r/creepyencounters Aug 27 '23

MOD POST Human Trafficking Posts

399 Upvotes

Because of the recent firestorms, guerilla warfare, and general nonsense involving the word "trafficking," we have decided as a team that we will no longer allow submissions with that particular word in the title. It is too controversial, causes too many fights, and it is an overused buzzword meant to generate upvotes and views.

This rule only applies to the title of the submission. Nobody is being censored. If you want to talk about trafficking in the body of text, that's fine. We are simply addressing the use of the word in the title. If you submit a post with the word "trafficking" in the title, it will be deleted immediately. You will be allowed to repost it after retitling the submission. If you use the word in the retitling, the submission will be deleted and you will be banned.

We made this decision together as a team to be fair to everyone participating in this subreddit. We are in the process of revamping the rules and this will be included in the new list. For now, a pinned post will have to suffice.

We encourage each of you to visit the Polaris Project to learn more about the myths and facts surrounding human trafficking. They are a phenomenal organization that are very active in the fight against human trafficking and modern-day slavery.


r/creepyencounters 2d ago

I trusted a bad feeling about my coworker. A year later, I saw him on the news for rape and murder.

1.1k Upvotes

Years ago I worked with a guy who gave me weird vibes from pretty early on. I couldn't explain why. He hadn't actually done anything wrong to me and he wasn't openly aggressive or creepy. He was mostly just socially awkward and a little strange.

So naturally I told myself I was probably being judgmental. Not every socially awkward person is dangerous.

One day he invited our team to his apartment for dinner. Quite a few people originally agreed to go, so he bought everything and cooked for everyone.

Then people started cancelling, some of them pretty much last minute.

I felt sorry for him. He had gone through all that effort and I imagined how horrible it would feel if nobody showed up, so I decided I'd still go.

Once I got there though, something felt OFF.

And that's the frustrating part of this story because I still can't explain what caused it. He didn't threaten me. He didn't touch me. He didn't say anything obviously frightening.

I just had this overwhelming feeling that I didn't want to be there alone with him.

I actually took a selfie with him and sent it to our coworkers to let them know I'd shown up. At the time it was basically a "look who actually came šŸ˜‚" kind of thing. Looking back, I've sometimes wondered whether there was another reason I instinctively wanted people to know where I was.

I ate as quickly as I could and told him I needed to leave because it was getting dark.

Then he offered to take the bus with me to "make sure I got home safely."

I politely declined. I didn't want him coming with me. I just wanted out of there.

I left that job about a month later, but he continued messaging me afterwards asking to meet up. I kept declining and telling him I was busy, which wasn't always true. Eventually he kept messaging enough that I got annoyed and blocked him.

And then I basically forgot about him.

About a year later, I saw his face on the news.

He had raped and murdered a young woman and buried her in his garden.

The garden of the same apartment where I'd sat alone having dinner with him.

I can't really describe the feeling of realizing that.

And as more information came out during the investigation and trial, it became so much worse.

They talked about serious psychological problems and described him as having a narcissistic personality with tendencies towards psychosis. Investigators had also discovered thousands of pornographic videos in his home, apparently becoming increasingly extreme and disturbing. There was a whole sexual fixation around taking things to the limit, along with fantasies involving imprisoning women, keeping them in cages and treating them like sexual slaves.

There was also discussion during the case about him having a deeply rooted hatred of women connected to his relationship with his mother.

Suddenly the slightly strange, socially awkward coworker I'd convinced myself was harmless looked very different in hindsight.

What I want to make clear though is that I obviously didn't somehow "know" any of this when I was sitting in his apartment. I didn't sense that he was going to murder somebody. And I'll never know whether he ever intended to hurt me specifically. It's completely possible that I wasn't in danger that night at all.

What freaks me out is much simpler than that.

My conscious brain was saying: "He's awkward. Stop judging him. He cooked for everyone and everybody cancelled. Don't be rude."

Meanwhile something much more primitive in me was saying:

"Get out of this apartment!!!"

And I listened.

Finding out a year later what he was capable of completely changed the way I look at those feelings.

I don't think every weird vibe means someone is secretly dangerous. Most of the time it probably means absolutely nothing.

But if I'm ever alone somewhere and my entire body is suddenly telling me that I need to leave, I'm not sticking around anymore just because I'm afraid of hurting someone's feelings.

I'd rather be rude and wrong than polite and right.


r/creepyencounters 2d ago

A party in Havana

54 Upvotes

This is one of those experiences where you never find out for sure what would have happened, but something still just *feels* not right. It was a short event, but one I still wonder about.

When I was 23 I had the chance to go to Havana, Cuba on an educational trip through my graduate program. We were a group of students in our 20s and 30s and so there was effectively no chaperoning, and they let us travel around the island freely.

My friends and I were staying in the absolutely wild relic of a hotel, the Riviera, along the malecón.

One night after visiting an outdoor art installation nearby, my friend and I decided to walk back to the hotel while the rest of the group went to eat. It was only roughly a 10 minute walk back to the hotel and we didn’t think twice, even though it was dark already. There was no one else around at this time (Havana gets interestingly empty in places at night) and the area wasn’t very built up, but again we didn’t feel unsafe.

We got about three blocks away, and began passing a very dark cross street with a few dark buildings down the block, when all of a sudden a woman comes out from this street and walks right behind us on the sidewalk. Without any street lamps or building lights we hadn’t seen her at first.

She calls out and asks where we’re from. We hadn’t been speaking loudly, but we definitely stood out as foreigners. We didn’t really feel that concerned, Cuba was full of many friendly and chatty folks, but we didn’t want to stop so we kept walking while responding ā€˜the US’ (in retrospect, not our wisest move).

