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It's tax season, and at Lifelock, we know you're tired of numbers, but here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money and refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it. Guaranteed. One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply. For a little context I've always been pretty hardcore into the paranormal. Maybe a little too much because of this. I've always told myself if I encountered something paranormal to either record it or at least see what it is. Mostly because I always hated the guy who drops the camera and runs in the movie or video. I'm currently a 20 year old male living on Vancouver Island, Canada. My story starts when I was around 13 years old and my rural ish hometown. This one summer I came up with the idea to go camping on an island that was pretty much within earshot of my house. Two of my friends thought it was a good idea. Josh B. And Josh H. All of us were pretty interested in paranormal stuff, but had never really had an experience. The start of the trip was great. We set up our tent to build a fire and had even ordered some pizza. Something that I should probably add is that Josh B. Is the son of the native chief of the area that I lived in and apparently his dad told him before we went that it was a burial ground pit stop for bootleggers to hide themselves along with their goods. Many, many years ago. At the time we thought nothing much of this and we just laughed it off. We told some stories and had carved our names into the trees. Time flew and before we knew it it was starting to get dark. Around this time we had the idea to explore the island. So we packed a flashlight and we went on our trip. The island is very small, something that you could walk around in less than an hour, so it didn't take us very long. When we got back was when it got weird. We all came to our tent laughing and making noise like usual. The second we got back to the site, not even a second later, we heard loud footsteps crunching the leaves behind our tent. What sounded like human footsteps. Now just to clarify, I know every animal that we have here and so did my friends and it was definitely not an animal. We then heard more sounds of crunching. We all instantly shut up, but we couldn't see anything because it was dark and the noise was coming from behind the tent. We chose fight over flight and we all started yelling out, saying grab the knives. Over and over again. Since we had each brought these little pocket knives that we used for carving, we all rushed in the tent scrambling for them. As the crunches then got closer, we sat in the tent clutching our knives, waiting with each passing second feeling like an hour as the noise grew louder and closer to our tent. I cannot stress enough how vivid and scared we were and how human like the footsteps sounded. But whoever or whatever this thing was, it was getting closer and we were getting more and more afraid. Then my mind started racing. I thought of all the times that I said I would do something if I ever encountered the paranormal. I thought of my friends and the fact that we were definitely not about to go out like this. The thing had sounded within arm's reach of the tent and somehow I had built up a split second of courage, yelled some cuss words, and we all hopped out of the tent, screaming like apes. We all then started throwing big fire pit rocks in the direction of the noise until our arms got really tired. But there was nothing but silence and darkness. We were all just looking at each other in disbelief and all of us were visibly chilled to the bone. But here's the thing. This island was too small for any animals that could have made this sound. So we thought maybe it was a homeless person or something, but that would mean that he had to swim out there and then somehow get away without any of us noticing. We decided that whatever it was or whoever it was, we didn't want any part of it. And we went to sit on a bluff by the water. We discussed it for hours, just sitting by the water and not wanting to go back. Eventually, around 4am we had made it back to the tent, but I swear I didn't get a wink of sleep until the sun came up. We never figured out what or who it was. And I know it may not sound like much, but I know what I heard. If it wasn't some ghost or something, it had to either be a large animal or a homeless person. And there are literally no animals on this land except for birds. And like I said, the homeless person thing is a bit of a stretch. All three of us agreed with each other on this. None of us have a clue what it was. It's important to warn any kids out there or future parents on how to properly protect their kids. This was about 10 years ago, when I was about 8 years old. The story takes place in Bulgaria, a country in Eastern Europe just north of Greece and Turkey. The story will not contain names, only letters, as I would like to keep the anonymity of the participants in the story. Also, this story contains heavy violence and near death experience. My village that I grew up in originally was a very small village where everyone knew everyone. Narrow roads and a simple narrow design. Nowadays it's heavily invested into by millionaires who keep building hotels and houses on the available lands. But that's besides the point. The point is that it was a small village and our childish curiosity got the better of us. We were allowed to go outside and play by ourselves from a very early age. My best friend and two girls were present in the events of the story. I should mention that the village was built right next to a beach. That is why it is now a very famous tourist destination. We were bathing in the sea at night because even though our parents warned us to not go swimming at night, we still did because we were just very troublesome kids. While swimming and having water fights, one of the girls suggested that we should go beyond the premises of the village. Back then, the furthest point in the village and the most isolated one is right next to the main beach. It's a camping site for tourists, full of bungalows and camping sites that are designed to contain up to a thousand people. So it's quite a huge camp. In order to go beyond, we had to go through it. We had snuck up into the camp multiple times as one time one of the bigger kids in the village managed to break open a point in the fence alongside the east side of the campsite. Up until that point, we had to jump over the 4 meter fence. 13ft for Americans. So we snuck in, which isn't even the main part of the story, but I had to share how extreme and exciting it was to sneak around the bungalows under the windows so we didn't get spotted. Once we reached the other end of the camp, we had managed to jump over the fence and continued on onwards. It was just forest and pretty much the unknown. I had been taken outside the premises one or two times with my dad in order to go fishing, but never really on the shore. Now I know I'm making it seem more mysterious, but in reality it's a huge area of trees right next to the main highway to the next village alongside the coastline of Bulgaria. But back then it was unknown grounds for a bunch of kids. We decided to have a hide and seek game. Our version had a twist though, that is it wasn't enough for you to get spotted. You had to get chased around and get caught by the Seeker. And then you became the Seeker yourself to search for the rest. Again. It was only dark woods around, nothing else. I had lost the wrong paper, scissors game and I got to be the first Seeker. Up until that point, I didn't really sense anything weird. But that was perhaps because I was too intrigued into the game. I counted and then started searching, singing to myself as I went. I. I started jogging around the woods. I found my friend, who we'll call M for short. M was a sweet girl and still is. She's like the moral side of our group. She was quite a shy kid and she just stood there next to me instead of actually helping me search. Her hiding spot was quite basic, so I found her in a really short time for the others, while they were more experienced, so it took longer. Actually around an hour before I found them. Yeah, we really liked our hide and seek. Eventually I found the last one, my best friend, who we'll call H, who had covered himself with a bunch of mud. Pretty creative, I might say. Well, we had started heading back, but we couldn't. We had gone so far out deep that we didn't even know where we were. The whole group then started panicking. However, I proposed the idea that we find the beach and go along it and eventually we'll be back. They agreed and we started heading to the coastline. However, we had then seen about five or six shadows amongst the far trees walking around. They were mummering something. The most likely thing was that they were drug dealers, which were quite common for this area, but this secluded. They stopped. They were still. One of them shouted a very rough hey, go catch them. And then two other new shadows started running from the other side. I had started hearing a lot of footsteps around me. I was startled. I got an intense adrenaline rush at that point and I was scared for my life. So instinctively that I dashed towards the woods. I didn't even know where I was running to. I just ran. I kept hearing shouts behind me, but I just kept running. I ran for around 10 minutes straight in a sprint, avoiding trees along the way. Then a 10 minute jog until I saw the familiar sight of the rusty green fence in the distance. I jumped over, ignored all shouts from the residents of the bungalows, avoided the fat security man and ended up in the village playground. I then sat on the bench. I didn't know where the others were and I didn't even know what the damn time was. I just wanted to rest. Around 10 minutes later I had heard familiar voices. It was my group. The full group age explained that they followed the original plan as the majority of the people started chasing me. For some reason he said that six or seven of the men started running after me and then just completely ignored them until they were then spotted by the four men that stayed behind. They made the run for the beach where they went down the steep hill and then the men eventually gave up on doing the same. They actually followed my plan and got there without a scratch. I was happy, yet confused as to why, particularly me. Maybe because I ran first, but it didn't look like an ordinary drug deal. Why would they make the trouble to chase after a bunch of kids instead of calling them off like every other adult? It was a terrifying experience that truly showed me what my body is capable of if it really wants to. I actually got a huge grounding as it was apparently around 2 o' clock in the morning when I came home. My grandparents filed a missing report and squads of police cars were out looking for us. Yet I didn't mutter a word. Not a single person that knows me personally knows of this except for our little group which then grew in size as we got older. Yet only the original people involved knew it wasn't mutual. I didn't tell them not to tell. Somehow we all knew it just felt wrong to report it and we were pretty much all on the same page. So yeah, that was a pretty damn scary experience for us kids. The story happened around seven years ago when I was in the sixth grade. For some context, I was about 11 at the time and I was living around Denver, Colorado at the time of this story. I'm also a girl. There's going to be about six other girls in this story, but only four are really important. I'll be using letters to address them. K, E, J and I'm A. It was K's birthday and it was summertime. She had me, E and J and I and I think about three other girls over for her birthday for a sleepover. It was still warm out so we were going to sleep in a giant 10 person sized tent in her backyard. The layout of their house was that the house itself was right up against the right side of the property line, which left a gap on the left side of their house, meaning you could walk from the front yard to the backyard and there were no gates to block you. Behind K's house were some trees and a creek. If I'm remembering correctly at the time I was best friends with J so me and her arrived together and my parents dropped us off. All of us girls had spent the day running around and having fun being typical preteen girls. Once it got darker out, we decided to play hide and seek in the dark in K's backyard and the woods around it. We had made a rule though that you couldn't go so far into the trees that you weren't able to see the house just to make it safe and fare that way. It was one of the three girls turned to count, so Kej and I ran into the woods to hide. Me and Jay hid together and we were laid down behind a bigger log in the woods. We were laying so still so we wouldn't make any noise and so was everyone else. It was so quiet that you could only hear the girl who was counting. Eventually the girl who was seeking us walked into the woods and walked around us before then running back towards the house without finding us. We then heard her find another girl on the side of Kay's house and had heard them screaming and laughing. All of a sudden I had felt J grab my hand really hard and then mouthed the words listen. I closed my eyes and I listened to try and hear what she was talking about. When I heard it, heavy and large sounding footsteps coming from behind us in the woods, we got scared and started screaming and so did the other girls. We all ran inside the house, not sure if we imagined it or if we were really just scaring each other. Eventually we all went back out and we got into the tent for the night. We all had flashlights and were playing truth or dare and talking about our crushes or whatever else we were doing when we then heard distant footsteps running in the woods. They kept getting closer and closer until they ran right by our tent, right against the side of K's house and what sounded like into the street. He was scared and started crying, but J and I assured her it was okay. Everyone wanted to know what it was and I volunteered to stick my head out of the tent to try and see who was running around. I unzipped the tent and I climbed outside. I made J come with me just to have another person to confirm if I saw something. We walked around the side of K's house and then froze in our tracks. In the middle of the road. Right in front of K's house was a man around six foot to six foot three and he was wearing a clown mask and white gloves. We didn't even move. We just stared at him. He slowly tilted his head to the side and