We got a security system the next day.
Nearest neighbors were a quarter mile or so up or down the road.
Its an area where people definitely keep to themselves.
Had all sorts of animal visitors bears on the porch, you name it but never random people around.
One morning, I went out to my car to go to work.
It was spring, and wed had a late frost.
Naturally, i was up all night playing on our PS2 in there, having a blast.
I freaked right the hell out and snuck to the door to double check the locks.
Then he moved back to the window and called in let me in love im cold and hungry.
Dont you wanna be nice to your neighbor?
I used to rent a room in a basement apartment.
My friends family lived in the real house upstairs, which is how I ended up there.
But they were being so loud upstairs, I was having trouble focusing.
So much chatter and feet moving around.
Sounded like dancing was going on.
I texted my friend: you guys sound like youre really having a good time up there.
Im not really getting anything done, can I come up?
And then I just went for a walk until someone else got home.
Last year I was renting a house in a small, economically depressed old mining town in Appalachia.
I figured someone must have the wrong address… but it kept turning, persistently.
Then the door started shaking violently, and a hand began punching it.
I tried one last time: Wrong place!
Go away, man!
Someone on the other side growled at me and started making horrifying noises like a wild animal.
I grabbed a kitchen knife and called the police, then waited inside.
About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
I opened it cautiously to see an officer who questioned me about the incident.
Then he asked me to close it again and remain inside.
For about 20 minutes, there was just silence.
The guy was pushing out the screen and trying to climb inside.
I held up the knife and yelled Im gonna kill you!
in my most threatening voice possible.
Thankfully, I immediately heard Get on the ground!
Show me those hands!
Heard another horrible wail from outside as the guy was presumably tackled and taken to a police car.
A few minutes later, another knock at the door.
The officer was back to tell me that the suspect had been captured.
This guy was a uniformed cop, but he was visibly trembling and super pale.
I still hadnt seen what the intruder looked like.
Probably a meth addict or some other bang out of drug user.
Those habits dont go well with delusions involving slasher film characters.
I slowly check the apartment for intruders only to find nothing.
Somehow the door was unlocked while I was sleeping and opened by what I choose to call the wind.
My fiance and I purchased a foreclosed home in a not so great neighborhood a few years back.
Fiance is still at work so I cant sleep.
The window that was one foot away from me while lying in bed.
I remember thinking damned squirrels when I heard the squirrels start cursing and mumbling.
Then the sound of a screw driver lifting the window frame starts up.
I start screaming bloody murder that I have a gun and Im calling the cops.
The officers go scrambling off and I slam the door and lock it; once again, freaking out.
I go get back in the bed to wait for fiance to get home.
He calls on his way and wants me to stay on the phone with him until he gets here.
He and the cops got there at the same time and searched the yard again.
Theyd been one step behind him the whole night and had cruisers everywhere.
Oh, and the cursing at the window?
One of the officers went to the bedroom window and saw the screen removed.
[Yes, we are currently house hunting.
This is sadly not a one off.]
One night I was waiting for something to finish in the oven, so I started washing dishes.
Once my food was cooked, I sat in front of the tv to eat dinner.
I live about 15 miles out of town and dont have any close neighbors.
I could hear what sounded like a truck idling.
Because Im in the middle of nowhere, sound travels.
Sometimes something thats a mile away sounds like its pretty close, so I didnt pay much attention.
Anyways, after dinner, I went back to finish the dishes and had no water.
The only thing I could think of was that maybe the breaker had tripped for the well.
The smaller switches control the well pump and an outlet.
I get to the breaker box outside and the door is open and the main breaker is off.
So the noise that I heard was someone shutting off the breaker and waiting outside.
I guess they thought it would shut off power to the house and Id come outside to investigate.
I locked my gate for the night and then again when I left for work that next morning.
I was looking after my mothers house for a week while she was on holiday.
She had two cats that come in and out the house via a cat flap, very nice animals.
Always cuddly and playful even when they were old.
So I get woken up in the middle of the night by loud meows from downstairs.
I thought maybe the cat flap was stuck and they wanted to get out.
Then I see my mothers cats sat amongst them just chilling and meowing happily.
I left them all too it and they were gone in the morning.
My two year old kid was at my moms for the night.
We both sat in shocked silence.
I went and checked and of course she was not there.
My wife and I still dont like to discuss it to this day.
