him calm.
After about a minute he just says "Doesn't matter, thanks for trying though." And then shoots himself. Did not survive.
Still haunts me but thanks to therapy and family I have handled as well as I could and I'm still a cop.
"My grandfather..."
My grandfather was a cop for 40+ years. He recently told me a story about getting a call from a neighbor saying they hadn't seen their neighbor, let's call him Bill, for a few days. My grandfather and another cop, John, show up at Bill's house. They knock and knock, but no answer. They check the doors and lo behold, one is unlocked. As they enter the house, my grandfather starts calling out, "Mr. Bill, are you home? Is everything alright?"
This goes on while they search the house. Finally, Officer John goes down the steps to the basement. My grandfather hears him say, "Oh, Mr. Bill, there you are! Is everything alright?" My grandfather goes down the steps to see Bill standing in his basement in his suit, complete with his hat, and one thing that was very, very off.
My grandfather goes, "John, I think Bill is dead."
Dumbfounded, Officer John says, "He's standing right there."
"And you don't see the rope around his neck?"
So, apparently Bill had hung himself with clothing line rope, tied it to a beam in his basement, and kicked away the stool he was standing on. Over the however many days it had been, the rope had "stretched" so much that Bill looked like he was standing in the dark basement.
Out of all the stories I've heard so far, that was the saddest, funniest (because of Officer John's confusion), and darkest story I've heard my grandfather tell.
"This is the call..."
Ex-police officer here. This is the call that made me decide law enforcement wasn't for me. Conducted a no-knock search warrant on a drug house. First officer through the door secures the suspect closest to the door, second officer secures the person second closest to the door, etc. I was the fourth officer in, and of course my suspect ran. I chase him down a hallway, he runs in a room and slams the door. I burst in right after, jump on top of him and get him secured.
Before I cuffed him, he had his hand under the bed. I took him to the living room where the other suspects were being held, go back on the room and look under the bed...double barrel sawed off shotgun. My heart sank. I took a few photos for evidence, and collected the gun. Opened the barrels and found it was loaded with two slugs. I'm not sure he would have shot me had he gotten ahold of it, but it was enough to keep me up for two nights. I resigned 3 weeks later.
"I was working..."
Giphy
I was working an off-duty job at a local theme park. It was an overnight so the park was completely closed with no one around besides the occasional cleaner or painter. I usually just sit in my patrol car on my laptop but when I get sleepy or need to stretch my legs I get out and go for a walk around the empty park. Let me tell you, amusement parks are really creepy when they are empty at night, but I got used to it. On this particular night I was doing my normal walk, on my phone probably on twitter, when I look up and see a lady who appeared to be in her 60's, nonchalantly sitting at a table in one of the restaurants that was closed.
Like just sitting there in the dark. This really confused the hell out of me and she was not dressed like an employee. I tapped on the window and she turned her head and stared straight at me. I asked loudly what she was doing and she just turned her head back away from me and ignored me. I tried to open the door and it was locked. I called on the radio for park security to come over there and confirm if this lady was supposed to be there while I walked back to my car to get the set of keys I kept in there.
As I walk back to the front of the restaurant 2 security guards are walking up at the same time as me. one of them peers in the window and asks "somebody was in here?" I look and the lady is no longer at the table. We get it open and search every crevice of this place and there was not a soul in there. You can say I was a little freaked out. We went back and checked the exterior cameras and nobody entered or exited. To this day this creeps me out and I can't explain it
"I had a dude OD..."
I had a dude OD on heroin while trying to get something from his bedside table. He collapsed into it and choked to death with his head in the top drawer because he couldn't move. The best he could do is kind of hug it.
So in the morning mum comes in and sees him, drags him off and puts him on the floor before calling 000. He is left exactly as he died.
We arrived and he is on his back with all his limbs up like a bug, kind of like a crawling position but on his back. His face and neck was red but his throat had a white line where the drawer was resting to choke him, at a glance it looked like his throat was sliced because of the color difference. It wasn't scary so much, it just looked bizarre and isn't what you expect at 7am.
I don't think I'll ever forget the sound of the undertakers straightening out the rigor mortisey joints.
"Responded..."
Responded to a single vehicle crash out in the county. Found the car, it had left the road, crashed through a fence, rolled at least three times, came to rest right side up. The driver was mangled pretty bad, and actual paramedic says he's deceased, we secure the scene, wait for the coroner. Coroner gets there, declares him dead, starts his investigation/documentation.