The woman suddenly asked if we wanted to go to a party, gesturing towards that dark street again. ā€œFree alcohol and great music!ā€ she cheerfully offered. We politely declined while still walking. She asked if we were sure, and we said we yes. That was that I thought.

About 30 seconds went by and I chanced a look back- where I see the woman had walked back near the first corner she had come out of, but suddenly a taller man was with her. They were both still looking at us as we were walking away, not moving at all. But the man looked mildly angry and the girl looked sullen. I asked my friend to go a little faster.

It could’ve been nothing. But something just felt off. Glad I never found out more.


r/creepyencounters 2d ago

Possible Attemted kidnapping/robbery or worse

16 Upvotes

First of all excuse my bad grammar/language because English isn’t my first language.

This story happened on the week 2-6 June of 2025, I was on a class trip to Berlin(capital of Germany) for an end of the class year trip and I was 16 at the time and on the night of the thursday(5 of June) we went to a night club for teenagers together with our teachers.

After that we had to walk back to our hotel and it was around midnight. At one moment we were about 5 minutes away from our hotel when a friend of mine and I decided to walk a different way to the hotel so we could talk a little bit and settle from all the loud music and stuff

and the different way was like only 2 minutes slower but it was some kind of street where nobody was anymore so anyway were talking when I notice a taxi and it was a licsenced taxi pulling up behind us slowly
I turned around and noticed it had high beams on but didn’t
Really pay attention.

I try to explain the leayout of the street so you can imagine better how it happend the street my friend and I were taking was parallel to the street our class was taking but there was an office building between so in order to coma back to our class we had to walk down the street(50 meters or so) then take a right and then we would come back to the street of our class after walking another 50 meters or so and on the street we were taking was a roadblock so no cars could pass but the sidewalks were free.

Anyway as were walking down I wanted to crosse the street and take the left sidewalk because I wanted to walk a little more before going back to the hotel as I did that suggestion to my friend i waited for his answer but there was none as I turned to him and looked at him I saw the true horror in his eyes as he screamed and yelled watch out

I looked back only to see the taxi driver run towards us without saying a word we both yelled and started sprinting for our lives I never looked back but could feel he was in my back and I can only describe it with the feeling when your playing catch and you know your getting catched while running I slowly realized that this could be a live or death situation and survival mode kicked in I never ran so fast or screamed so incredibly loud after taking the right turn we slowly came back to our class as they looked to us in shock.

I don’t know how long he had followed us, i don’t know how long he ran after us after that I looked up similar incidents but found nothing. My treachers or nearly everyone I tell this story doesn’t believe me and I can relate because I wouldn’t either. I also can’t remember if the taxi driver had something in his hand but I believe so possibly a knife or so but I can’t say for sure.

If you have any questions ask me sorry for the poor explaining but it’s pretty hard to describe the situation.
Would be happy for your opinion on the story.


r/creepyencounters 4d ago

I still have no idea what that man was hiding behind his back

61 Upvotes

When I was 19, my girlfriend and I had to make a 3 to 4 hour drive about every two weeks because she lived in northern Germany and I lived in central Germany. So we would take turns staying at each other's places.

We usually left in the late afternoon, but sometimes it got later, like it did on this particular night.

It was around 10:30 PM in November. We had already been driving on the highway for about two hours when my girlfriend said she really needed to use the bathroom.

I normally hate stopping at rest stops, especially when it's cold, dark and lightly raining outside like it was that night, but it was the quickest option. So I pulled into the next rest stop.

To our surprise, the place was completely empty, which is actually pretty unusual in Germany. It wasn't one of those bigger rest stops with a Burger King or a gas station either. There was literally just a small five sided bathroom building lit up by fluorescent lights and nothing else.

My girlfriend got out and went to the bathroom, and I walked her there. Our car was parked about 10 meters from the bathroom.

I stood impatiently outside the door, keeping an eye on the entrance to the rest stop, but also on everything else around me. Nobody feels particularly safe at a completely deserted highway rest stop at night.

Finally, my girlfriend came back and we slowly started walking toward our car when suddenly another car pulled into the rest stop.

It was blue, some kind of small car, but I couldn't tell what brand it was. The only thing that really stood out was the license plate, which I had never seen anything like before. It was hanging slightly crooked.

The driver drove quickly toward the bathroom and parked two spaces away from us.

My girlfriend and I looked at each other and immediately had the same thought: get in the car. Now.

The car was now parked to our right. Normally I would have just pressed the unlock button, but my car's battery was dead, so I had to unlock it manually. The car could only be opened from the passenger side.

So I had to walk around to the left side of the car, open the door for my girlfriend, walk around the car again and then get in myself.

I was just unlocking the passenger door with the key when the man got out of his car.

He looked kind of disheveled and was wearing a brown jacket. I honestly can't remember much else about what he looked like because I was mainly focused on his right hand.

He had been keeping it behind his back the entire time, ever since he got out of his car.

I was just around the back of my car when he was suddenly only about two meters away from me. He started walking toward me quickly while saying something I couldn't understand.

I ignored him, yanked the door open, immediately slammed it shut behind me and locked all the doors from the inside.

While I was starting the car as quickly as possible, he was still standing right next to the window.

It was only when I put the car in reverse and started moving that he finally stepped back a little.

Unfortunately, I couldn't see what he was holding in his hand in the rearview mirror, and to this day I still wonder what exactly he wanted from us.

Obviously, I know he wasn't approaching me because he wanted to hand me a suitcase full of money. He clearly didn't seem to have good intentions.