Dinner was creepy the rest of the night.
My dad build me a room in the basement as a kid, it was awesome to have privacy.
Started to experience the craziest shit when Id be home.
But, Id find random things sometimes, like soup cooking/boiling over on the stove.
I seriously believed in ghosts for a bit.
If itd been now I would have recognized the famous Reddit story, but back then no idea.
I could have died, thats the scary part.
I was slapped hard while I was asleep.
Woke up with my cheek hurting and ears ringing.
I lived alone at that time.
And she never replied.
But yeah I did see him do that in person sometime later, so nothing paranormal there at least.
Once, when I was around 12, I was home alone and taking a bath.
I had no idea what to do at all, I was so freaked out.
I opened it and waited.
There was no one there.
No one had broken in to the house.
Ok, kinda weird but shes enjoying herself.
I told my sister not to go outside while she was there.
I kept checking on her every once in a while.
After a while, she stood up and started skipping and singing again like nothing happened.
we only had one phone in the house, and it was this one.
so this definitely fucked with me.
just the white noise youd hear over the phone when its quiet on the other line, you know?
i think about it every so often and feel a little sick.
the little girl sounded upset, and it sounded like there was someone with her.
i dont know what i could have done, but i sure as shit didnt do it.
My bedroom window is fairly big and frosted with a dark curtain covering it.
It sits directly next to our front door which leads to a porch.
There he was, a man raggedly dressed not menacingly but incecently pacing back and forth.
So he wanders around my house a while.
She gave him an earful about not taking tours of what was clearly a private residence.
After that we put up a Private Residence sign and all carried keys.
I moved into my place a couple years ago.
2 weeks into it, theres a little flower necklace in my mailbox one day.
I throw it out and keep on truckin.
Next day I came home and theres a pair of sunglasses (that looked female to me?
but could probably work for either party?)
and a note that basically says hey I think youd look good in these.
You should wear them next time were together, blah blah .
So clearly this person probably just thinks Im somebody else?
Again, I ignore it, keep everything as evidence IF NEEDED and move on.
Three days later, I come home and check my mail expecting there to be something.
This means they know which apartment Im in.
Im not whoever you think I am.
A YEAR LATER TO THE DAY, I come home and find another flower necklace in my mailbox.
I took it out, ripped it up, threw it in the nearby trash can and went upstairs.
I was sleeping in bed and suddenly woke up like something had made me jump.
I laughed and said oh my god you scared me, and he got into my bed.
I reached out my arms to hug him, and I felt nothing.
Shortly after sunset I heard loud pounding on the front door alternating with rapid doorbell ringing.
I called out, Hello?
and the light disappeared.
I called 911 and five officers and a canine unit were at the house within minutes.
They sent the dog into the basement and it didnt find anybody.
I think I must be hearing things but then both dogs start barking their heads off.
I took a shovel and walked the perimeter of the house but found nothing.
After that grandpa updated the security system.
He ended up.coming home pretty early as he was tired and he said the party wasnt fun.
Next morning he goes down to the car to grab us breakfast and comes in and he is PISSED.
First snowfall the night before, someone wrote cheater in the snow on his car.
One time someone flicked me on the forehead while I slept… Alone.
Which is kind of cute but also left me with trouble sleeping.
But nope, they were all intact.
I almost never touch that thing.
I live alone in a studio apartment.
He was a generally really clueless guy (didnt realize anyone was home?)
so neither my husband or myself thought he meant anything by it, but we were both really pissed.
This happened in the 70s in Australia.
I was about 14.
I was reading books in my bedroom when I noticed a bit of noise.
I could only just barely hear it but there was definitely a noise.
Sounded like it was coming from inside the house.
But the TV was off and we didnt have a radio.
Suddenly everything was scary.
A moment ago I was having a good time, now everything felt wrong.
So I took a breath and crept round the corner of the hallway and into the living room.
Im on the balls of my feet and trying to avoid making any noise.
Now Im here I can see the living room is empty but the noise is louder still.
Its definitely coming from the kitchen, and even worse, I can now tell what the noise is.
Its two voices, and they are having a whispered argument.
Now I am seriously scared.
The only explanation I can think of is robbers.
So as quietly as I can I creep towards the corner.
Im moving very slowly.
Ive even got my mouth open in case my breath gives me away.