shrugged his shoulders at us. We ran back into the tent and then zipped his shutter. This tent had a lock on the zipper, so we locked it as well. We told Kay to call her parents, but she couldn't because it was around midnight by this point and her parents were already in bed. And they had also been drinking a lot, so wouldn't really be in the mood to help us. We heard footsteps approaching and then stopped right outside of our tent. We just watched as he tried to undo the zipper, but when he realized it wouldn't move, he stopped. We then heard a second set of footsteps coming from the woods and then stand at the back of our tent, which now meant that two strangers were on either side of our tent and we couldn't do anything about it. We were just dead silent, hoping they'd go away. He was sitting by one of the mesh windows in the tent that had a cover on it. And she had lifted it a little to see outside and try and figure out who it was. As soon as she lifted it, the second man in the clown mask was nailed down and looking right behind her through the window. She dropped the COVID again and we all huddled in the middle of the tent. We didn't want to call the police because we didn't want them to know that. And we didn't want them to run away before the cops could catch them as we didn't want them coming back. So we stayed huddled up like that in the tent for, not even kidding, like three hours. They had begun to walk in circles around our tent and periodically punch, kick and drag the tent and also put an object near it and whatever it was sounded sharp. At the 3am mark, no one could sleep or move, and I was so tired of this. I then grabbed my phone and called 911 as soon as they had picked up. I then yelled out that I'd called the cops on the phone. They better get the fuck away before they get here. I went to go talk to the operator and explain the situation. One of the loudest and most sinister laughing came from both of the men. It felt like we were surrounded by it as they were still circling our tent. Eventually, I was able to let the operator know what was happening and where we were. She had me stay on the line as we waited for the police to show up. After what felt like forever, we heard the distant sounds of police sirens right as they were close to pulling up Decay's house. The walking then stopped and right by the window again we heard in a deep hiss of a voice. I hope you know we're coming back. Before the footsteps took off into the woods, the cops helped us out of the tent and had searched the woods for some time trying to see if they could find them, but had no luck. I forgot to mention but by this point K's parents had been outside already and they were talking to the cops as well. We had all of our parents come get us right then and I never went back to K's house after that experience. Needless to say, I do not like clowns anymore at all. This happened when I was 15. I know that some people will blame me for what happened and while I could have done things differently, I think we should be able to make mistakes without risking someone taking advantage of our naivety. In my hometown there was a cycle path. It stretched for about 25 miles with lots of exits along the way. I liked to walk for a mile or three on it before heading home. It was never overcrowded, but you would pass many cyclists during the day, especially in the summer. It was the end of October approaching Halloween and I had a week off for school for October break. It was a Thursday afternoon around 1 2pm and it wouldn't be dark until half past six in the evening. I decided to go for a walk on my own because I had felt comfortable doing so. This was something that I did regularly alone or with friends and family. I've probably walked that cycle path hundreds of times. It was overcast but not raining. I popped one headphone in, leaving my other ear free. I had my coat on and my headphones were underneath my buttoned coat, if that makes sense. My ipod was in my jeans pocket. Yeah, that's how old this story is. I was walking along, just chilling, when I noticed a man up ahead. There was a little bridge on the path, basically just some railings with some stream underneath it. The man was leaning over the railings and peering down into the water. I didn't really think much of it. He had a long brown coat on and dark brown boots. He had gray hair and looked like he was in his mid to late 50s. He had a beard too, but I don't know how to describe it. He just looked like a normal dude. He must have heard me coming because he then turned and glanced at me as I approached. I began to feel uneasy, but I didn't know why. I felt like he was somehow watching me in his peripheral vision, but I can't be a hundred percent sure of that. When I got to him, I was able to walk past with no issue. My headphones were tucked away and my hair was long, so I didn't think he knew I had my headphones in. I turned my music all the way down by this point, just to be safe. I should mention by now that I'm a female. I knew it could be dangerous to be alone and to always be cautious of others. But again, I had felt secure on this path. I continued walking when I suddenly heard the man call out behind me, Excuse me. I turned around, not knowing what to expect, and I looked at him. I didn't even ask him what he wanted. I just remember staring at him because I had a weird feeling the man was grinning at me and he asked me if I was enjoying my walk. I remember nodding and giving him that awkward half smile people do with strangers. Well, what happened next was utterly disgusting. The man, still grinning, opened his coat and to my complete shock, he was totally naked underneath, balls and all. I have no idea if his coat had buttons, but he just fiddled with the belt and flung it open. He was skinny and tall and he just stood there grinning at me like a creep. I didn't move right away because I was in such shock. I was petrified and I felt so vulnerable and mortified. I'd never seen a naked man before, and whilst I knew about flashers, I didn't expect to ever encounter one. I felt sick with terror as I just stood there frozen. My mind was blank. I remember thinking, what the fuck? But not being able to think straight from the fear. I felt so scared. And the man wasn't moving either. He was just standing and grinning. When he moved his hands, I finally snapped in my senses and then turned to run. I knew that if I ran, I could reach the little pathway that would take me to the main road and would emerge from the trees to a bus stop. I could then run to my street and I'd be more visible on the road. I just ran and I have no idea if he followed me or not. When I got to the main road, I dared to look behind me and saw nothing. I didn't stop running, though, until I was in my garden and I just sat on the steps leading up to my front door. I wasn't ready to go into my house just yet and there was still no sign of the creepy man. I just sat on the steps and just cried. I felt really embarrassed and ashamed. Even though it was him who did wrong, I couldn't get his creepy grin out of my mind. I sat on that step for like 30 minutes. I didn't have any tissues or Water. So once I stopped crying, I waited for my eyes to not look so puffy. I remember taking my ipod out and looking at myself in the front camera and trying to make myself not look like I'd been crying. I had decided that I couldn't tell my parents because I was just way too embarrassed. They would have killed the guy and they wouldn't have blamed me at all. But I still felt so guilty. My parents had noticed I was quieter, but they never knew the truth as to why, and they never guessed. A few years passed, and when I was 17, it was on the news that a flasher had been caught after two women on that same psychopath that claimed a man had flashed at them. They'd called the police and ran away from him, and the police caught him wandering around the bushes just off the path. The story sounded eerily familiar to what I went through. He just whipped his coat off and he was naked under it. He then began touching himself as the women ran away. I really feel guilty for not reporting him. Maybe if I did, those women wouldn't have been subjected to his weirdo fetish. But I was just a kid and I was scared. I'd never had something like that happen to me before, and I just didn't know what to do about it. It's really difficult sometimes to know what you'll do in a situation like that until it happens. I can't remember if the man went to jail or not because I remember feeling too freaked out to follow the case. I remember my parents talking about it, and I just stayed quiet and tried not to act suspiciously. Even now, I'm way too scared to Google it. I don't know if anything would come up. Anyway, I'm in my mid-20s now, and this memory rears its head every so often. Even to this day, I still haven't shared this story with anyone until now. I just don't want to risk anyone telling me it was my own fault for going walking on my own using headphones and not reporting him. I know that people might hear this story and say these things, but that doesn't bother me. It's the thought that the people I care about could think these things. That's what keeps me quiet. I advise everyone to be very careful when going out anywhere. If you're walking on any secluded paths, just be aware of your surroundings, be prepared to run if the situation requires it, and always listen to your gut and be wary of strangers. So I want to begin by saying this is not as scary as some of the other Stories you may have heard. But this experience I still think about to this day. So this happened to me and three of my friends, which I'll refer to as C, L and G for privacy reasons. I was the oldest of the group. I was 18, C was 17, L was 15 and G was 13. So we were all hanging out at L's house. And at around 8:15pm we wanted to all go on our electric scooters. We had. The electric scooters we had could go up to 16 mph and had flashlights built in, which is good to know for later in the story. So we were going around Elle's neighborhood and we went to a little river that L took us to. And it was really pretty, especially at night. It was really dark at this time. But when we were looking at the view, I thought I saw a man in the lake just staring at me. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. That is until I actually saw the person swimming towards us in the lake. I found this to be pretty creepy, especially when it was really dark outside. And also given the time it was, which was around 8:45pm So I pointed the man out to my friends and they were just as creeped out as I was. So we decided that we were going to leave and go back to Elle's house. We went towards our electric scooters and I turned around to see if the man was still there. And what I saw horrified me to my core. The man was running full speed ahead towards us with the weapon in his right hand. From what I then saw in the half a second I looked at him, it looked like it was a pocket knife. When I saw this, I then yelled to my friends to run to our scooters. We all hopped on our scooters and we went full speed for L's house, which was only about a five minute ride for us. We lost the man fairly quickly and luckily we made it to Elle's house safely. This is easily the most terrifying experience of my life. And we all swore that we would never go to that place again. I sometimes get nightmares thinking about what would have happened if we didn't have those electric scooters. I was 14 years old when this story took place. I'm 21 now. It was mid July and my stepmom's side of the family was having a family reunion. Everything was normal throughout the day. But as night came, things began to get weird. This had happened at a campground. My cousins had been walking around the campground and we were just taking in everything. When the person that was camping just a few spots over from us then approached them, he was a younger fellow, probably in his early 20s. He asked them questions about themselves and where they were staying for the night. They answered in a polite way, trying not to give him too much information as they tried to walk away. He then followed them. They came back to the campsite with the guy still following them. Our family tried to get him to leave, but he literally forced himself within our group. As the night progressed, he began to say that he was staying with us and that this was his campsite as well. So the uncles and my father asked him to leave due to him making all the children that were present really uncomfortable. And he did finally agree to leave after that. And I really wish it ended here, but there's more. The girls decided to go to the bathroom in a large group due to how weird that guy was acting. They all went together, but they forgot to invite me to go with them. And by the time they got back, I really had to go to the bathroom. I asked a few of my cousins to go with me, but since they had just gotten back, they didn't want to. So I decided to go on my own. As I was heading towards the bathroom, I saw the creepy guy from earlier walk out of the women's restroom. I stood there in shock because my cousins literally had just come out of there. I then turned around and ran as fast as I could back towards the campsite. I was crying and I told all of the adults about what I had seen. My Uncle J ran towards the bathroom area after what he had heard, and he found the guy in the men's room. Then my uncle punched the man in the face a few times. The park police came looking for him because the guy reported it, but my uncle had actually left the campground at that point. So my father, as well as a few of the other adults explained what was going on to the officers. Once the officers had a full understanding of everything that happened, they went and told the guy he could stay there for the night, but in the morning he had to leave. What makes this even creepier is the man was camping with his father because he had been released from somewhere. I can't really remember if it was jail or a mental institution or something like that, but wherever it was, I really feel like that guy should still be there and not be able to roam free and terrorize innocent children. So, yeah, I hope I don't encounter him again. 