About 20 minutes into it, we are all near the coroner van discussing the situation. We are about 20 feet from the victim car. The driver (who hasn't been removed yet) sits up, looks around, and starts the car. We all jumped about five feet straight into the air. Driver survived. Loads of investigation into how two trained pros declared a live man dead.
"I felt bad for both."
This older lady calls because her husband went outside to cut wood and didn't come back for lunch. He was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness. Anyway, we end up locating him in his barn hanging by the neck from a rafter. He tells me to grab his thighs while he cuts the rope.
Once the rope was cut the old guy flopped over my shoulder which forced all the air out of him through his throat and voice box. I can't really describe it but it was like the loudest and longest moan i'd ever heard. I screamed and dropped him. I felt bad for both.
"I worked night shift..."
Not a cop, but a former EMT. I worked night shift, and this was either the night before or night of Halloween. We get a call to BFE for "generalized pain," which is a giant red flag for us because that could range from "I hurt my finger" to "I got shot and I'm dying but I don't want the cops to come." Now, since this is night shift, we get this call about 3 am. So we get there, and it's a creepy old lady who get us to go into the house from the garage. Why? Because she has a tv blocking the front door out of fear of zombies or something showing up to rob her. Weird, right? Well, this garage was pitch black.
We asked her to turn on the light and she wouldn't do it because squirrels chewed up the wires. So my partner and I kind of gave a weird look to each other but didn't think much of it, since we thought it was some Halloween thing. We go inside, and there a single mattress on the floor. No other furniture besides that tv blocking the front door. The patient is the crazy lady's daughter. She's got chronic pain so it's nbd. So, we get her to the truck and something seems off with the crazy lady. So I automatically close the door to the truck, leaving the medic and patient in there, since he's much bigger than me and can handle himself and a patient already strapped to the stretcher.
So I'm outside the truck and crazy old lady is standing there with her arm in a sling that she had just put on. I asked her to leave so I could go to the hospital. She tries to hand me a Diet Coke for her daughter and I refuse. This sets her off. She throws the coke and runs off towards the house, but only a few feet before she turns back around and starts coming at me. I see something in her hand...she had pulled a knife out. My paramedic then opens the door to tell me he's ready to go and it startles the lady enough for me to be like "aight leggo" and off we go to the hospital. I went home and cried. That was the first time I was almost killed on duty. And it was 3 am at Halloween.
"One that just recently happened to me..."
One that just recently happened to me that was pretty creepy, I had an assist with rescue call. Dispatch said the caller came home from the store and found her sister unconscious in her bed. When we got there, you could clearly tell that her sister was deceased. What was creepy is that since rescue came to the house first, they really didn't take a look around until we got there. There were obvious signs of a burglary to the home. Broken window in the back room with the broken glass on the inside of the home. It also looked like she may have been strangled. Rescue took her since she still showed signs of life, but they said it had to of happened within the last hour of them arriving. I felt so bad for her sister that found her.
"Medically retired..."
I was assaulted by a co worker and then assaulted by the chief. I'm a dude.
Medically retired after being assaulted on the job. Both employees still there.
"Back when I was working patrol..."
Giphy
Back when I was working patrol, my partner and I got a welfare check call for an elderly man whose out-of-state family couldn't get in contact with. These are the worst calls, because you know what is behind that door. The family gave us authorization to enter if there was no answer. And there wasn't.
The front door was locked, but we were able to open the garage door and go in through that door. The garage gave us signs of what was to come inside the house. It was filled with junk from floor to ceiling front to back, with just a little walkway to the door to the house. After taking a few steps in to the garage, we knew what we would find. The smell was overwhelming.
So far, there is nothing creepy or scary about this, as this wasn't my first body I found or seen. After making our way through the trash pathways in the living room and kitchen, we made our way to the master bedroom. We found him sitting in a rocking chair in his bedroom. Because decomp had already set in, there were no muscles holding him together. So his upper body was leaning to the right at an almost perfect 90 degrees. It was really creepy to see a body bent that way without having any type of trauma. (He passed from natural causes.)
"Was searching..."
Was searching a house for an intruder and the homeowner forgot to tell me about the mannequin wearing a trench coat in the middle of the basement in the dark. Nearly sh@t myself.
"When I was in my early 20s..."
When I was in my early 20s, I had a neighbor who was a paramedic. I really admired her, and we were good friends for several years. I thought I might also like to be a paramedic, so she suggested that I go on a ride along with her one night. At about 1am, a call came in for a car wreck, and we sped over. A family in a car had been in a pile up between two semis.
"The parents were dead on the scene..."