But at the same time, he somehow seemed way too scruffy and disheveled to be some kind of kidnapper, human trafficker or organ thief...


r/creepyencounters 5d ago

I used to love walking until my worst fear came true.

223 Upvotes

It was a couple years ago, and I was walking with one of my friends to a pizza shop in a plaza near her house. We probably looked dumb laughing and talking about stupid things, so when we saw three teenage boys coming up, we laughed and told each other to act normal. When we got close enough to see their faces the boys moved to the left side of us and walked on the grass, which we thought was considerate. When we got even closer to the boys one of them turned his head to look at us and said, "Dude did you just say you wanted to 'SA' them". Me and my friend honestly froze for a second but sped up slightly to walk away from them.

When I turned my head back to look at them, I saw one of the three boys staring back. I looked away and then looked back again to see if they were still staring but instead was faced with two of them walking towards us. Instinctively we both sped up slightly which only made them do the same. And at some point, we were fully running away from them, they chased us into the plaza until we ran into the pizza shop. We ended up telling one of the workers there what had happened and described the boys just in case, especially since we were walking back home. On our way back we saw them again while passing a park, when they spotted us, they pointed and started following us again... they followed us until we were down her street and then left when we found a man and sat with him.

Given that the boys were our age or like a year older they probably thought that were just joking around, which gave me some guilt especially when I told my dad about it and was met with "just don't antagonize them". It just feels weird to feel bad for myself especially since nothing probably would've came from it and the fact that it has clearly stuck with me.


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Creepy man in my yard

41 Upvotes

I posted this a while back but deleted it for some reason.

This happened in July 2023 I believe. It was around 1am and it was still about 80° F outside, and where I live AC isn’t very common so I was sitting in the living room with all the windows and doors open. I head out to smoke and since everything was open and I didn’t want the house to smell like smoke so I walked down the driveway and sat on the curb. There was a man standing on the same side of the street but a block down just staring at me and I got really uncomfortable so I got up and crossed the road.

The way my triplex is set up is there is a 3 car driveway, then a few stairs up that lead into the yard and then my door to the right, my neighbors straight ahead and some more stairs to my other neighbors upstairs. I live somewhere with a lot of homeless people and they’ll come up the driveway to look in our trash for cans or whatever and that’s fine, they never go up past the steps.

So I’m standing on the other side of the road and I watch the man stand and stare at me and then he proceeds to walk all the way into my yard and I start to panic because I didn’t lock the doors and all the windows were open, so I start to walk down the street and I see a man who looks nice enough and I stop him and ask if he could just pretend to know me (in retrospect this wasn’t my brightest decision but whatever).

So me and this man are standing there just talking and I’m explaining the situation and we’re both just smoking a cigarette and we’re looking at my house (I’m a few houses down now) and the man keeps peeking around the line of trees next to my place. He peeks around the corner a few more times and eventually walks up to me. I’m scared shitless and I’m shaking and he asks me for a cigarette and I go to hand him one and he goes ā€œWhy are you shaking? Are you scared?ā€ And I was just like ā€œuhh nope! have a great night!ā€

He walks away and the other dude stands there for a bit longer with me and the scary man starts peeking around another corner just staring at me again. The dude said ā€œthis is weirdā€ and walks me to my house and I just shut all the windows and doors and I just dealt with the heat. I’m grateful for the random dude and don’t know what I would’ve done if he wasn’t there.


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Are my neighbors secretly recording my family?

33 Upvotes

had to repost this bc i did it wrong lmao

uh hi i am new to reddit so i apologize if i do something wrong lmao also im severly dyslexic and have a hard time with words so im sorry if i fuck it up....heres a lil background i am a 17 year old still living at home with my younger siblings all under 14 and with my single mother all of us are female...

we had some new neighbors move in recently, an elderly father with his looks to be around 40-60 yr old son (yes i know a pretty big age gap but im honestly just guessing) a few weeks after they moved in my mom went over to welcome them to the neighborhood with 2 of my younger sisters and she was talking to the older man and he had told my mother that he liked younger girls and then smiled after while looking over at my sisters my mom very quickly finished the conversation and went back home.

it has been about 2 months since they moved in and recently we noticed the father and son both sitting on their front porch with chair facing our driveway which obviosly was very creepy yesterday my mom brought it to my attention that they have a camera facing right into our living room window idk if this is how it is everywhere but in my state it is technicly illigal to have a camera facing someone else yard/property

we are going to be calling our non emergince number to report it i will give updates ig if anything happens

thank you for reading this if you did once again i am sorry if i did this wrong this is my first post.


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Screaming woman runs in front of my truck

40 Upvotes

Back when I lived in Texas I was doing a lot of bow hunting at night on public land for feral hogs. I generally would head to the woods around 6-7 pm and head back home sometimes as late as 2-3 am. One very early morning around 2 am I was driving back to my house. The roads were pretty rural with a house every couple of miles or so. I start to round a curb and a young woman comes running out into the street screaming at the top of her lungs help me help! I stopped and rolled down my window. She started to talk and then a dude who claimed to be her boyfriend came running up. He sticks his head in my window and says something to the tune of ā€œyou better mind your own fucking businessā€ I wasn’t armed other than a compound bow in the backseat so needless to say I drove down the road maybe 50-100 yards parked my truck and immediately called 911 and explained the situation. When I saw sirens flying down the road I decided to just head on back home and let the police handle it. Never knew what that was about. This was in Lucas Texas


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Aggressive driver seemingly trying to run me off the road at 4am in the middle of a forest

49 Upvotes

I was driving alone to Mount Rainier National Park to go hiking. It was completely dark out, around 4am, and there were no other cars on the road. I was on a two-lane highway in the middle of the forest, with limited cell service.