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I was 28 at the time. In the summer of 2022, my husband, two children and I went up to our national forest to go camping. Now we're an outdoorsy family and we've gone on numerous camping trips out in that area. It was like any other summer day, swimming in the river and eating charred burgers from our fire pit. Afterwards, I decided to go and explore on my own as I usually do. I know it's not safe, especially for a 5 foot, 120 pound woman, but it gave me a moment to myself and it was quite peaceful. I walked into the dirt road and I turned around to see a boy and his dog off in the distance walking the other direction. I started along trying to find a nice trail to hike. The only things on me at the time were my sunglasses, lighter and a joint that I rolled for this special occasion. Finally, I found a nice secluded trail with trees on both sides. Perfect, I thought. As I'm walking on this dirt path, I noticed that it's getting pretty steep, but I kept going anyway. Right when I was about to light up, the boy that I saw from earlier came up from behind me, quite literally out of nowhere. I didn't even hear him coming. I quickly put the joint out of view. That's when he then said, hey, you going up this path? Mind if we join? I looked at him then, thinking it's only a kid, 14, maybe 15 years old. Maybe he's being too nice in this very deserted area. And I just said sure. I've been in some pretty scary situations in my life so I quickly regretted saying yes, but we went on walking. I was trying to make small talk, asking about his dog, but the boy didn't really have much to say and it got awkward fast. That was the first red flag for me. He then asked if I came out there alone, which again was another red flag. I let him know that I had my husband with me, but I didn't mention my kids. As we were walking, I noticed the path was coming to an end. So I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get out of this situation. I let him know that I was going to head back down and go back to my campsite. He asked if I wanted to go to another trail with him, but politely I said no. As we're walking down this very steep path, so steep you had to turn your feet to the sides just so you wouldn't fall. The boy started slipping on his butt over and over. He kept blaming his dog, but I noticed that his leashed dog was in fact not pulling him at all. Another red flag. He then kept getting closer and closer to me, which made me very uncomfortable. I couldn't run down this trail, so I decided to slow down and get behind him. I know, stupid, right? But that's when he started to slow down and got right up behind me instead. That's when he started slipping and falling again, once again blaming his dog. Just then he slips once more and full on grabs onto my ass. Not a slap, but he grabbed my entire left cheek. That's when I then thought, the hell with this. I jogged down the rest of the way. I was in a good distance when he then said to me, oh, sorry about that. In the moment I just thought, oh cool, this kid grabbed my ass and now he has a great story to tell his friends. And I just told him, whatever, I'm leaving. You probably think the story ends here, right? No. What is said next made me so sick to my stomach. Oh really? Well, can I touch it again? Luckily, being at least 10ft away from him, I then yelled out, no, but you can stay the fuck away from me. I started to run, but he then yells back, it was a joke. He went in the opposite direction as me. So I then slowed and replayed the whole thing back in my head. How stupid of me, I thought. Here I am thinking it wasn't even a big deal because he was a kid and all, but holy shit, what a creep. I wish I had punched the damn kid in his stupid face. But like I said, I wasn't close and he was definitely a minor and he Had a dog. The dog may have been sweet, but dogs can be very protective over their owners, so I wasn't going to mess around with that. I angrily walked back to the campsite and I then told my husband what had happened. Before I could finish, he got up and took off looking for the kid. He ended up finding him and he then yelled at him, did you seriously grab my wife's ass? And shocking. Out of fear, the kid said, yeah, I did. I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me. Don't worry everyone. My husband didn't lay a hand on him, but he definitely told him off. And he brought him to our campsite and made the kid say sorry to me. I can't really remember what I replied back with, but it was definitely something stupid. Out of nervousness. I was really grateful my husband had my back though. We ended up deciding not to stay the night out there and left shortly after. We really should have taken him back to his parents and told them what he did, but we didn't really think of that until we had gotten home. As it turns out, the kid was actually 13. 13 years old and he's already a weird little creepy fuck. This just goes to show, no matter what their age is, you can never be too trusting. And especially out in the middle of the woods. Lesson learned. It was December 10th of 2022. I was just outside letting out my dog, as I normally do. I was sitting on the deck watching YouTube. Let me explain the layout. Behind our house, there's our neighbor's house. In between our two houses, there's a small field that's about nine, 10 yards long. And behind our neighbor's house, there's an even larger field that's about 12 acres long that leads to the woods. And we always see deer or other wildlife out there. So anyways, as I was watching some YouTube on my phone, I saw this strange man walking up the street towards our house. The guy had on a black and red hoodie, black pants, and he was shuffling his feet and just really acting strange. He gets in front of our neighbor's house and he starts grunting and growling like a complete madman. Then the guy darts into the field between my house and my neighbors, acting like a deranged animal. I immediately call my neighbor who I'm close with. Hey Bruce, I think someone just ran between our houses. I said, now my neighbor is a no nonsense countryman and he will shoot if he has to. Luckily, I always keep a flashlight when letting my dog out to see if there's any Skunks around. So I begin to shine the light between the two houses to see if I see the guy. Two seconds later, my neighbor Bruce comes out of his house with a flashlight also Bruce. Do you see him? I ask. No, I don't see him, said Bruce. I then shined the light into our neighbor's garden and I saw the most scariest thing ever. The guy was now hunched down on one knee, growling like a damn bear or lion. The scariest part was the shadow of the guy. It looks scary as hell shining off our neighbor's garage. Hey, Bruce. I got him. I yelled out. My dog begins to go batshit crazy and barks at him, but not his normal friendly howl, but a deep, aggressive bark. My neighbor shines the light on the guy, then says, stop right there. What the hell are you doing in my damn garden? My neighbor just yells at him with his country accent. The guy then said something, but I couldn't make it out. I just heard my neighbor and the guy arguing back and forth, and I then heard my neighbor then say, come here, you son of a bitch. I just want to talk to you. The guy then yelled something that sounded like a growl yell mix of something, and then leaped out of my neighbor's garden and took off towards the field. As he ran off, my neighbor Bruce just kept yelling obscenities at him. The guy ran off into the brush of the woods and he was no longer visible from the backyard. I then ran into the front yard and I could see the guy walking up the street towards the highway on the other side of the field. I have no idea what the hell was wrong with that guy, but he seriously needs some help. He had to have been on some type of drugs and we should have called the police, but we failed too. Besides, in our city, the police usually are really slow and the guy would have been long gone by the time they arrived. I'm not really worried if the guy ever comes back, because we all have the license to carry and so does my neighbor. In conclusion, let this be a lesson for everyone who lives out in the middle of nowhere. Always be aware of your surroundings, know your neighbors, and be friendly with the them. And to the guy who acted like an animal, I really hope you got some help. I really don't ever want to encounter you again. I don't think I'll ever love Christmas as much as I did before, but this happened at the age of nine. I'm 15 years old now, but I still remember it as if it was yesterday. It still sends chills down my spine to this day. It was the night of Christmas Eve. The snow was freshly fallen. The grass green field was hidden beneath a blanket of white as the sounds of mothers calling their children in could be heard outside. I was in bed watching the snow come down. I tossed and turned in bed and I was absolutely thrilled for Christmas. Every kid was right. That night I woke up to hear a faint tapping on my window. Each tap got louder and louder. I bolted up from my bed looking into the forest that stood in isolation as fog enclosed it. I had always been terrified of that forest ever since I moved in. It always gave me an eerie vibe. The next thing I saw will send cold shivers down your spine. I saw a middle aged man wearing the color of red Santa's costume. He was also wearing an old run down Santa hat. He reached in his bag of presents and he took out a beautiful Christmas ornament. Shaking it at me, I pressed my hands on the window admiring the beauty of it. At the time I really believed that was Santa. Oh how dumb I was. I then opened the window to climb out following the person that held the ornament deep into the forest. I started to shiver as the cold wind brushed across my body harshly. I walked through the snow hugging myself as my feet were constantly buried into the snow. Santa, where are you? I'm getting cold. I said quietly. I don't know why I followed him. It seemed like I was in some sort of sick trance. I kept seeing the person taunting me with the ornament, leading me deeper and deeper into the forest. I kept foreboding into the forest while I jumped. As the sounds of the creatures overhead startled me. I found myself standing in the forest. Everywhere was dark. Everywhere except for the bright light coming from the moon. I couldn't bear being outside in that cold any longer. It seemed like the wind itself was taunting me as it pushed and pulled me. I turned and tried to find my way back home. Suddenly I then heard bells ringing and footsteps coming towards me. I looked behind me to see the man dressed as Santa Claus sprinting full speed towards me. You really should all have seen the horror on my face when I then noticed he was carrying a knife. I began screaming and yelping for my life as I then sprinted through the forest frantically not knowing where the hell I was going. I got distracted as my eyes were then calmed by the flashing blue and red lights and the loud sounds of sirens. Drop your weapons sir. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do will be used against you in the court of Law. The man glared at me, his eyes bloodshot red. He was then handcuffed, and he was put into the back of the police car. I was shortly reunited by the comfort of my mother. She was crying profusely, hugging me tightly. A police officer then walked up to my mother and I and they said that I was really lucky to escape him. Apparently, the man was a wanted man and he was dressing up as Santa to terrorize children. But I'm really glad he was caught. I still sometimes wonder if I would be around if my mother hadn't checked on me that night. I wasn't expecting myself to be in that kind of situation at all, and especially on the night of Christmas Eve. It was a Sunday, early in the morning. I live in the suburbs, but my parents own a farm that I really enjoy going to. But because I get to see my dog. Her name is Molly. She's a mutt, but she's not a tiny dog by any means. At that time, I felt very safe around her, and I would often take her for walks in the forest that was nearby. The day started off like any other. Me and my dad got in the car, drove around for a while, and arrived at the farm. I immediately got out of the car and hugged Molly. My parents always got angry when I hugged her, since I'd smell just like her for the rest of the day. I put her leash on and asked my dad if I could take her for a walk. He always thought that we would just go down a road and back. But I always found it way more interesting to take her to the forest. I always felt a certain kind of peace and relaxation there that was unmatched by anything else. So we took a turn and headed to the forest. Usually when we got there, I'd take her leash off so that she could explore on her own. Most of the time, I'd carve my name into the trees or just look for anything interesting. I was playing baseball with some rocks and a wooden leg, presumably from an old table. And then I heard it. Molly was barking at something. This wasn't unusual. When we were in the forest, I thought it was a fox or some other animal. So I quickly grabbed the wooden leg like a weapon. I knew that if it was a fox, I wouldn't attack it, but I had a sense of security. While I was holding it, I called out, molly. Molly, get back here. But she just kept barking. This was very strange for me since she always came to me when I called her. I followed the sounds of her barks and stumbled across A scene that I'll never forget. There was a man, probably in his late 50s, half naked, carrying a large machete in one hand and holding moonshine in the other. This was the first time that I'd stumbled across someone in the woods, let alone someone half naked and carrying a big machete. He was completely ignoring Molly and hacking away at the ground. For some reason, I didn't really know how to handle the situation. Even now, I have no idea how I would handle it. Sir, are you okay? I asked in confusion. I don't think I understood the seriousness of the situation at the time. He turned around, revealing his face. He had some of the clearest blue eyes I've ever seen. To this day, I could see them so well because they were wide open. Come here boy. Look what I've dug up. I was afraid that if I didn't listen to him, he would start chasing after me, and that was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. I got closer, but kept a good distance. I didn't really see anything except for an empty hole. He returned to hitting the ground with his machete, occasionally taking sips from the bottle. I used this window of time to get my dog and started walking away slowly so as not to not notify him that I was leaving. But then I took one final glance at the man. His head was now dug deep in the hole. I was intrigued, so I kept looking. I know. Stupid of me. He finally got up from the ground. I was shocked when I saw him carrying a bone in his mouth. I have no idea what animal it belonged to, if it even did belong to an animal at all. I had