People Describe Their Absolutely Creepy Brushes With Weird Strangers
Meeting a new person can be exciting, but it comes with a risk. Even if the person is smiling and friendly, it's not possible to ever truly know what is going inside their head. After reading these stories, you might want to rethink talking to that stranger during the middle of the night because there is always the possibility of encountering a creep. It could literally happen to anyone.
Here is a compilation of most spine-tingling, scary, and true stories told by Redditors who've had regrettable encounters with strangers at the mall, on the road, and even in their homes.
Man Walks Into Bookstore And Gets Drugged By Middle-Aged Woman
I was driving home through back roads I had never been on and came across a book store in a tiny town in the woods. The bookstore was actually a house where the front of the home had been converted into a store. There was a box on the porch that said "$.50 books!" so I stopped to see if there were any Stephen King books in there.
A middle aged woman comes out with a huge smile and gives me a bowl of fruit and some tea. I'm like, "This place is awesome!" and rifled through the books while eating the fruit and downing the tea.
Inside the store/home, there were a lot of cool art books and stuff, so I spent some more time in there. She brought me more tea. Even when I said, "no thank you, that's plenty," she kept refilling. She gave me dessert, too - brownies and cookies. I didn't realize it at the time, but she was [slipping stuff into my drink]. It's hazy to remember the details, but at some point, she closed the shop, telling me to take my time looking at the books. She told me that she was going to go take a shower and was gone for a while.
When I was ready to pay, I had to wander back through her house to find her. I found her in her bedroom. She was in bed. I'm pretty sure she was [in the buff]. At the time, I thought "Weird. She's watching an exercise video in bed?" but later realized she was watching [explicit content].
You might think this is hot, but it isn't. She was my mom's age and had been telling me how she reminded me of her kids in college, so not hot. I told her I was ready to pay, and she told me how to open the register, so I went and opened it, put in what I thought I owed, took out the change, and left.
When I stumbled outside, a fire engine drove by, screaming with sirens. In the distance was the glow of a big forest fire, and the stars were being covered by smoke. A tall man on a horse watched the fire truck pass. He looked right at me, took a piece of wood or something out of his mouth, and said, "Town's burnin'." I swear to God I have a crystal clear memory of this happening, even though I'm sure it couldn't have. By this point, I guess I was seriously tripping balls on something. I'm not a [substance] guy, so I don't know what I had, but I was out of my mind and could hardly walk.
I got back in my car, and drove home along twisting roads on tall cliffs above the ocean. Twice I realized I was on the wrong side of the road. One of the times I realized this was because a massive truck was headed straight for me, laying on the horn and flashing its lights. I kept thinking about how my car could be like an airplane and a submarine if I drove it off the cliff. I can't believe I made it home alive.
Later, I realized I was in that house for about four hours looking at books. At least that's what I hope I was doing.
Woman Gets Flashed At Gas Station
From Redditor/u/wonderlandian:
One time, I got a flat very late at night, so I pulled into a gas station. I tried putting air in my tire, but the valve broke off as I tried, causing the tire to completely deflate.
I was standing outside my car, talking to AAA when a large, older Black man approached me. He disregarded the fact that I was on the telephone and asked if I needed help. A little weirded out, I smiled politely and thanked him, but told him I had AAA, and they would take care of me. He insisted that he would help me and gestured towards a silver car parked in the shadows, telling me he would drive me anywhere. I again thanked him and told him no. He then said he was there to buy a soda and asked if I wanted anything. At this point, I was fed up and a little scared, so I firmly told him he needed to go buy his soda, and I was going to get into my car now.
He walked off, I locked myself in the car, and the dispatcher at AAA, who had been on the phone for the entire conversation, asked if I wanted her to call the police. I told her, "No, it's fine." I didn't want to come off as racist. God, I was an idiot. I've since learned the difference between racism and looking out for your personal well being.
"Well," the woman from AAA said, "You might not think you're in any danger, but I'm concerned, so I'm bumping you to the top of the list." We hung up, and I sat in the car, bored.
At this point, I noticed my new friend had come out of the store and was standing about 20 feet from my car, staring at me. I thought this was very bizarre, and I started feeling a little nervous. I made sure my doors were safely locked.
Over the next 20 minutes or so, I would take sidelong glances in his direction to see if he was still there. Eventually, he disappeared, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
Then, suddenly, I saw him again - he had stepped back inside the store and was crouched behind a window, staring directly at me. This was too much- racism or no, I was fucking freaked out. I called 911.
"911, what is your emergency?"
I explained the situation, and that I was scared.
"OK, I'll dispatch an officer to you immediately."
"Oh, no, that won't be necessary. I don't want to waste anyone's time. Could you please just stay on the phone with me until the tow truck gets here? That way, if he approaches me again, I can show him I'm on the phone with the police."
"Alright, sweetheart, can you tell me exactly where you are?"
"Sure. I'm at the Hess on Colonial and Mercy Drive, it looks like."
The dispatcher paused.
"Miss, I don't mean to alarm you, but I need to let you know you are currently stranded at one of the most dangerous intersections in the country. I'm dispatching an officer immediately. You need to promise that you won't exit your car for any reason and do not hang up the phone until either a police officer or your tow truck is there."
So, I stay on the phone, nervous, but not really thinking anything would happen. I would occasionally glance back at the store to see if Mr. Creeper was still there...until, finally, he disappeared!
I told the dispatcher, very relieved by this turn of events when suddenly, the man somehow appeared in front of my car! He was walking right towards me, straight into my headlights! He reached down to adjust his pants when - BAM. Yeah, that's right. He pulled his [junk] out. I burst into tears and started shouting into the phone what was happening. I averted my eyes to the steering wheel, not wanting to look at it.