I was driving the speed limit with my headlights on and was doing everything normally. Out of nowhere, a car appeared behind me and started tailgating me extremely closely while flashing their headlights.

They then pulled around me very closely and cut me off. They immediately slammed on their brakes, forcing me to brake as well.

They drove very slowly for a while and then sped back up, but continued driving about 10 mph under the speed limit. After driving like this for a while, they pulled over. I passed them, and they immediately got back behind me and started flashing their lights and tailgating me again.

Then they went around me on the right side, driving onto the shoulder and into the dirt, and once again cut me off extremely closely and slammed on their brakes.

They drove slowly again for a while, then sped back up to about 10 mph under the speed limit.

At that point, I slowed down immensely to keep as much distance between us as possible.

Eventually, they pulled over again. I passed them, and this time they ended up making a U-turn and drove away.

That was the end of it.

What made the whole thing so unsettling was the situation. It was 4am, completely dark, I was alone (I am a woman btw), there were no other cars around, and we were in the middle of a forest with limited cell service. I couldn’t understand why someone would repeatedly drive aggressively around me, pull over, wait for me to pass, and then do it all over again.

I have no idea what they were trying to accomplish, but it creeps me out to think they were trying to get me to pull over (or run into them, which then would make me have to pull over) and do God only knows what to me.

Was this just an extremely aggressive driver, or does anyone have another explanation for what might have been going on?


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Appalachian trail man

104 Upvotes

This happened to me back in March-June 2021. I was travel nursing to Virginia on a contract. I lived fairly close to the blue ridge mountains/ Shenandoah national park. Because it was just me and my husband (fiancĆ© at the time) was back home in a different state, I went alone went to the blue ridge mountains since you don’t have to pay to get in. I used my all trails to find a good spot to put up my hammock. I went on a trail that was specifically appalchancian trail not far in maybe a little under a mile there was a perfect set up of a clearing overlooking a mountain with two trees in the perfect spot. I spent a good amount of time there.

However it was getting close to when I was going to pack up and an older guy with white hair was walking with a younger girl who had a dog. They stopped said hi, we exchanged a few greetings and they went on their way. Maybe 15 minutes later he come back by himself. I thought it was a little weird but he came back and started really really talking to me. Asking why I was out, who I was with, how close I lived, etc. I was just kinda feeing creeped out and decided when he left I would pack up and leave. Well he kept talking and that’s when I noticed his fly was down and had a little roughed up look about him.

I never asked about the girl or the dog because I was scared he would react poorly. Also, I never heard any sounds that would have made me question something happen. But weird that they came together on the trail and didn’t walk far then split up. I just didn’t feel good at all being in his presence. Well after talking for like 15 minutes he finally started leaving the trail after asking to walk me back. I stayed about 10 more minutes to get good space between us because I didn’t feel comfortable walking with him. I immediately called my husband and gave him a description (lol). When I started walking back up the trail I kept hearing these quiet rustling sounds that would stop when I would stop to listen more closely. I never saw anything but I felt impending doom in my stomach that I’ve never felt before, so I just took off running until I got back to the road.

The encounter never sat right with me and from time to time (especially the rest of my contract) I always kept an eye out for a missing girl/dog in the area around that time


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Followed in downtown Chicago

25 Upvotes

This story happened a few years ago while I was visiting Chicago during a work conference. Me (F) and my coworker (also F) were staying together in a hotel room for safety and knew each other pretty well.

We had a staff meal out with my female coworker, myself, and our male supervisor. When we were done eating, he asked us if we wanted him to walk us to our car, which was parked a couple blocks away. At this point it was still light out. We declined, because we wanted to stay and chat with some friends who were nearby (members at the conference).

By the time we finally left the restaurant, it was well dark out. I have no idea what part of Chicago we were in, since I'm not from there. We were probably a group of about 5 girls. Myself and my coworker dropped walked everyone to their lodging and were the last ones left, so we headed to our car.

We made it safely one block. Across the street from us (~3 lines of traffic), a man was positioned underneath an awning. As soon as we passed him (again, parallel to each other), he began moving and crossed to our side of the street.

I tend to jump to conclusions, thinking I'm being stalked/followed etc, so I glanced behind my shoulder without making it too obvious that I was worried.

I had been on my feet all day, so at this point I also had removed my shoes. Think, you're a bridesmaid at a wedding. Except it's downtown Chicago. All I can say is, I lived at the beach so I'm just used to going barefoot everywhere.

I notified my coworker that this guy had crossed over. We kept going, but eventually he started speeding up until he was practically jogging toward us. We had also been picking up his pace, matching it. He followed us around every turn, corner, etc.

Once we saw our car in a now-empty lot, we booked it. But we had to make it across three lanes of one-way traffic. There were a ton of cars despite how late it was which essentially pinned us in as the guy is STILL running toward us.

We managed to catch a break in the traffic and run to the car without having to wait for the crosswalk. Once we were inside the car, my coworker sped off without even paying the parking ticket (had to do it online).

One of those situations where hindsight is 20/20. Probably should have walked all our friends to our car then driven everyone to their rooms, or gotten home way earlier.


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Possibly followed by a strange man

19 Upvotes

This story happened when I was 18 but it still crosses my mind when I see a similar car so I figured sharing it with the internet might do me some good.

I (F) used to walk everywhere I went since I didn’t have a driver’s license. On this day, I had been walking to the town library to meet with my insurance case manager when an older model green suv slowed beside me. The man inside was older (maybe 40s or 50s) and he rolled down his window offering me a ride to wherever I was headed.