seen enough and had started sprinting with my dog. As we ran, I had heard him laughing. And then I saw something flying from the corner of my eye. It was that dang machete. I then heard him yell, Damn it. That made me run even faster. I know the forest very well, so I wasn't afraid of getting lost. I ripped through branches and bushes until I got out of that forest. But I didn't stop sprinting until I arrived at the garage where my father was testing out lights on our tractor. I didn't tell him a single thing about the man since I was afraid that he'd get angry and wouldn't allow me to walk Molly anymore. Needless to say, I never went to that forest alone ever again. Foreign. I'm from the UK for context. So way back in 2016, when the whole killer clown epidemic was huge, I was walking through the woods at around 10pm alone in order to get to a party and gathering that was happening in a secluded part of the forest. It was almost pitch black and I could barely see in front of me besides the flash on my phone. And everything seemed normal as I was walking to the party. I got to a long stretch of woods with no defined path, but it was the quickest way to the party, so I took it as I got around. Midway through, I heard something to my left. I turned and saw a shadowy figure sitting on a fallen log. I was understandably unnerved, but I couldn't make out if it was just shadows from the moonlight or if it was an actual person. I made the mistake of shining my phone light directly at it, and I was instantly terrified. Sat there alone in the middle of the woods was the largest man dressed as a clown, with full face paint and sporting the creepiest smile imaginable. I tried to call five different people as I was passing him, and then I heard him get up behind me. I instantly started sprinting towards the end of the long stretch and to a path which had a barbed wire fence down the side of it. During the sprint, I was pretending to be on the phone with one of my friends and I could hear him running after me, but there was no chance in hell that I would be turning around to see if I was right. When I got to the path, I jumped over the fence as fast as I could and I sliced my hands open as I did so. I then turned around and kept running backwards as I saw the clown standing behind the fence, just staring at me and smiling. I didn't stop running until I got to the party, and I was scared for a very long time after this. You have to bear in mind that there were so many rumors of people being killed by people dressed as clowns at the time. And while I will never know if the man had evil intentions or was just trying to scare me, it was extremely strange and scary to live through. So my story takes place when I was about 13 years old. I'm 19 now. If the details are unclear, I'm sorry. I just moved into a small countryside town into a house that was just beside a huge forest. It was a new neighborhood and didn't really have many houses on my street. You could without a doubt walk hours into the woods and still be going. Being young and stupid, I'd take my dog for a walk without having my parents walk with me or really anything to protect me. I don't even remember having a cell phone on me. Don't blame my parents, please. They were reassured by the fact that my dog was really big and people were easily frightened by him. Like really easily. My dog was about 7. Detail that has its importance. I did that often. Nothing bad ever happened and I never met anyone there. I loved it because I could really take my mind off everything else that was happening in my life. The move was rough on me and to make everything more fun, I was being bullied at school so I really needed that. So there I was casually walking on a track that is across the woods that is used if you have a motocross or a quad. A noise that I didn't take too much attention to at first was coming from behind me and it started to become louder. When I turn back, I can see a person coming straight towards me on his motorcycle. I'm a 13 year old girl who's scared of just about everything that seems out of the ordinary. So I decide to get off the track as quickly as I can to go hide. Unfortunately for me, Henry is black and he doesn't blend well with the surroundings as everything was green and it was in the middle of the day. I walked pretty fast, but I can tell that the bike was closer and it was pretty obvious. I started running and I found a rock that was big enough to hide my dog and I. I heard the motocross come and go. It was impossible for the person to see us really. I waited telling myself that I was just being silly. When I thought I waited long enough, I started walking again. I froze instantly when I heard the loud engine suddenly so close to me. Without hesitation I started running like hell and when I was able to stop and hide, I did. My dog wasn't in the best shape and I was feeling bad for making him run that much. I could tell he was getting closer and closer to me. It wasn't a very dense forest so he could easily follow. He was so much faster than me. I'm a clumsy person and I trip on everything and I ended up tripping on this lovely branch and fell pretty hard. But I think I was so full of adrenaline that I just got up and started running again. He was meters away from me so he could see me and he's clearly chasing me. There was no doubt in my mind that if he gets me, something really bad could happen to me. We were approaching a more dense part of the forest so the guy had no choice but to stop. It did give me the advantage on him and I was able to get away from him. I was so glad when I finally saw some random house it was under construction, so nobody lived in it. I did find a hiding spot behind this fence. Minutes later, I saw the same person coming close to me. I could tell that he didn't see where I went. I felt this huge relief when he started to go away. I think I hid for about 30, 40 minutes without moving to make sure that he didn't come back. I did find my way home and I told my parents all about it, but they thought I was being dramatic. In the end, I never knew who this person was. I did hurt myself, but it was nothing too serious. I had heard years later about weed that was being grown in part of the forest. And apparently there were cameras out there too. Maybe I came too close to something and they saw me on the cameras. I also went with friends of mine when I was much older and we found a small abandoned house that wasn't too far from where this happened. So who knows really. The story happened a while ago, but it still messes with my mind. I live in a quiet countryside where nothing is usually happening. I'm an 18 year old girl who can easily walk around my hometown alone without even being scared because it's really safe here. Basically no crimes. So, as usual, me and my dog went for a walk one evening. It was nice weather outside, so I decided to go to a nearby field. I usually let my dog out of her leash there, so it was fun for both of us. She's a nice dog and always comes when I call for her. We get to the field and everything's going really, really well and nothing seems off. Except I have this kind of awkward, odd feeling in my gut that I never usually have. The last time I had that same feeling was when I was 8 years old and we were driving at night with my family. I had the same feeling then and told it to my parents. I feel like something is wrong. You should be careful, I said, or something like that. They slowed down because I was oddly serious at the moment. A minute after I said that, a deer came out of nowhere and we could have been crushed if we'd gone by the same speed as a minute before. We were all shocked and my mom thanked me. I still remember it like it was yesterday. However, in the field 10 years later, I get the same gut feeling, whatever I think and just keep going, completely ignoring it. We roll around the fields in a nearby forest until the sunset starts to set. I put my dog back on her leash and decided to leave from one of the tiny paths that go through a small forest forest. It's the quickest way to my home. It's not a popular way to go, but it's quick. As I'm walking along the path, I suddenly spot a silhouette in the end of the road just before the forest starts. I think nothing of it at that point and just keep walking. But after a little while I have a strong gut feeling and I stare at the silhouette for a while. It's then that I notice that the silhouette is staring at me without moving. I just think that maybe they were waiting for someone because at first the silhouette looked like a child's. But as I got closer, I noticed that it wasn't a child, but a grown man who was riding a child's bike with difficulty. It was a blue green young boy's bicycle. His legs were way too long for it and his whole body looked like he was forcing himself to ride it. It was really an unsettling sight. Still, my dumb self didn't want to turn around and have a couple of kilometers waste of time. And even though it was creepy looking, I still thought maybe he's waiting for someone that comes from my way. But every step I take, he follows me with an intense expression. I'm only like 20 meters away from him when he starts to do these weird jumps on his bike. Smiling the ugliest and most unsettling smile I've ever seen. Just staring at me with wide eyes. He kinda just looks like he was expecting something and is so excited about it that he needs to jump. He looks like he's in his 50s or something. Very long and thin legs and arms. He was also bald. And that unsettling creepy smile. I glanced behind me and no one was there. It was just me, an 18 year old small girl with her fluffy dog. I turn around a full 360 and start to jog where I came from just in case. I glanced at him and sighed in relief when I noticed that he wasn't following me or anything. I thought that maybe he wasn't waiting for me after all and called myself stupid and a scaredy cat. I was so wrong. My adrenaline starts to slow down again as I'm in the middle of the fields and I still see no sign of him following me. I let my dog out of her leash again and she started to run around. I'm nearly at the end of the the field when my dog spots a rabbit or deer or something interesting and flies towards it. I panic because she's never done that before and I yell for her. I yell plenty of times for her loudly and finally she comes back. I'm very relieved that nothing had happened to her. But as I put her leash back on, I notice something from the corner of my eye. The long legged old man is now biking towards me. He's not looking at the ground when he bikes, but at me. Freaking out wasn't enough to express my feelings at that moment. I have never seen a human who looks so crazy. More than crazy. What really surprised me the most was that he was biking through a field. And I can tell you it's not an easy field to even walk. Sometimes it has muddy ponds that you need to jump over. But that psycho just biked right through them. He was struggling a lot to bike there, but somehow he still managed to do that. I didn't watch for another second behind me because I just started running. I ran with so much speed that I saw black and nearly collapsed. My lungs hurt so bad that I thought I was dying. But the adrenaline kept my blood running and my legs too. I glanced behind me and he was there, struggling badly to keep his full speed on the ground with that ugly white smile and that way too little bite. After that, I just ran like crazy until I found a house. I hid in their yard without even minding that I was in someone else's yard. It didn't matter at all to me in that moment. I waited a while with my breathing stuck in my throat. But he didn't come. I was planning to yell as loudly as I could if he found me, but he never did. At some point, the adrenaline had started leaving my system and I left my hiding spot. I ran again until I reached an area which had multiple people in their yards. I did this so I would have help in case I saw him again. But I didn't. I typed 911 into my phone, but I couldn't bring myself to call. Mostly because I had no proof. And I didn't want my parents to find out because they're overprotecting. So I probably wouldn't have been able to leave my house anymore. I've been pretty paranoid after this incident. My dog was frightened too. I guess she noticed something was really off too. I swear to God that I will always listen to my gut whenever it's telling me something from now on. I'm still scared of that man. I've expected to randomly see him again. And I've also thought about what he could have done to me. I can't forget his awful smile. I feel like he's gonna jump on my window one night and do what he wants. To me. I feel paranoid and helpless. I'm still thinking about calling the police, but then again, I don't have any proof, so that would probably be pointless. Disney plus wants to know, are you ready? Yes. For Marvel Studios Thunderbolts, the New Avengers, now streaming on Disney plus. Let's do this. One of the best Marvel movies of all time is now streaming on Disney plus. Hey, you weren't listening to me. I said. Thunderbolts the New Avengers is now streaming on Disney plus. Meet the New Avengers. That's cool then. Marvel Studios Thunderbolts the New Avengers, rated PG 13. Now streaming on. You guessed it, Disney Plus. My name is Garrett and this happened to my friends and I. This experience took place in Arkansas, in a small country town. It had really just started out as a fun idea. Me, Jeff, and Hunter, all in our 20s, wanted to escape the usual routine and boring monotony of our basic lives. We were tired of the city and we wanted to get away from everything. Work, school, the noise. You get it? So we decided to go camping in the woods for the weekend. Just the three of us. A tent and a campfire. It was gonna be a perfect chill night with my friends and I just chilling and enjoying the nighttime nature. We found a nice, pretty quiet spot deep in the forest. As far as we could tell, at least at the time, there were no other campers around. Okay, this is our spot, I told them, which Jeff and Hunter agreed to as well. We set up our tent in a small clearing surrounded by tall trees. The sun was setting and the sky turned dark. It felt peaceful and serene, like we had the whole world to ourselves. We built a campfire and cooked some hot dogs and burgers. It wasn't anything fancy, but it really felt good just to be out there with my friends. We were laughing and telling stupid stories, just enjoying the night. The cool air and crackling fire made everything feel calm. But as the night went on, things started to change. I was sitting by the fire, poking at the logs when I