I reach the corner and juuussst stick one eye around and the kitchen is empty.
But I can still hear the voices.
And theyre louder than ever.
I can almost make out what they are arguing about now.
Again I stand there.
This time I am telling myself I dont believe in ghosts.
And yet how the fuck can two invisible men be having an argument in the kitchen?
I creep into the kitchen and realise the voices are coming from the stove.
The voices are indeed two people arguing; theyre on some kind of radio talk show.
Im 55 now and this is still the most frightened Ive been in my life.
I was about 14 and was playing COD with my best friends at the time.
My brother, who usually is home with me, had a party to go to.
So here I was home alone, with my playstation and pizza I ordered… score!
My friend and I were still playing at 2am when I hear the doorbell go off.
Thats when this dude goes berserk.
He begins to pound on the door and screams to let him in.
So Im juggling my phone call to the emergency services as well as my parents.
I hang up with my parents and thats when the banging stops.
Hes trying to break a window to get in.
Hes still screaming to let him in.
Turns out the dude grabbed a statue and was banging on the window with that.
It still blows my mind that the window did not break.
My brother and his friends threw him down our stairs.
Coincidentally, thats when the police also showed up.
The paramedics were called and by this time we had given him a blanket and warm water.
The paramedics told us if he were outside for another hour he wouldve died of hypothermia.
We declined to press charges, his parents came and apologised profusely.
Theyve never bothered us again.
Was staying alone in my brothers apartment while he was at sea.
I was across the country away from everyone I know.
Late at night I hear a cell phone ringing from somewhere inside the apartment.
An old, creepy-ass Nokia cell phone ring, like in a horror movie.
I should mention the apartment was almost bare so there wasnt many places to hide something.
Eventually, it stopped ringing.
Texted my brother and asked if he left an extra cell phone home, he said no.
I never did hear the ring again.
I will always wonder what the hell that was all about.
I was at home by myself one night, hanging out with my chameleon.
I looked around me and nothing was there.
When I was around 7 or 8 I would be home alone for about 2 hours every morning.
I walked down stairs, and I went down on the ground hard.
This of course freaked me out.
The alarm got set off by the dog.
The dog got scared and pissed on the floor.
I slipped on the piss.
Then the police got called over by the alarm company.
These are my moms stories, not mine.
Every other weekend my brother and i would go to my dads leaving my mom home alone.
Shed be sitting on the couch and hear furniture being dragged across the floor upstairs.
Obviously we were gone and noone else was home.
This happened often, multiple times a week and even when we were home.
My mom said it wasnt us.
He called bullshit and went upstairs to catch us.
Other times the taps would turn on, mostly the one in the bathroom connected to my moms room.
Another time, she had went to bed.
So shes listening, thumpthumpthump thump thumpthumpthump silence.
It stopped right at her door.
She said it was the only time she had been scared in that house.
There are so many stories from this place, i could go on and on.
How she sat alone at night despite the things that went on are beyond me.
It freaked me right out.
I woke up within an hour, hearing a tapping coming from my window.
An insistent, repetitive tapping.
So I have a dilemma.
For about ten minutes by feel, but it might have been less.
Dude stops tapping and meets me at the door.
He slurs out what are you watching?
Can…can I watch?
And then I shut and locked the door as he stumbled off to his own house.
That was the last day I left the door open.
Or slept with my curtains open.
That second bang turned out to be the sound of my neighbor shooting and killing his daughter.
Those wood shavings that had gotten into my eye?
However, I heard his daughter scream No!
before he fired the second time no way in hell it was accidental.
Testifying against him was terrifying, because if he got off?
Well, he was my parents neighbor and I knew he wasnt above murder.
Thankfully, the DA made sure he didnt get off.
Hes 70 years old now and has another 20+ years of jail time with no possibility of parole.
Its about midnight or so and I get woken out of a dead sleep.
Why am I awake?
I lift my head and look around in my dark bedroom, listening.
Hes at the foot of my bed from the sound of it.
I sit up, staring at him, and realize hes staring towards the ceiling.
No one lives above me.
What the hell is going on?
My heart is absolutely racing because my cat has never acted like this before.
Theres a motherfucking bat flying around my ceiling.
I had never, ever heard him growl before.
I refused to even go near the door.
I have no neighbors, only an abandoned apartment building next door.