Now, since I was looking at my steering wheel, it came as quite a surprise when he appeared at my passenger door and tried to force his way in. Adrenaline is a funny thing; no longer was I a broken victim - I was [angry].
I started screaming all sorts of obscenities at him. I told him I was on the phone with the police, and they were going to put [him] in jail. The poor 911 dispatcher must have thought I opened my door to scream at him, so she in turn was screaming at me to shut the door and wait for the cops.
After maybe three minutes of screaming at him, he seemed to realize I wasn't responding favorably to his attempts at wooing the gentle lady that I am. He strolled towards some gas pumps about 10 feet away and stayed there.
Several minutes after that, the tow truck rolled in. A gentlemen got out of the truck and started heading my way. He noticed I wasn't getting out of my car to greet him, so he pointed at his hat, which proudly stated AAA. He got right up to my car door, and I shook my head violently, refusing to get out. I cracked the door open, and his face changed. He saw that I had tears running down my cheeks and mascara smeared under my eyes.
I explained quickly what had happened, nodding towards the man calmly standing by the gas pumps. He had put his d*ck away at this point.
I saw the tow truck driver's face harden.
"Did that [man] hit you?"
He thought the smeared mascara was, in fact, a set of black eyes. I shook my head no.
"Lock your doors and tell the police to get... here now. I'm going to make sure [he] doesn't leave."
I watched him walk over to Mr. Creeper and held my breath, expecting fists to be thrown. Instead, I saw what looked like a very cordial conversation. I found out after that he decided to pleasantly ask for directions to keep him here.
Suddenly, we heard sirens. Mr. Creeper wildly looked in the direction of the sound, then directly at me, then glared at my "Knight in Rusty Armor." He realized he had been tricked.
The police showed up, he was handcuffed, and I had to write the mother of all witness statements. They searched him, and it turns out he had a... pipe on him, and that he was under the influence of [coke].
That's my story. It wasn't pleasant, but I'm glad it happened to me, and I was able to get him [detained]. I shudder to think what would have happened to some other poor girl if he had gone free that night.
12-year-old Wakes Up In Middle Of Night And Encounters Intruder
When I was about 12, I had a lot of issues with night terrors and rarely slept a whole night through.
One night, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I sat down half-asleep, thinking of nothing but emptying my bladder and going back to bed, when I see movement out of the corner of my eye. There was a man standing by the other door to the bathroom staring at me, not moving. He was wearing a tattered grey jump suit and had a crutch, little to no hair.
I don't remember how I got down into the basement where my parents slept, but suddenly there I was, hysterical.
My dad finally went up and looked in the bathroom and kitchen. He saw nothing, but allowed me to sleep on the couch down there anyway. I didn't fall back asleep.
About an hour or so later, I heard the sliding door to the bathroom from my sister's room and limping footsteps.
The next morning, my dad searched around and noticed that the fridge and pantry had been raided. We never caught the guy.
Girl Finds Bearded Man Under Her Bed
My sister had been taking sleeping pills because she was stressed out about the HSC (Australian version of SAT) and wasn't getting much sleep. The problem was they were giving her weird night terrors. I don't know why this didn't make her stop taking them, but whatever.
Anyway, one night she thought she heard breathing under her bed so looked and saw a large bearded man in dirty clothes there. She screamed and ran to her parents room, but they dismissed it as just being the pills. She was semi-convinced, so she went back to bed and forced herself not to check under the bed again.
The next morning, they wake up, and the entire bottom floor of the house was messed up, and a bunch of stuff was stolen.
Girl Helps Man Cross Street; He Shows His Empty Eye Socket
From Redditor/u/ernestisimportant:
I used to live next to an eye hospital.
One day, walking home, I was stopped by an old man who clearly had trouble seeing. He asked me to help him across the road to the hospital. I agreed, and he grabbed ahold of my hand very tightly.
At this point, I noticed his fingers were stained brown from tobacco, covered in scabs, and his fingernails were very long and dirty. I started to think that my good deed for the day would be a bit regrettable.
When we got to the other side of the road, he still had my hand grasped so tightly I couldn't politely pull away.
"Do you want to see my eye?" he said.
One of his eyes was squeezed shut. With his free hand, he pulled the lids apart, and I realized to my horror that he had no eyeball, just an empty socket.
I started babbling (still trying to be polite) about how that was very interesting, but I had to go. Then he uttered the immortal words: "Do you want to put your finger in there?" He was pulling really hard on my hand trying to force my fingers into his empty eye socket.
At this point, I gave up on politeness and struggled my hand free and just ran for it. I could hear him laughing as I ran off.
Teen Gets Chased By Man While Walking Home At Night
I was 16 and walking home from work late at night when a guy pulled up beside me and started asking, "Do you live around here?" and "Where are your parents?"
His questions got more personal; he asked me what school I went to, where I worked, etc. Then out of nowhere, he said, "You're a really brave girl for being out alone this late. You know I'd really like to f*ck you."
I was scared... and didn't know what to do.
Then he said, "I'll be right back," and drove off.
Once he left, I started bolting the rest of the way home thinking he'd come back [for me] if I didn't make it home quickly enough.
He swerved back a few minutes later and saw me running, pulled up closer to me, and began screaming for me to get in his car. I just kept running as he trailed me, and I ended up hurrying into a 24-hour store and called my dad for a lift (who was just really annoyed I'd woken him up and didn't care at all about what was happening).
Later on, I felt stupid for disclosing so much personal info to a stranger, and I now realize he was only trying to gauge my vulnerability. I was terrified he'd track me down for a bit, but I never saw him again - I think.