heard something. At first it was just the usual sounds of the woods. You'd expect twigs snapping, leaves rustling. You know, the normal stuff that you'd expect to hear out in the woods. I didn't think much of it, but then I heard something else. It was footsteps, and not animal footsteps either. These were heavy. I knew right away it was a person. My heart jumped and I turned to Jeff and Hunter. Did you guys just hear that? I whispered. Jeff looked up from his phone, his face tense. Yeah, I heard it. That's definitely not an animal. Hunter had squinted his eyes in the darkness. It's probably just some hikers, guys. I wouldn't worry about it, he said, though I could tell he wasn't sure himself. Why don't we go check it out? I said. Before we could do anything though, the sound of footsteps got closer. Suddenly, before we could even blink, three rather large figures had emerged from behind the trees. I froze. These weren't hikers. These were men. Rough looking and dirty. They looked like straight up hillbillies, like you'd see in some backcountry horror movie. If I had to guess, they were all between the ages of their late 40s to mid-50s. One of them had rotten teeth and the two others had no teeth at all. I'm not kidding when I say that. Now look, we were in the south. But I'm serious. I've never seen anything like I saw that night. Literally never. They had long unkempt beards and wore torn clothes. They didn't say anything at first, just stared at us like we were intruders in their home or something. Then the biggest of the three spoke, but not before looking us all up and down and licking his lips, then turning to his friends and saying, alright boys, which one do y' all want? I want the blonde one with the glasses, which was Hunter. I felt my heart drop into my throat and I wanted to vomit right there. When I turned to my friends, Hunter was petrified. But Jeff, he was standing straight up with a serious expression. No fear whatsoever. See, Jeff was a little older than us. Hunter and I were both 21, whereas Jeff was 23. I really hate saying crap like this, but if I had to describe us, I'd definitely say that Jeff is the alpha of our friend group. He's a lot more stern than Hunter and I, and he's had our backs countless times in crazy situations. I could really tell that Jeff was analyzing the situation and thinking on what to do next. My mind, on the other hand, was racing. What were we supposed to do? I tried to sound calm, but they basically just made it known that they wanted us for something. Like we were dogs or something. Then one of them stepped forward. Ya boy's got two options. Come willingly or you can try and run. But I guarantee you you won't get that far out here. Just then Jeff turned around and took off running just a few feet behind us, near where our tent was. He went inside the tent and grabbed his bag. As you can imagine, this terrified both Hunter and I. Did my friend really just leave us here with these hillbilly Nutcases that want to do God knows what with us. But then, just as quickly as he ran off, he returned. He had his bag, reached his hand inside, and then he pulled out a firearm. It looked like a Glock, if I had to guess. Sorry, guys. I didn't mean to leave y' all like that, but this was the only way. We're getting the hell out of here. Jeff said. Now, I don't know what the hell you guys thought you were gonna do here to my friends and I, but here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna leave here, and we're never gonna come back. And if you have a problem with that, I'll kill you three right now, right where you stand. My mind was going crazy. Where the hell did that gun come from? But then again, whatever. I didn't care. I'm glad he brought it. At least now we're safe. But then it just got worse. The three men then simply smiled at us and laughed. You think there's only three of us out here? One of the men said. We were now officially crapping bricks. I don't know if they were bluffing or not, but either way, I was absolutely checked out at this point. I then screamed at Jeff to do something. Shoot them, shoot around them. Anything to get us the hell out of this situation, man. I said. That's when one of the hillbillies, no joke, pulled out a duck call, blew into it, and. And the next thing we hear is running footsteps approaching us. It sounded like there had to have been at least another five people or so now coming to join us. Just then, Jeff started shooting at the ground near the men's feet and demanded for Hunter and I to follow him and get the hell out of here. We ran off, leaving all our crap behind. It took a while to finally get to our car, but we eventually made it. At some point during our escape, Hunter had actually tripped and fell, losing his glasses in the process. So, yeah, that was real fun. We got in the car, and luckily, it started. I was genuinely expecting the car to have slashed tires or something, you know, like something straight out of a horror movie. But no, it started just fine, and we got the hell out of there. During the drive home, I had asked Jeff about the gun and why he didn't tell us that he brought it. I didn't want you guys to freak out when going in the woods at night, you never know what could happen. And if I didn't bring it, we might not be here now, he said. And he was right. I have to admit we ended up deciding to go to Jeff's apartment for the night and crashing. We stayed up all night so freaked out from the night's events. We have no clue who those men were or what the whole thing was. We all theorized that they were some kind of cannibal hillbilly culture, but that sounds ridiculous. I mean, come on. But I mean, they did say they wanted us for something, so I really don't know what to think. We tried doing some research, checking Google reviews for the forest. We didn't really find anything at all that matched what we experienced. We basically all just made Facebook posts about it. We also told our families, other friends and co workers about it, and warned people to never go there. A lot of people didn't buy it and hell, maybe you guys won't either. But this really did happen to us and had Jeff not acted fast and held his ground, my friends and I might be dead right now. Or who knows. Like I said, we kinda think they were cannibals or something. In any case, I'm glad I'm still alive and I'm definitely glad I didn't end up in someone's stew. I grew up in the wooded country in Illinois on a short dead end street ten miles plus from town and there were seven houses in the area spread out on two and a half acre wooded lots or larger each. There were no large animals and people didn't meander there or show up lost. Actually, lost folks or large animals wandering around never happened in the 20 year as I lived there, so please keep that in mind. When I was a young girl in my early teens, I had a good guy friend a few years older than me who lived next door. Terry. Terry was allowed to go out with his friends much later than I was and he would sometimes tromp over to my yard after getting home late and throw rocks from the gravel area outside at my window to chat. My bed was right next to the window. I'd open the window and we'd whisper stories and generally just talk for a bit. My second story window faced our backyard and his house was to the side. I could see his house from my window over the shrub trees and walking path to his driveway. I'd often know if he was out or already home. One time during the summer when my window was open, I heard a car in his driveway dropping him off. I was probably 14 years old and it was around midnight I heard Terry get out of a car and was talking to his friends. Soon his friends pulled away. I softly called out as loud as I could without waking my parents, asking Terry to stop by and chat. He didn't respond as he probably didn't hear me. Then I came up with the not so brilliant idea to sneak outside and scare him. I had spent many years in the woods learning how to blend in and be silent. As kids, we'd often sneak around and scare each other. So I silently sneaked down from the second floor and out my bad garage door, which led to our backyard below my window, which led to Terry's house off to the side through our gravel area, then through a well worn path through the woods about 25ft long. My parents had put in a gravel pit around the back of the house, probably because nothing much grew due to the shade of the oak trees. There were 14 inch oak grounds set out as an uneven stepping path in the gravel, and if you stepped off of the rounds, the crunch of gravel and rocks would give you away. I picked my way expertly and silently across the log rounds facing Terry's house. My eyes got accustomed to the dark and I didn't see him. Also at that time I had heard the door of his house close and the light going off signaling that he went in. Likely to bed. I waited a bit as I had thought I saw something move in the woods between our houses, but not on the path that we'd always use. If you didn't use the path, there were wild rose and raspberry plants that had thorns and they were really painful to walk through if you weren't careful. So I thought it was odd that he'd be out in the woods, but maybe he wanted to scare me like I was planning to do to him. But I saw something human sized and dark moving through the woods slowly and then pausing every once in a while, just like I was. It was coming closer and I definitely saw it. But it was strange in that it wasn't walking directly to my window to talk. Therefore, I hunched down and waited in silence, wondering if I could still startle him. I still thought it was Terry and that he saw me sneak out and he was trying to scare me. I watched a dark outline of a human figure moving, but then I would lose sight of it in the foliage. It seemed to be stalking slowly and listening and checking every few feet while hiding. So I whispered, after losing patience one last time for Terry, but he didn't answer. I got bored of hiding and crouching, so I quietly tippy toed back to my garage door and then went back inside, silently locking up as I went. I Snugged back upstairs to my room above the area where I was just standing and crouching. My window was open and I definitely heard someone or something walking around in the yard. I whispered again for Terry out my window, but got no answer. Then I heard someone or something fall and grunt and moan pretty loudly in the window well right below my window. It wasn't enough to wake my parents, but definitely loud enough that I didn't mistake it, and it sent a shock of fear through me. If you aren't familiar with the window well, it's a semicircle hole connected to the house, dug out about three or four deep and reinforced with metal. It allows a basement window to be put in below ground level, and the hull allows some natural light in. There is no way Terry would have fallen in our window well. We had been playing hide and seek in many outdoor games for years, since we were young. Around the whole neighborhood, we knew everyone's window wells and house footprints like the back of our hands. The grunt sounded like a human and not like an animal. It also pulled itself out quietly without a lot of thrashing. That's when I realized this wasn't a fun game and that someone or something was out there and it wasn't Terry. I tried to look outside my window as best as I could, but there was a screen on my windows to keep the bugs out, so I couldn't lean my head out of the window to see next to the wall of our house directly below me. I then heard the crunch of rocks as whatever was stepping in the noisy gravel again. Terry would know where the log rounds were and would not step in the gravel. He knew that my parents were pretty strict, and he was as good at being quiet as I was. Whatever it was stopped and I held my breath. I pretty much sat there with my face pressed against the screen, two stories up for probably half an hour. I never heard whoever or whatever it was leave, but I grew tired and eventually fell asleep on my bed that was next to my window. There are a few things that I'm absolutely certain of. It wasn't Terry. I asked him later and he said that he went to bed that night right when he got home. He also would have no reason to lie. I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of our neighbors, and I can't think of any reason that a person would be there. We had a few neighbors and only two other houses out of seven had kids. Again, these houses were spread out in 2.5 acres per home. There weren't any big animals in the area, as wooded as the whole area was, we only had some deer, but they were hunted and didn't come close to our homes. Plus our dog usually scared them away. So yeah, I really have no idea who it could have been. I normally go walking in the woods with a friend, but today nobody was available, so I went by myself. At about 7pm, I parked the car and went into the entrance. There was one other car there and a jogger had passed me on my way in. I decided to go off the main track. There's a smaller track about 10, 20 meters down that you can follow instead. It's a wooded area, but I can get back to the main track in about five minutes if I want to. I was debating if I should continue on the smaller track straight following the main track or go down to the more wooded area where there's a pathway. So I'm standing there. I see a man in the distance in the main track walking towards the main entrance. He notices me and stops walking. He's staring at me now with a huge grin for about 20 seconds. He seems to be in his 50s or 60s with an extremely creepy face. My guts drop. I'm thinking if I walk back into the main track, he'll be there. If he stops staring and continues walking the main track, we'll meet at a simpler time and nobody else is here. I'm thinking he'll continue walking on and I'll wait until he leaves and then just go. Because I'm feeling super unsafe. I'm really regretting coming here by myself. He ends up walking down the hill at a diagonal while I see he's staring straight at me. He's making a beeline for me. I'm now freaking out, but think maybe he's going down the other pathway. There's nobody walking the main track in the distance. I then walk up to the main track. I notice he's doing a C shape going down to where I was standing. And now he's coming up to the main track and is behind me. He's not running, but his eyes are fixated on me and he's been smirking since he spotted me. I'm freaked out. I get to the main track which is covered by trees on each side. He's clearly following me, right? Why else would you go down and up like that? Exactly where I'm walking up, he's about six meters from me. I'm