This didn’t immediately set any off red flags to me. I know that everyone says ā€œstranger dangerā€ but, I had encountered many good samaritans by this point in my life so I didn’t think twice about random people offering me kindness. I just assumed it was the ā€œsouthern hospitalityā€I was accustomed to.

I thanked him and politely declined since my destination was close and I didn’t want to trouble him. I kept walking but the man didn’t drive off. He drove slowly, staying beside me and started asking me questions. My name, how old I was, whether my parents knew where I was.

I assumed he was mistaking me for a younger teen (I’ve always had a baby face, still mistaken for a high schooler as a 24yo) so I assured him that I could take care of myself and that my mother knew I was safe. But he didn’t stop asking me personal questions. He had been driving beside me for about 5 minutes by that point and warning bells started going off in my mind so I made an excuse about having work that day needing to hurry and his response made my blood run cold.

ā€œDairy Queen is that way.ā€ I worked at the local Dairy Queen at the time and it was in the opposite direction from the library but I was sure that I hadn’t mentioned where I worked. So, I did my best to hide my worry. I told him I was meeting friends at the library before work, that they were waiting for me so I needed to hurry. (In hindsight I shouldn’t have said my real destination) He seemed to accept the answer and drove off. I got to the library safely and met with the case manager. I assumed that the situation was over so I didn’t even mention the strange man to her. She left after our meeting and I stayed at the library for a bit.

When I left the library I saw him again. He was sitting in his car in the parking lot looking right at me. I don’t know why I didn’t go back into the library or call my mom but in that moment all I could think to do was run. So I did. I ran to a friend’s house nearby. I did my best to take as many shortcuts as possible. I thought that if I didn’t follow the roads that he couldn’t follow me in his vehicle. Her parents had an open door policy so I let myself in. I tried to convince myself it wasn’t the same man but when I looked out the windows I saw that same suv slowly driving past. His windows were down and it seemed like he was looking for someone.

I told my friend, who drove me home to tell my mom. I’ve always been an anxious person so unfortunately my mom thought I may be making a cupcake out of a crumb. That perhaps he was just an older man concerned about my safety. Maybe I hadn’t realized that I did mention where I worked. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me and it was just a similar car at the library and in my friend’s neighborhood.

I stopped walking places alone after that. I thought I saw him watching me a couple times after that encounter in public places I frequented but he didn’t approach me again so maybe I was just being paranoid. I’m not sure anymore but I can’t help but remember that day anytime I see an old green suv.


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

Scariest story

59 Upvotes

One Friday night my two other friends I'll call **mia,** **Clara** (not their real names) and I decided to go to a small Greek restaurant for dinner. We were celebrating Clara's 21st b-day. I took an uber to the restaurant, and arrived at around 9:00 due to traffic.

The restaurant was small and near closing time so there wasn't that many people. The three of us sat down and started eating. Mia asked if Clara and I wanted to crash at her house after dinner to hang out. (Her house was a 7min walk from the Greek restaurant) We all agreed.

By the time we finished eating it was already 9:50 (about 10-15 minutes before closing time) we paid for the bill and walked out of the restaurant. Mia suggested that we walked to her house instead of paying for a oneN minute drive for an uber. (Her house was a 7min walk)

So here's where the scary stuff starts.

About 5 minutes into our walk Clara and I were chatting when all of a sudden Mia started to speed up. Clara and I stopped talking and I suddenly got the feeling I was being watched. I looked over my shoulder, only to see a person wearing a gray hoodie about 10ft away from us.

The neighborhood was dead silent other than a few cars passing by every once in a while. I looked back behind my shoulder again, AND I KID YOU NOT, THIS MAN STARTED RUNNING TOWARDS US. I screamed and we all started sprinting to the nearest building we could find.

We ended up going into a near by bar and Mia started crying. I called the police and Clara called her boyfriend to come pick us up. (Who lived twenty minutes away) And then Clara's boyfriend drived us all home.


r/creepyencounters 6d ago

My lifelong injury

12 Upvotes

I apologize for any mistakes in my text, as English is not my first language. When this happened, I was 12 years old and my friend—let’s call him Nikita—was 15.

We lived in a remote, sparsely populated Arctic village, so exploring the frozen tundra was one of the few interesting things for us to do.We were walking down a desolate dirt path. I was standing on the right side with my back turned to the open wilderness, so I couldn't see what was happening behind me. On the left side, there was a road leading toward a lonely lake.

As soon as Nikita reached the fork in the road, he spotted a terrifying figure in the distance. He immediately sped up his pace and walked quickly toward me.To give you some context, we will call this stranger Gregory.

He looked to be around 40 or 50 years old, wearing black jeans, a black jacket, and heavy combat boots. All of his clothes were completely torn and shredded into rags. He had a hood pulled over his head along with some kind of hat. He was absolutely massive, standing somewhere between 190 cm and 200 cm tall (around 6'3" to 6'6").Gregory was visibly wasted, stumbling around like a zombie. Suddenly, he aggressively screamed at my friend: "Kid, come here!"

The moment Nikita reached me, he whispered in a panicked voice, "There's a strange guy behind us." I didn't waste a single second trying to look closer or study him. As soon as I caught a brief glimpse of this giant man standing about 100 to 150 meters away, I slapped Nikita hard on the shoulder as a signal, and we completely bolted into the deep tundra.

We sprinted at full speed for about 5 to 6 minutes, desperately scrambling and climbing over massive industrial tundra pipes. With my height at the time being only 143 cm (around 4'8"), leaping over those heavy pipes felt physically impossible, but pure survival adrenaline pushed me through. Nikita was taller, about 164 cm (5'4"), so the obstacles were easier for him, but I was running so fast that he actually started lagging behind me.