The snowfall was very heavy that night, all footprints were erased leaving the ground with a blank slate.
The dogs began barking into the darkness outside the windows.
I go to the door, look outside and find no one there.
Then the knocking started at the back door, a glass panel door with a motion detector overhead.
The light did not turn on and I could not see anyone standing there.
Then both doors were knocked upon at once very violently shaking them.
About twenty minutes later it subsided.
To this day I still get freaked out being home alone.
I came home one night after a couple of days away.
The air conditioner had stopped working during this time and it was over 100 degrees in the house.
There were spiders hanging from the ceiling barely moving.
They were all hanging about 2-3 down from the ceiling.
I then went to town and got a hotel room.
Came back the next day and swept/vacuumed the little bastards up.
I can honestly say it is the most creeped out Ive ever been.
I lived in a basement apartment.
All of the windows had secure screens with no holes.
I had an indoor cat that had never been outside.
I still cant explain how that bird got in.
I was about 21 (but looked a lot younger) and recently moved into a duplex.
I popped inside to cool off for a few minutes and ended up drifting to sleep on the couch.
I woke up to someone knocking and looked out the peephole to see what looked like a door-to-door salesman.
He looked a bit surprised and asked are your parents home?.
I got a big dog after that and made sure to not leave my door unlocked anymore.
I was freaked out called my SO while searching the house and found nothing.
Went to bed and heard a loud noise at 4 AM.
My 70 pound dog was jumping on the desk to lay.
My parents were at work and my nearly 80 year old grandma had come over to be with me.
I was in bed, she was somewhere else in the house.
She was breathless and managed to say ,Are you feeling better?
Some vomit came out of her mouth.
I ran to call for my grandma.
I knew she had died, but my parents pretended for at least ten years that she just fainted.
It was pretty harrowing, and I moved out of that room fairly quickly afterwards.
My little brother moved into it, he was far too young to grasp what might have gone on.
I can still see her falling and remember the noise she made.
My story happened a few years ago, back when I was still living with my mother.
Looking in, everything seemed to be in order, nothing looked strange or out of place.
It was a weird habit Ive had that Ill look in a room as I pass by.
So, I go to look into her room and nothing has moved.
My mom wasnt in her room, and she wasnt anywhere in the apartment.
This apartment has always kinda spooked me a bit.
But I love it all the same.
So the washer/dryer was in a utility room off the kitchen.
Suddenly this horrendous banging/rattling sound came from the utility room.
My sister was petrified.
I was so scared I couldnt move.
I thought the devil was in the house!
A dryer belt had broken and the tumbler was rolling loose inside like crazy.
I finished my night shift at 7am and went home.
I laid on my side, facing the closed concertina sliding door that separates my bedroom and living room.
I hear the clink of keys then the grinding of one entering the keyhole of the front door.
Then a voice says Im home, hun.
dont know to explain the accent.
Says cant as carnt.
Then a few more steps on the carpet and the concertina door slides open.
There stands the spitting image of what I perceive to be attractive.
A gal, ~55, 56.
Homely looking long straight hair, chubby but not overweight.
I feel the weight if the bed shift as she lazily plops onto the mattress and adjust herself.
As soon as she stops I feel my paralysis lift and I roll over.
Obviously, no one there.
But a few things are really unsettling about this at no point did my eyes open.
Meaning this was a hallucination, not a dream.
Knowing that, it means my brain was actively blocking information.
TL DR my brain is creepier than any neighbour, shadow or supernatural force.
Edit for the yanks: In proper English, Homely means comfortable, cosy.
There is only one window in the room.
It was about 9 at night and Im watching tv.
My curtains were closed and I didnt dare look out.
I was scared shitless.
I called my dad eventually and he met me back at the house and didnt see anything outside.
That was 5 years ago and I really never use that room anymore because of it.
Maybe not too scary, but I lived alone (still do) and had literally just moved in.
I opted to stay home on pretense i needed to study ( sure ).
So anyway its almost midnight i am focused on the game, crawling through ventilation ( lovely parts ).
Out of nowhere there is a hand on my shoulder.
I have never left door into my room unlocked ever again.
My kids were spending the night at my mothers so I was home alone.
Whilst standing in the kitchen, eating a t.v.
dinner over the sink like a savage, I started choking.
I woke up on the tile floor, face-down in a puddle of drool/vomit.