getting ready to run the entrance, which takes about five minutes. He's walking further to the right up the hill. So he'll meet me on the main track. I'm freaking out. He could grab me, he could have a weapon. I'm too scared to take out my phone. The fact that he's been following me without a word, only the leaves breaking under his boots behind me in the woods, all while stalking me, is terrifying. A couple comes in and I'm extremely relieved. They're walking fast so I'm worried that once they pass me he could run after me. My car doors don't lock properly and the engine sometimes stalls so I'm freaking out that it might happen. Now he ends up stopping at the main tracks after seeing the couple. I walk so fast. He's now walking super slowly, still staring and staying in the woods and he's been doing a predatory stare for 10 minutes. Totally fixated on me. When I got in my car I drove slowly to be able to identify him properly. He doesn't come out until I'm way down the road. I'm now wondering should I have stayed parked and got a picture of him or should I have recorded him on video and accused him of following me or told the couple I was being followed? I drove away super shaken up and he's gone forever now. I can't even describe that level of fear. All I remember is his really creepy smirking face and gray hair and thinking I'm lucky if I get out of here alive. I'm so angry that I can't even go for a short walk on a hiking trail without being in danger. I can't imagine what would have happened if I had met him further into the trail. This happened back in 2004 in northern Wisconsin. I was 16 at the time and out deer hunting with my dad and a friend of his. Frank, please don't turn this into anti gun anti hunting in the comments. I do remember this day though like it was yesterday. The dialogue isn't word for word, but the idea of it is 100% accurate. As a side note, it was one day after eight people were shot, less than two hours away. I'll have the link to the murder for reference in the description. My dad and I had a few different stands in the area. He had been hunting there for at least 10 years and I'd been going with him ever since. I was 5 up until I was 12 which was the legal age to hunt with a rifle. I had just been tagging along. This particular morning we had walked up my stand first. It was about 5am so it was still dark outside. I got situated and my dad And Frank went off to our other two stands over a ridge maybe another 500 to 600 yards off. Sitting there in the dark is always a little eerie. Not long after my dad and Frank left, I see a flashlight from the general direction of where they headed, maybe 200 yards away, roughly moving in my direction. I figured they forgot something from the truck or something, so I radioed to see what they were doing. He says obviously this flashlight is someone else. This isn't super uncommon and it really isn't a big deal. Those woods get crowded sometimes and there's a spot to park in that general direction. I turn on my lights so the other hunter can see that there's someone there. He stops. I see the light turn and go a different direction. No big deal. I end up dozing off while it's still dark out. When I wake up, the sun is up. It's around 8am I sit there for a bit, radio my dad to see if he's seen or heard anything moving. Nothing yet. A couple of gunshots go off in the distance is all. I get up and go for a slow little walk to get my blood moving a bit. Not far, maybe 30 yards out and back, trying not to make a sound. I come back to my stand to sit down and take a real good look around. Nothing really going on. I finally look out to my left where I had seen the flashlight before and see orange. For anyone unfamiliar, hunters have to wear Blaze orange during gun season. I radio my dad and Frank to see if either one of them were moving around. Dad says no. I hear nothing from Frank. I grab the binoculars out of my backpack to see if it's Frank. It's definitely not. The guy is looking at me through a scope rifle aimed directly, freaking at me. This is a huge no, no massive rule we all learn in hunter's education is you never point your rifle at something you don't intend to shoot. Dumb people still do it though. It's few and far between, but it happens. This is why normal people use binoculars. My first thought was what a damn dick bag thing is. Even with me looking at him, he doesn't put his gun down. Now I'm starting to panic, thinking I'm going to be the next hunting murder victim. I slowly grab my rifle, get up, staying behind as many trees as I can, and walk down a little path to the side of my stand. My stand was on this kind of little knoll on the side of a much larger hill. I radio my dad and tell him what's up. He tells me to sit tight and to stay out of sight. Obviously as a 16 year old I couldn't do that and I had to keep looking. Every time I looked, the guy was still aiming in my direction but was always standing in a different spot. Like I would look, go back to hiding, look again, and he would be 30 yards from where he was the last time. About 10 minutes of this goes by when my dad radios me. How you doing bud? Everything okay? Looking back, he was very obviously trying to keep me calm. At the time I thought he just wasn't taking me seriously. Dad, he's still there but he keeps moving. I don't know what his problem is. I told him dad told me to just keep hidden and he'll figure it out that he'll be coming up near him in a minute or two. That's when I hear the shot. I lost my crap trying to get a hold of my dad. Did he just get shot? Where the hell is he? Did he have to shoot the guy? What the hell's going on? These are the thoughts running through my head. I sat there for maybe two, three minutes, which felt like hours. Alright, come on out and head toward my stand, dad said. I peek up from the little knoll I was behind and see my dad waving from a little along the ridge the random guy had been on. I made the trek over to him to see what happened. Turns out Frank was feeling a little restless and took a little stroll and he ended up on the other side of that particular ridge that the stranger was on, not even knowing he was there. He had knocked his radio battery loose while he was getting situated earlier in the morning and he had no idea anything was going on. The shot I heard was actually Frank shooting a deer. Dad said as soon as Frank shot, the guy walked off away from us toward the logging road. We helped Frank out with his deer and decided to call it an early day. Although I was extremely nervous, the rest of the week went on with no incidents. So did the idiot stranger in the woods with no common sense that had aimed his rifle at me. You truly are an idiot and I'm glad you didn't kill me. I used to go to this camp when I was younger. After my high school graduation, wanting to save up some money to spend in college, I became part of the summer staff there. I mostly did kitchen work, switching in between being a camp counselor and the facility maintenance staff. What I really loved about this experience is that I was the only staff living on campus, so I had a huge room all to myself. It's Connected to a kitchen area where we prepare food. Giving some context to the story. We have this huge walk in refrigerator. It's all roses and butterflies until a camper found a rattlesnake out in the bushes. In my personal experience, the camp has never once had a rattlesnake issue. But because the camp was abandoned for years and that summer being extremely dry, most likely due to climate change, rattlesnakes gathered. We first found two, then it was four, and then it was eight, and then it was sometimes multiple rattlesnakes in the same day. We even found snakes in the water. We realized that all the places we had previously designated for our campers to play in are actually infested with snakes. Not to mention the place was rural and it would really take some time to get to the closest hospital. Anyway, here comes one night my co worker, who's the only man skilled and bold enough to actually catch the snakes, texted me and it then, hey, there's two snakes in the fridge in the kitchen. Don't open the lid of the garbage can. I ran right out of my room, half dying of laughter and half terrified. Thankfully, my co worker hadn't left and he offered to show me the fridge. When he opened the fridge, there's a giant black trash can in the middle. Then it shook and hissed. It was so loud. I was really taken back. I'm sure you all have just the same question as I did. Why on earth did the sweet name of Mary would he put two snakes in a trash can and in the fridge? Well, as it turns out, those two snakes were having their intimate connection under a canoe when my dear coworker had found them having been doing the you know what. Plus the summer being so hot, they were irritated and livid when the canoe was lifted. It was far too late at night to release them to safety, so he decided to cool them down into an artificial hibernation. Anyway, I was really impressed by it, but slightly worried about making breakfast the following morning. In the end, however, no rattlesnake or camper was hurt. Campers were so impressed with the snakes that they drew them in the promotional banner. Though we adults did have the scare of our life. This happened when I was in the sixth grade and I was 11 at the time. I'm now going into college. Some background information about me is that I'm a male with adhd, an ocd. The story started when I was going camping with a friend and his dad. We were going to spend the next two nights sleeping at Main. We were going to sleep in one of the cabins, then hike up to the top of the mountain. We got there late at night at about 10pm when we got out of our car to get settled into the cabin, we had heard a noise that sounded like it was a dog whimpering. My friend's dad called out to the dog dog to see if the dog would come to him. But after Thomas dad called out, it stopped and everything was still. I got a really big chill when everything got quiet. But we got everything inside and we finally got to sleep. I then woke up to someone breathing on my neck. I thought it was my friend playing a joke with me, so I told him to go back to sleep. But the breathing kept going. So I opened my eyes to see what my friend was doing. But when I opened them up, there was a woman standing over me who looked to be in her late 20s. The lady was just staring at me with her pants down and she was doing some very inappropriate stuff while watching me. I know this might sound funny, but it really did happen. I got really scared and I then cried out to my friend's dad and I then kicked the woman with my feet. The lady fell down, got up really quick and then jumped out the window. Thomas dad then ran in and asked what had happened and I told him. We called the cops and they searched around the cabin and they found a place where the woman was laying down. The cops had told us that the woman had been laying there for a long time. She was probably watching us when we first got there. After this happened, I ended up going home because it freaked me out just way too much. I still really haven't gotten over it. And I sometimes wonder what she would have done to me if I was still sleeping. I really hope I never see that same crazy woman again. So I'll start this story off with a little bit of an introduction. So when all this happened, I was about 8 years old, so some of the details might be a bit off, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. My dad, my mom and my brother and I all decided to do something different for our summer vacation. We were really used to staying at hotels and other types of resorts, but we were kind of tired of the huge amounts of people that those places bring. So my dad decided that it was time to try something new. And he ended up renting one of the those campers that you can rent for like €40 a day. The camper was nice. It was well equipped with everything one might need for such a trip. We had a spare wheel, a barbecue grill, and even fishing rods, not to mention all the tools included to fix the caravan if needed. All of that came included with the camper, so it seemed like a pretty good deal. After renting the camper all, all that was left was to hit the road and to start our new adventure, as my dad liked to call it. And so we did. We traveled through Spain, France and Italy with our ended destination being Croatia. We had chose Croatia because we had basically already been in every major country in Europe and the only ones we were really missing were the Southeast European countries. And our second day of the trip, after completing a 14 hour drive through France, we decided to stop in Italy to rest for the night. I can't recall which city we were close to, but we decided to stop at a gas station. Unfortunately, however, this gas station in question was not very well lit. So my dad tried to park the caravan between two trucks so we would at least be hidden and it wouldn't be as easy to spot our camper. After finding what we thought was a safe spot, we decided to prepare to go to bed. Because tomorrow we would have to be up at 8am to continue our trip. And so we did. The caravan wasn't big, so I remember that my brother and I had to sleep together because there were only two big beds. After we both got comfortable, it only took me about 45 minutes to start to feel how tired I really was. And I still remember to this day looking at the ceiling and feeling my eyelids getting heavier and heavier and until both of my eyes were completely shut. Well, about two minutes later, I hear this heart piercing shriek. It was my mother screaming. She was screaming my dad's name from the top of her lungs. This obviously woke me up on the spot and I can honestly say that I've never heard my mother scream like that. Apparently, about two minutes after I had started to fall asleep, my mom was struggling to do the same when all of a sudden our passenger door opened. The moonlight hit my mom's face, making her go from lying on her bed to sitting up to then check out what just moved the window's blinds. This is when she saw a man peeking through the passenger door. He was wearing a white tank top with a buzz cut and he had some kind of stick in his hand. When my mom saw him, she screamed for my dad to go grab the crowbar that we had in our cabinet. As soon as he heard my mom scream, he slammed the door shut and then ran into the darkness of the night. She says to this day that his face will never leave her memory and that she would still be able to identify him to this day. Apparently our camper had really faulty locks and he had used an oil measuring stick to jimmy our