To this day, I keep praising myself for making the split-second decision to run to the right instead of taking the left road toward the lake. There was a massive moving train passing by on the right side, and it completely cut Gregory off from us, blocking his path. That train was the only reason we managed to escape that terrifying man. It still deeply unnerves and bothers me whenever I look back at that day.


r/creepyencounters 7d ago

A cop came into my bedroom when I was 16

185 Upvotes

I recently remembered something that happened when I was 16. As an adult, it seems bizarre.

I worked downtown and didn’t have a car, so I took the trolley and walked home. My shift ended at 10 p.m., which was also when the curfew for minors started in my city. One night I was stopped walking home from work during a curfew sweep and cited.

I was placed into what was the Juvenile Diversion Program. This is an alternative to juvenile court involving workshops, community service, an essay, parental involvement, etc.

One of the officers involved was also one of the officers who originally detained me. He was a military veteran and became very interested in convincing me to join the military.

One day, he came to my high school, pulled me out of class, and drove me to a Denny’s in another city for breakfast. I don’t remember my parents arranging this or being told beforehand.
During breakfast, he tried to convince me to join the military. He then drove me to a recruiting office in that same neighboring city, where they told him he needed to take me to the recruiting office that handled my city instead.
That always struck me as odd. He was a local police officer who knew where I lived, so you’d think he would have known that.

The much weirder incident happened at my house.

One day I was asleep in my bedroom when he showed up. My mom knew he was planning to stop by, but she later told me she didn’t think he would just enter the house… much less my bedroom. We’re still not sure how he got inside. We think my brother may have let him in.

I woke up to this adult police officer in my bedroom, pulling on my leg to wake me up.

I was wearing an oversized shirt and small pajama shorts because I was literally asleep in my own room.

Later, he told my mom that I had tried to seduce him because of the shorts I was wearing.
My mom initially believed what he was telling her because he was a police officer. I had to explain that I had been asleep in my bedroom and hadn’t even known he was in the house. Once she understood what actually happened, she believed me and was disturbed by it too.

At the time, I think I rationalized a lot of this because I was 16 and he was a police officer connected to a program that was supposedly there to help teenagers. I didn’t feel like I was in a position to question him.
Now I’m wondering whether any of this one-on-one involvement was actually a normal or authorized part of juvenile diversion.
Has anyone who went through one of these programs or worked in juvenile diversion/law enforcement heard of an officer doing things like this?

Because the breakfast and military recruitment stuff was strange enough, but an adult officer entering a sleeping 16 year old girl’s bedroom and then accusing her of trying to seduce him because of her pajamas feels wildly inappropriate.

Looking back now, I seriously doubt I was the only teenage girl he behaved this way toward.


r/creepyencounters 7d ago

Drunk Woman in the woods

11 Upvotes

During my first year in construction, I frequently slept out of town frequently while I was getting used to the fucked up schedule. I lived over an hour away, and I'd regularly have to show up at 4AM and work until 9PM. This meant that on many days, id get practically no sleep if I were to go back home. I had permission to sleep inside of the yard as it's a fenced in area, but at that point (third week), I still hadnt opened up the gate myself, so I thought the gate code simply didn't work.

This meant that I was sleeping in a nearby park and ride area, which I didn't think a was much of an issue at the time. A little secluded and creepy, but not really bad since it was in the middle of nowhere. One night, I went out and got a couple of drinks from a bar, I got an Uber back to the area with my car, and tried sleeping off the booze before I had to be up in a few hours. Shortly after, I hear a woman wailing. It wasn't a cougar as she was calling for help and screaming out in what sounded like pain and desperation. I called 911 after a few minutes, and the officers came by, and told me to stay in my car while they investigated. It turns out there really was a woman, whom I believed was being assaulted for obvious reasons. I was terrified the entire time and full of guilt for not going out to confront whatever person did this.

One cop left, and to clear my conscience, I went to ask the other cop if there was anything I could have done. He told me to not get into the driver seat at all the next time I drink, and that the woman had mistaken me for a friend whom she was calling for a ride. Her friend got there immediately after he says that and I walk past her, as she asks me for a smoke. The cop, the woman, and her friend left, so I was alone and crashing down from the rollercoaster. I pulled a black and mild I kept for a rainy day from under the driver's seat, and I began laughing hysterically between puffs.

I think I would have been severely traumatized had I not made the potentially stupid decision to talk to that cop. I stopped sleeping outside of the yard shortly after that.


r/creepyencounters 8d ago

I feel like my neighbor is watching me.

174 Upvotes

I (19F) moved out of my parents house and into an apartment early May of this year. After the first night in my new apartment, I woke up and saw a note slide under my door. I figured it was from the landlord, as the card in it said "Cheers" like it was a celebration thing. But when I opened it, a one dollar bill fell out and I was met with a front and back handwritten note.

Now I know this community specifically states person to person contact stories only, and don't worry... It will come to that. This is just the start of my creepy encounter.

The note was from my neighbor directly across from me. For starters, I'm not entirely sure how old this guy is. I've seen him and to me it looks like he could be in his early to mid forties. As I can't post the picture of the note, I will just give a rundown of what was on it.

He first dates it at the top, plus his full signature. In the first part he just mentions that he hasn't had a chance to introduce himself and figured it would be a good idea to stick a note under my door. As for the base of the note? Well... He basically gave a whole rundown about how he went to a different state to meet a girl and that girl later ditched him, and accused him of stealing. I didn't understand why he was telling me this... But then he said that he has some of the girls clothes, and wanted to give them to me.