The parents where dead on the scene, but their teenage daughter was still alive, crushed between the front and back seat of their vehicle, which collapsed into itself like an accordion. She kept calling for her mother. "Mama! Mama!" It was the most horrific thing I've ever experienced. She didn't make it, and I did not become a paramedic.
"They later interviewed the guy..."
Not me but my dad. He's a road officer and about two years ago he was patrolling when he heard an engine revving behind him. By the time he looked up and a guy in a pickup trunk has rear-ended him. He calls it in on his radio, thinking it was just an accidental something when the guy reverses and hits him again. My dad realized it was on purpose and as the guy tries to take off, my dad turns his car into the truck as it goes by. He must have hit something good because it disabled the guys truck. My dad tries to get out but can't move his leg. So he just keeps the guy on point telling him to keep his hands up. The guy starts hitting himself in the face saying "Kill me, kill me. I'm going to kill you." My dad didn't see any weapon and the guy didn't get out of his car, so he just kept him in sight until back up arrived. They arrested the guy and took my dad to the hospital.
When I got to my dad he told me that he was afraid because he couldn't feel or move his leg. He was worried he was never going to walk again. Lucky there was no serious damage and after some physical therapy he was able to get most of the feeling back and can walk.
They later interviewed the guy and he said he had no regrets. He wanted to die and thought he would go out death by cop. He even said something along the lines of killing my dad in the crash to make the other officers angry. So yeah... that's our scariest story.
"Had a call that a woman who lived alone..."
Had a call that a woman who lived alone with her dogs and had not been seen for some time.
Myself and a colleague forced entry to the property and were met by the three dogs in an agitated state. Searched the place and in the living room was a couch with an object sticking up from it. Despite it being daytime and visibility good, I couldn't work out what it was. It looked like an arm sticking vertically up.
Walked around it a couple of times then realised it was the spine of the partially eaten resident. Most of the midsection of the body was gone with just a piece of skin joining the legs to the upper torso. The legs had been dragged over to the head causing the spine to stick up out of the body.
It was horrific but we did our enquiries, the dogs were removed as were the remains. There were no suspicious circumstances so despite the horrific nature of it, it was treated as a sudden death. A cleaning crew was organised.
We had just left when we realised that we had not found the pelvis. We didn't want the cleaning crew to find it so went back and did another search. Still no trace of it, the dogs must have completely consumed the entire pelvis.
"911 dispatcher."
911 dispatcher. Not this last Easter but the one prior when it was on April Fools day, I had just recently gone through a difficult break up with someone I admittedly still love today. I was leaving for work and noticed a note left under the windshield wiper of my Jeep. It read "I'm sorry and I love you." It was from my ex and that really kind of set my tone for the day. Fast forward maybe 45 minutes, it was a relatively slow morning for working in the metro. I believe it was the second call I took that morning of a hysterical woman stating her boyfriend shot himself in the head, it was difficult to get information from her as you could imagine but what made it difficult was that I could hear him making sounds that did not sound human, gagging, gasping for air, difficulty breathing and retching. I remember thinking how this woman just lost someone she loved, she had witness him take his life. I also remember thinking how I never want to lose someone that I love again - not that my break up even holds a light to what she went through. Anyways, he still had a pulse by the time the officers arrived and by the time he reached the hospital. I don't know if he lived or not, I'd imagine he succumbed to his injuries.
"I was called to the scene..."
I'm a CSI.
I was called to the scene of a man who was presumed dead already. He was found in the woods, skin pale and drenched from the rain passing over earlier. He was shot execution style in the back of the head, which was eventually determined to be the cause of death. We had the team block off the area and the nearby road, and then the body was placed on a stretcher to be taken for autopsy. When it was moved, the body moaned softly, and it scared the shit outta me.
- Ride along: Police officer shares stories behind overdose statistics ... ›
- 17 Amazed Police Officers Share Stories Of Their Encounters With ... ›
- San Diego, Chula Vista Police Officers Share Harrowing Stories ... ›
- Bend Don't Break: A Podcast Shares Stories of Police Officers ... ›
- Cops share stories of trauma to encourage others to get help ... ›
- Police Officers Share Their Most Memorable Stories of Pulling ... ›
- Police Officers Share Stories About Some Of Their Most Unusual ... ›
- Members of Law Enforcement Describe Creepiest Things ›
- In emotional video, CPD brass share stories of struggle in hopes of ... ›
- Police Officer Shares 6 Skin-Crawling Stories That Show What They ... ›
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
Giphy
"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Giphy
"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
Giphy
"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
Giphy
"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