passenger door to get inside. We know this because when he then ran after my mom screamed, he had left his oil measuring stick stuck on our lock. We got extremely lucky because the door he opened had a bag under the seat. Apparently he didn't notice this, probably because it was so dark inside the caravan. The bag had a lot of important stuff including IDs and my portable PlayStation at the time. So if you're planning a road trip for this summer vacation, then I would highly recommend you to double check all of your locks and please choose a good resting place. Sometimes it's really worth it to pay the 20 bucks just to stay safe inside of a camper. Stay safe out there. I live in a small town in eastern Kentucky. During my early years I used to go hunting with my dad a lot. One of these trips was during the deer season and in the early hours of the morning at about 5am or so. We own our land a fair amount of woods which my family use for hunting. My dad and I rode the four wheeler to the blind that he set up for us. I recall it being very cold on this particular morning. I got off the four wheeler and got into the blind. My dad got into the blind with me, but then he remembered that he didn't put any corn out so he got out of the blind and zipped it behind him. I heard him crunching the leaves as he walked, but as I stared in front of me at the feeder, I didn't see him. The sounds of his footsteps had then stopped and he was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly I had heard that same crunching yet again, but it was coming from in front of me. I called out for my dad but he didn't answer. So I unzipped a small opening in the blind just enough so I could see my dad. However, when I looked out the small hole, I then saw a man dressed in black overalls with a clown mask on just to put it out there. I'm absolutely terrified of clowns and I have been ever since I was a baby. The man hadn't seen me, or at least I don't think he had. I began to frantically look around for the gun, but I then realized my dad had it on his shoulder when he left the blind. I turned the flashlight on my head off and then tried to be as quiet as possible. Looking back now, I don't know why I just didn't get up and run because I knew the path well enough to make it back to my house. I didn't hear the crunching of the leaves anymore, but then I had heard breathing right outside of the blind. I didn't want to believe that this was happening. And being the dumb kid that I was, I got up off the chair I was sitting on and I moved slowly toward the large opening of the blind. As I was then deciding whether or not to unzip the opening, I heard the leaves crunching yet again in the distance. I unzipped the blind just enough where I could see out in front of me, but I had to flip my flashlight on to do so. I didn't see the man or hear any breathing, so I took this chance and I ran like hell towards the path. I didn't even bother to get the four wheeler key from the backpack. As I was running, I started yelling for my dad. I could hear footsteps behind me and as I was looking back, I ran into someone. Panicked that it might be some other man. I began to kick and scream in hopes that maybe my mom would hear me down at the house because she always stayed awake so that she could help us if we needed it. Suddenly, the person in front of me started yelling my name and asking what was wrong. It was my dad. For some reason, my dad had gone over to the other side of the hill. I looked around for the man that was chasing me, but he was nowhere to be seen. I immediately told my dad what had happened and he didn't even bother to go grab our stuff for the blind. We ran back to the house where my dad began to check all of the trail's cameras. However, none were in the area that we had been in. As it turns out, my dad had went to check on the ladder stand right across from the hill to see if it would be better for me to sit in. We never did call the police, and to this day I still think about that mask. My dad and I aren't really close anymore due to differences, and after that day, I never went hunting again. I want to apologize for the length of this story. It's the most terrifying thing that I've ever experienced. This happened four years ago when my boyfriend and I were still sort of fresh into the relationship. My sister had recommended a snorkeling trip for a fun thing to do with him. It was this quarry surrounded by a campground that is filled in with water and it's known for its crystal clear water and its diving. There's apparently A helicopter as well as a school bus that people dive down to see. My boyfriend and I decided to go camping for the night. While we were checking in, we separately both got a really bad feeling about the place, but had kept it to ourselves until after we left. So at first it was a really good time. We snorkeled in the shallowish area of the quarry, and although the depth of the water was a bit uncanny, I was still enjoying myself. The water is 65ft deep, so once you had swum out of the shallow area, it immediately dropped off and was pitch black. This is actually where I realized that I'm terrified of water. Besides the dark, deep water, while you were swimming, there's something very scary about a lake that is perfectly still. I assume because it's a quarry, the water doesn't have a current. My boyfriend and I are winding down our night and we're back at our campsite where we're camping in a grassy patch down a hill from the road. Our tent is pitched in a wooded area that our campsite is extended to. And just across the green is actually a campsite that looks well lived in. But our neighbors were out. We're making hot dogs over the fire when our neighbors then get back. It's night time now and then they immediately go to sleep. I would say about 20 to 30 minutes after they get back is when things started to become spooky. My boyfriend and I were just chatting when we noticed a dark figure watching us from up the hill. Because of the shadow of the fire, we could not actually make out the characteristics of the figure, but we knew that he was staring directly at us, almost hiding behind our neighbor's truck. He had watched us for what felt like forever until he started walking down the road again. We both just watched him in dead silence, watching him walk behind the trees. The same ones connected to our campsite, but that also went in between us and him. I anticipated each time I'd see him walk forward out from behind a tree. It was a good four or five he came out from. It wasn't till after this that I noticed he had stopped walking. Or was he behind the tree still? I was totally freaked out. Where did he go? I watched my boyfriend looking at what happened and thinking the same exact thing. But he shrugged it off and I naively did too. We actually ended up forgetting all about it and we went to the quarry late at night. It was really beautiful seeing the stars reflected against the water. But the deep now all black water was terrifying to say the least. We Walked back to our campsite, lied in our tent and smoked a joint. I soon began to feel an uneasy feeling, which I was really trying to ignore, telling myself that it's just because I was high. After some silence between us, my boyfriend says to me, hey, do you feel like we're being watched? I replied back with, why would you say that? Half joking but full of seriousness that I was actually scared. My boyfriend wanted to get out from the tent. So we're standing by my car and I got this stupid idea that being in the middle of the field that's in the middle of the campground is probably the safest place for us. My logic being if someone was going to come up at us, at least we'd be able to see them. So we're now in the middle of this field when we see a similar looking shadow like figure from earlier staring at us. He must have been about 20 yards away. We noticed him walking and he's walking in the same direction as us. We change our directions and so does he. We tell one another if we change again and he does too, that we're then gonna book it to my car. When we then change, he follows and we did indeed book it to the car. I watched him from my seat as he then slowly backed away into the darkness while still staring in our direction. My boyfriend at this point then says to me, yeah, let's get the hell out of here. I agree, but all of our camping gear is outside. We quietly get our things together and try not to freak the other one out. The weirdest part of this story, in my opinion, is the next part. My headlights weren't working and there was a weird fog over my windshield that didn't go away no matter what we did. So we had to drive out of the woods with only low beams and a strange fog over the window we could barely see out. But we did get out of there. Weirdly enough, the fog went away right as soon as we got into the gas station. We later got home at around 1 in the morning. I had told my father the whole story the next day and he said he was really glad we got out of there or else we could have gotten murdered. Two people have died in this campground while snorkeling, which I later found out. After I got back, both my boyfriend and I truly believed someone was trying to kill us. That night, My wife and my two kids and I had just moved into this house for a little background on this house. It was the mid-1990s and it was a single wide mobile home. That sat on four acres of land just outside of the city limits. The home had a newly built two car detached garage and a shop building adjacent to the left side of the house. The property was mostly on flat land in the front, but the side lot in all the backyard was woods, which was also my property. There was one run down house that sat on the other side of the woods that was about an acre away from my wood line. There was also an older lady that lived about two acres to the right, but she was never home so there was really never anyone around to really bother us. Now that you get the layout of my property, here's what happened. My cousin David came over to hang out with us and to show us off his new pistol that he had bought. Since we live out in the country, it wasn't unusual for us to go out in the backyard and let off a few rounds. But at this time it was during COVID and ammo prices were sky high and were also so hard to find. So we didn't really shoot that much if at all. My wife and I needed to run into town and do some household shopping. David agreed to stay back and hang out with my son Charlie, who was 10 years old and play video games. Now we had let our son stay home all by himself all the time, so David wasn't really babysitting. But with what happens next, I'm so glad someone was there with him. It's now about 3 in the afternoon. My wife and I are just getting back from shopping and as I pull into the driveway, David comes rushing out the door and up to the truck and then says, so Charlie was playing outside, but he came running inside his room screaming and crying hysterically. I don't know what happened and I can't get him to calm down. My wife and I looked at each other. My wife then said, I wonder if he got hurt. I'll go check up on him while you guys unload the truck. As we were unloading the truck, David tells me, so look man, I don't think he got hurt. In between breaths while crying, he said something about a man. I stormed into the house, leaving David with the bags from the truck. I could hear Charlie screaming as soon as I opened the door. After we got him to calm down, he then told us something that no parent ever wants to hear. This is what happened. Charlie was playing his Xbox in his room while David was playing my PlayStation in the living room. Charlie then decided that he wanted to go outside and play for a while. Charlie was wandering around the side Lot, throwing sticks and rocks and just being an overall regular boy who was just having fun outside. Charlie was standing on the side lot about 60 yards from the front door. He bent down to pick up another stick to throw into the woods when he then saw a man crouch down in the bushes. Now, I own the entire wooded area, so no one should ever be back there. As Charlie started screaming and took off towards the door, the man tried to run after him, but he got caught on some branches and he then fell back, then getting back up, then running in the opposite direction. Now look, I know the kids make up things all the time, but the look of sheer terror on his face as he told me this was enough to send chills down my spine and I knew this was serious. My wife was freaked out. I yelled out in loud anger, I'mma get this motherfucker, I promise. I ran to my room and I grabbed my 9mm pistol from my nightstand and then out the door into the woods I went. My cousin and I spent two hours walking the woods looking for this piece of shit, my blood boiling with each step. We eventually gave up and went back to the house. I was really worried that at some point during the night, this guy would try and break in. Well, nighttime came and Charlie was having a very hard time sleeping. After all, he was really terrified of the man in the bushes. He then laid on the couch and I shut off all the lights in the house. I grabbed my AR15 and I went inside on the front porch with my dog in the dark. About an hour later, I noticed my dog staring in the same direction. It was the same direction that Charlie pointed to where the man was crouched down at from earlier. The fur on his back was sticking straight up. Right at about this time, I started to feel nervous. Just as I looked over to grab my rifle, my dog took off, running full sprint and also growling towards the woods. I took off after my dog in the woods. Once I got there, my dog was now wrestling with something in the bushes, thrashing around and growling. I pointed my rifle at the bush and my heart was pounding so hard that I started to sweat. I just knew right then and there that my dog had got a hold of the bastard who tried to snatch my son. I yelled at my dog to bring him out. As I was yelling and cussing at the man. My dog then came out of the bushes shaking his head with something in his mouth. Well, as it turns out, it was just a damn raccoon. I'm not gonna lie. I was really thankful because I really don't know what I would have done next if that would have been the guy. I will say however, that we've never had another sighting or incident like that again. For weeks I would go out there and patrol through the woods before bed and lock every door and window. Charlie still has nightmares about the man in the woods. We never did call the police or make a report because Charlie couldn't make out what the man looked like. We