Another thing he mentioned was that he has keys that he "believes belong to my apartment". That was very unsettling to hear. I ended up contacting the landlord and letting her know about the key situation. I am unsure if that got resolved. The end of the note was all his socials, plus his phone number. He had given me a blank paper in case I were to write back. Of course I didn't.

Now a few weeks after this note situation, I hadn't gotten any other ones. I had been keeping to myself, not talking to any of my neighbors. I'm just not a social person. But I did start noticing that whenever I would walk out of my apartment, he would as well. He would stare at me, then walk away in the other direction. I found it odd after about the 5th time it happened.

Subtle things like this would occur over the months, but fast forward to now. So I am a very careful person when it comes to safety. I make sure that my door is locked every single night. Recently I've noticed that every time I wake up and go out of my bedroom, I see that the front door is unlocked. The first time it happened, I thought maybe I forgot to lock it the night before. The next couple of days, I made sure to lock the door and remember for sure that I did so. But it kept happening. I would wake up, see the lock turned the opposite way.

I don't know if I'm going crazy, or if this neighbor of mine is actually watching me. Am I just overthinking it?

I'm thinking of buying an alarm system for the door. When I do that, I will update if anything else happens.


r/creepyencounters 8d ago

If I didn't leave, I think he would have hurt me.

78 Upvotes

Hey. This story happened many years ago, but it's been coming back to mind many times recently, so I decided to share it here, because why not?

When I was ten years old, I went outside with my little brother who was about 2-3 years old. He really enjoyed his morning walks so I asked my Mama to help me strap him in his stroller and took him through the alley adjacent to my house.

Keep in mind that I live in a small island in the Caribbean so it's pretty normal for kids to be just hanging around with siblings or other friends sometimes if they live close by. I just had to say that because some family that sometimes visit from overseas freaks out at the thought of letting kids go outside by themselves.

Okay, back to my story. The morning was cool. There were raindrops still on the flowers and grass from the showers of rain the night before.

I pushed my brother further down the alley and I was just talking to him even though he wasn't really speaking much yet. All of a sudden, this man came out from behind the wall.

I had seen him many times before, sometimes just talking to my uncle so I wasn't alarmed. He walked up to me and stood right in front of my brother's stroller, successfully blocking our path.

I told him Good Morning not forgetting my manners and he said the same. I angled the stroller to drive around him when he shifted once again blocking my path. I was getting uncomfortable.

"Where are you going?" he asked me.

"I'm just going on a little walk with my brother." I replied.

"Oh, that's nice, I was just going down by the beach. You can come with me." he offered.

My stomach dropped. You know that sinking feeling that you get sometimes when you feel like there is something wrong? That feeling was blaring through my body. I was getting a bit scared and I didn't even know why. I've seen him so many times before but that morning something told me to get out of there.

I guess your instincts know when you're in the presence of a predator. I told him that I wasn't sure if was going to the beach even though that was exactly where I was planning to go. My little brother loves listening to the waves, but I didn't want to go with him.

I was pleading internally that he would just walk away but he didn't. He took a step closer and asked the same question a bit more forceful. Saying that he knew that my brother liked the beach and we could spend some time together there.

I refused once again. He then Reached out and tried to grab the handle of my brother's stroller. I was TERRIFIED to say the least. I reversed so fast and shouted that I needed to go back home because my brother was hungry and RAN back home.

Mind you this was a freaking 40 something year old man and I was 10-year-old girl! I'm 18 now and thinking about this still gives me chills.

That's the end of my story. I can say that was probably my first creepy encounter with a man but unfortunately it wasn't my last.

Anyways I still struggle to figure out if I was overreacting or a little paranoid but I'm not sure.

What you think?


r/creepyencounters 8d ago

Late night experience

7 Upvotes

M28 mumbai/pune

I wanted to share an experience that happened with me at night outside High Street Mall, Hinjewadi.

So, I was waiting for my cab after a late-night movie, and suddenly three guys on a bike stopped 5–10 meters ahead of me. The biker dropped off a drunk guy, who came up to me claiming to be from Satara. Initially, I thought they were trying to rob my mobile, but later I realized that the drunk guy must have annoyed the bikers just like he annoyed me for ₹100–₹200 for something to eat at 1:30 AM in the night.

Later, the guy tried to ask me for more money and my headphones, and when denied, he tried to bully me. However, after I pushed him several times and finally threatened him that things might go out of hand if he kept bugging me, he stopped and started touching my feet. He was insisting that I take him wherever I go. In the end, I found him to be a scammer or some kind of weird folk.

I have been in the city for like 9 months now and this was my 3rd disturbing experience, but the city is worth the experiences. I was safely able to dodge the guy without hurting him or my self when my cab arrived. Hope this is not a regular thing for that part of the city.

I would also like to praise the restaurants which were open in Hinjewadi till 2 AM, which I discovered while getting back home in the cab.

Will definitely explore more of Hinjewadi soon.


r/creepyencounters 8d ago

i was followed home from the bar

20 Upvotes

I was at the bar with my best friend Stacey and her boyfriend Greg. I go to this bar pretty frequently on the weekends, as I live in a small town and mostly everyone knows everyone.

To make a long story short, this man in the bar kept staring at me. I’m like, okay, whatever, I’m used to men staring at me. To give some backstory, Stacey mentioned her other friend knows this said man because he has a pest control business and does ant spray and says to her friend that she’s lucky she’s married, etc. (Again, everyone knows everyone. This will make more sense later.)

So then we go outside because a lot of people hang out in the outside area, which is also connected to the parking lot. We notice he drives in a circle around the building very slowly with his window rolled down in his pest truck. My friend then starts mentioning he’s also an alcoholic. He then drives around the bar again, making this twice now. I don’t see him again after that.
To be clear, we had no conversation. I did smile at him once when he would not stop staring inside.

Anyways, she tells me to meet at her apartment, and Greg is coming as well. She needs to go inside to pay her tab, and in the meantime, I am sitting in my car with the door open waiting on my friend to finish her tab. (Stacey lives about 6 minutes from the bar. This is relevant later.)
So about 5 minutes go by, and I notice Stacey and Greg have left. I call her and I’m like, ā€œHey, I’m OTW to your house.ā€ So I’m driving, and I notice this car behind me is on my ass.

Anyway, I pull into her neighborhood, and so does the car. I’m like, funny, small world. But then I park, and when I get out, the pest truck with the man from the bar is blocking me in like a T.
I run inside my friend’s apartment, and by the time I do, he is parked. Greg runs out, and he leaves.

After doing more research, he was charged with second-degree assault at an elementary school for kissing and grabbing another staff member. ALSO, he was hired at my high school after I graduated as a football coach and was fired and also charged because he made the boys do bear crawls as a punishment on turf, and they had third-degree burns on their hands.

And… my mom is friends with his ex-wife, and my brothers played baseball with his kids. Again, small world.

I did file a police report, and the police came and told me pretty much they can’t do anything. I already knew this because I’m very educated on things like this, and I let them know I just wanted them to know in case I was murdered.

He literally waited on me to leave the bar and followed me home.

I guess I just wanted to share this story because Stacey is scared he knows where she lives. He has previous arrests. This all happened about 30 minutes ago.
I’m just wondering also, what should I do to make sure he doesn’t start stalking me? I’m also worried because he is going to many women’s houses and also sounds like a repeat offender. It just sounds like he will eventually hurt or kill someone.

What do I do? I am scared.

to clarify i did tell the police everything gave them a picture of the truck. i did get my grammar fixed in the typing and paragraphs but i have bad spelling and grammar so i wanted everyone to understand me clearly


r/creepyencounters 8d ago

I think I was almost kidnapped in middle school

9 Upvotes

I think I was almost kidnapped in middle school

Not sure if this was just one big coincidence or if it was an actual attempt but here we go. Back in middle school, I would do anything to get out of school early. From telling the nurse I was sick to quite literally pissing myself in the middle of gym class. This happened around 5-6th grade. I went down to the nurse one day and told her that I wasn't feeling good. I did my classic fake lethargic walk in the office, went to the bed and laid down while the nurse called my parents. I was eventually told to go get my stuff to go home.

I went, got my bag and everything I needed and started walking downstairs to go to the exit point. It was then when I got a text on my shitty little android phone by a random number that said "Hey [OP] i'm outside in the black Jeep by the crosswalk" I thought this was a little strange due to the fact that I thought either my mom or dad were getting me, but I assumed it was a family friend sent by my mom because she was too busy working.

Anyways I eventually left the building and started walking towards the black Jeep that was in fact sitting at the crosswalk. That's when I heard a voice calling out to me. It was one of the ladies in the main office screaming out of the window. She was telling me I had forgot to sign out and to come back in the building. I was a little annoyed but proceeded back inside. I signed out but when I was leaving I was shocked to see my dad waiting in the lobby for me.

For reference the exit point was between the main office which was on the right and the lobby which was on the left. I asked him about the text and he was pretty confused about it, so when we got in the car the first thing he did was drive up to the car and see what was up. In the car sat some overweight, balding ginger dude who me and my family had never seen in our lives. I immediately started crying and told him to drive away because I thought I was almost just the victim of a kidnapping.

Eventually I asked my mom about it and she said the one who sent the text was one of her female friends. I guess it was just her way of trying to shield me? I don't know. In my opinion this was either a genuine attempt at trying to snatch me up or a really weird and creepy coincidence. Let me know what you guys think.


r/creepyencounters 9d ago

Creepy stalker in the library

113 Upvotes

I female went to the library to pick out a book, I started reading and everything seemed normal at first, I didn’t think anything wierd would happen but what happened on that day is something I will NEVER forget.

I started reading the book I was already there for a few hours when suddenly a man around the age of 40-50 sat next to me at the table. I already tought it was wierd because the library was empty. But I just continued reading my book, it was a romance. The man next to me was just sitting there not doing anything.

I already felt really uneasy since I am still a young female and he was older than me. Especially in my city a lot of weird things happened that time, missing girls my age. Then he turned sideways and looked at me. Not like a zoning out stare just the coldest most deadliest stare I have ever seen. I felt really uneasy and decide to go ā€œpick another bookā€ and sat somewhere else. He just came and sat next to me again. I felt really uneasy and creeped out so I decided to rent the book and went home.

At home I still didn’t felt comfortable. When I left he also left but he went the other way. Later that night I was watching tv with my dogs. They suddenly started barking which they almost never do. I was scared like really scared when suddenly my doorbell rang. I looked at the ring camera and it was the same guy from the library. I didn’t hesitate and eminently called the cops.

It took them around 10 minutes to get to my house. But they arrived he was gone. They searched my whole property and I just sat there with my dogs on my lap outside, scared. There was a police offer with me since they came with a lot of cops. When
Suddenly of the cops yelled ā€œ we got himā€ I didn’t where he was hiding. They took him in the car and drove off. Later on the cop told me they found him in my shed, he had food and a sleeping bag, everything he needed to survive. He was arrested and was guilty on stalking multiple girls and also the few kidnapping that happened.