eventually moved. About a year later, This happened last weekend. I keep doing stupid things that turn out to be quite dangerous. I guess the upside to this is that I find myself creating some good content for your channel. So it was this past weekend on Victoria Day and it was a May long weekend here in Canada. My friend who I'll call Brad and I decided to go on a canoe trip down Wahnapatae river in northeastern Ontario. I've never been down this section of the river before and I've really been itching to explore that section for years. The problem is that the water was still cold as our snow had just disappeared about a month ago and the water level was way too high due to the unusual amount of precipitation we had this past winter and it made the rapids much more dangerous. We decided to start from the Coniston Power Generation Dam. When I met up with Brad, I was really surprised to learn then he decided to do the river in his kayak and not ride in my canoe. This had made me concerned as he had a fishing kayak definitely not made for whitewater river travel. I tried to convince him to leave his kayak behind and get in my canoe but he refused. As we launched to the bottom of the dam, the current was very strong and we had two foot waves. I easily navigated down that part. I did have cold water splashing in but I really enjoyed the rush. For me it was rough yet safe. However, for Brad that wasn't the case. He managed to go down three quarters of the way and then flipped. His equipment was safe as it was strapped onto his kayak properly. I just paddled to his kayak, held it for him and helped him get back in. He had lost his paddle and I'm pretty sure his body then went into shock. He felt nauseated and he was white as a ghost. At this point we went to the bank to let him warm up in the sun and also eat a few snacks. I once again tried to convince him to leave his kayak behind. I then told him, look man, we're not that far from the truck. We can put your kayak away and you can hop in my canoe. But he just stubbornly replied back with no, I want to continue. So I just handed him my spare paddle and we continued. Because he was using a fishing kayak that is not made for speed and using a canoe paddle, it took us a lot longer to reach our campsite. We got off the water around 7:30pm Other than that, we had a really great day. We got to our campsite, set things up, gathered wood and we even had steak for supper. After our supper we then went to the tents for the night. When we woke up in the morning, the fly in my tent was covered in a thin layer of ice. We had heavy dew and the temperature dropped to minus 2 Celsius, roughly about 30 degrees for my American friends. After packing up and eating breakfast, the sun came up and the temperature quickly rose to 17 degrees Celsius. With the sun shining brightly. Once again, we had a great day. We had seen beaver, geese, ducks, martin, fishers, blue herons, woodpeckers, hawks and many other songbirds. The trouble started right after our second portage around the Megvitties power generation dam. Once again, Brad flipped his kayak. Lucky for us, the water seemed much warmer the previous day. Nothing lost. We knew that we would have moderate rough waters for the next two kilometers, which is about 1.5 miles or so. So we decided to tie the kayak behind the canoe and have Brad in my canoe. This went great for about a kilometer until the river quickly narrowed down to roughly half of its width, maybe 25ft wide and the shore became rocky and steep and we could suddenly hear a loud roar of rushing water. The current was so strong that it was honestly impossible to stop at the one place where I could pull out to portage. I didn't want to risk getting sucked over whatever was coming sideways or backwards, as it would be the most dangerous thing you can do in a boat. So I straightened out the canoe and I instructed Brad to paddle as hard as he could, then hoped for the best with zero clue on where we were running to. Well, we fucked around and we very quickly found out a 10ft wide gap of rushing water followed by maybe an 8 foot drop. We literally shot right over a waterfall. The front end of the canoe went right in under the water and we were tossed out. I normally don't have a very good memory, but from this point on I remember every detail, every thought that went through my mind of the event. Step by step. I found myself getting sucked under the water, feeling my leg get banged up on something and doing my best to hold my breath, really hoping my PFD will bring me back to the surface. After about 30 seconds or so I popped back at the surface and I managed to exhale and take another deep breath before I got pulled back down again. This time a little longer. I thought that I was trapped in a backwash and that I was truly done for good. Again I popped out for five seconds and got pulled back down again. I contemplated opening my mouth and just swallowing the water, thinking it would take me out of my misery quickly and how I was ready to give up. As I started to relax my body and accept my faith I I then had a vision of my 8 year old son crying and I heard my 8 year old daughter then screaming dad, no, don't go. And then I popped back up on the surface. I saw that I was less than 5ft away from a dry bag and I knew that bag had matches, my first aid kit, as well as some food in it and the keys for the truck. We would need that for our survival. I swam against the current grasping for the bag and I managed to get my hand on it. The bag provided buoyancy and I used it to start swimming for the shore. My first four attempts to get out resulted in failure. I was grabbing onto rocks but there were no cracks and they were way too smooth to be able to grab and pull myself out. On my fifth attempt I had felt a rock under my foot and I managed to grab a branch and I finally managed to get out. I was grasping for air and I saw that Brad had managed to safely get to shore. The problem was that we were at least 10 to 15 kilometers from the closest road. The surrounding forest was extremely thick and there were lots of bogs and swamps. The only clothing we had was what we were wearing and when the sun goes down we get close to freezing temperatures. I saw the canoe and kayak coming my way and I knew that if we were to get out alive, I needed to save those boats. Most of our equipment was secured to the canoe and it was still inside. I jumped back in the raging water and grabbed the canoe and I held on for my life. I then rode the Whitecap river for another 700, 800 meters. At one point my left shoulder hit a rock and I thought I was going to get crushed between the rock and the canoe, but I managed to roll off the rock and held onto the boats. I honestly thought I was going to rip my arms right out of their sockets before I managed to get off the rock. I managed to keep holding on until I finally got to calm water. I used the last bit of strength that I had to swim the canoe and kayak to the steep shore, turn the canoe right side up and empty most of the water and pull out the food pack. And then I tied the canoe to a tree. Somehow my water bottle that was unsecured actually managed to stay in the canoe. My cell phone was in the food barrel and was still dry. I tried to call 911 but I had no reception. I took a small swig of water and collapsed for maybe 10 minutes. I then managed to get up and started to walk up the river looking for Brad. A few minutes into my walk, I saw some red. It was Brad's life jacket. He was combing the river bank looking for my body. He had lost one of his shoes in the rapids, but that bag that I'd managed to save had his camp shoes in it. I gave him some water and I let him back to the boats. We both had lost our paddles and we were really scared that there might be more rapids down the river. The GPS on the phone indicated the road was 12km away. We packed some equipment and we decided to try and hike to the road in less than 20 minutes. We had realized just how foolish of an idea that was. So we decided to find some big sticks and use it as paddles. Obviously using sticks was going to make us a lot slower. I found myself using a 30 pound 10 foot log that had a flat end on it that could displace the water. My arms, muscles and fingers were all sore from holding something so awkward. We were really lucky that the rest of the river was flat. I kept hoping to see someone in a boat fishing, but no such luck. We weren't out of the woods, not yet. We only had 600 millimeters of clean water and a lifestraw. This saved us from dehydration. We still had to contend with being wet. We had nothing dry to wear and the sun was going to set within the next three hours. And as I said before, the temperature was going to drop in the single digits again. I could see Bread shaking and his speech was becoming slurred and I could hear the despair in his voice. I just kept telling him that he was going to see his wife tonight. To just keep talking. Roughly two kilometers in the bridge of Highway 537. We then spotted something in the water. We had found the wheels that we had used to portage his kayak. And less than five minutes later I found my spare paddle, which then allowed me to paddle much faster. And it probably shaved 15 to 20 minutes off our trip. I then found my hat and tackle box which was floating just below the surface. As I went to grab the tackle box, I saw air bubbles coming out and it sank. Crap. $150 of equipment just gone. When we got to the bridge, it was past 8:30pm and it was getting dark fast. To add to the misery, the temperature was dropping really fast. We had to walk 15 minutes to Brad's truck. I think that this helped Brad out though. For the first five minutes it looked like he was having a seizure and he slowly started to walk better. We drove back to the bridge and retrieved our equipment. On our way out of there we saw two cow moose and their calves. I was just glad they didn't decide to run on the highway as Brad failed to see them until I pointed it out. I didn't get home until 1am that night. I was bruised up and still very sore. Brad cracked his ribs and had a huge gash on his inner thigh. But we made it home. I'm absolutely positive that if I didn't save those boats I never would have made it home alive. In all likelihood, Brad's wife would have reported us missing that night and I'm pretty damn sure the rescue crews would have found us dead of exposure. Thank God that didn't happen. My name is Hannah and I'm 20 years old. This took place in January of 2022. I was with my friends Sam and Sasha at my uncle's ranch to help him out with the cattle and the horses because there was going to be a really harsh snowstorm in the night. So my two friends and I got to work and started taking the horses inside the barn. It was around 3pm when it started snowing. This was also the time when I was all alone in the field with the last horse because Sam and Sasha were taking the cattle inside. For some context, the ranch is located on a small hill near my rural hometown and the property is surrounded by a private forest on two sides. The forest also belongs to my uncle. I was putting a halter on the horse when I saw on my left side a figure near the forest area. Reminder it was also snowing pretty heavy at this point. I didn't think much of it because there were sometimes hikers or maybe it was just an optical illusion. So I took the last horse with me and walked to the barn area. But I felt really uneasy the whole time, like someone was watching me from a distance. Now I'm not easily creeped out by something because I've seen so many things, but this particular situation, well, it sent chills down my spine due to the snow. There really wasn't much to see, so even though I looked around me, I couldn't see very far. All of the animals were taken care of, so we decided to get inside the house to warm up and also drink some hot chocolate. The snowstorm became more heavy during the early evening, so my two friends and I decided to stay the night. Sasha and I were in the basement getting the generator ready just in case we had a blackout. I looked out the small window that wasn't fully covered with snow and I saw for a split second a figure rushing by the lights of the house. Suddenly, Sam then said, did you see that? He was just coming down to bring us some drinks. Sasha then asked what he meant and then they both looked at me. Yeah, I definitely saw that, so I guess I'm not crazy, I said to my friends. We decided to get upstairs and talk to my uncle about was completely dark outside at this point and the wind was blowing heavy. When I got to my uncle, I noticed then he was a little uneasy. That was strange because he's an extremely chilled out person. I think there's someone on the ranch, he mumbles as he then looked out the window to the barn. I told him what I saw earlier and we decided to check the cameras of the barn. Everything was normal until we then switched to the only camera that filmed the big barn door and we rewinded the footage to about half an hour earlier. We all stopped breathing when we then saw a male person just standing there in the middle of a heavy snowstorm and just staring right in the camera. His clothes looked dirty and old and his face was just a skull with skin. He had no meat or fat in his face. It was like he was super anorexic or something. Suddenly the person looked in the direction of the house and started running towards it. But the way it looked, it was unnatural. What the fuck was that? Sasha asked in a worried tone. I don't know, but I don't like crazy people on my ranch. My uncle said angrily. We got upstairs and outside on the balcony my uncle decided to turn on the full floodlight in the inner courtyard. Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream that sounded like something died. And the next moment this tall skinny man sprinted from behind the house into the darkness right in the direction of the forest, screaming like a wild animal. We were all just standing there in disbelief and just really creeped out by all that. Let's get inside and keep watching the property. My uncle said. I know that he was worried, but we really couldn't do much. And because of the snow, the police won't be here in less than two hours. And getting outside and looking for the man was way too risky. Also, sending the dogs out was not an option because of the Snow. Well, around 10pm, while we were all in the living room watching some tv, my aunt and Sasha looked at the cameras to check on all the animals. We all took turns watching the cams in the inner courtyard all throughout the night. The very next morning, my uncle and I went outside to check out everything. Suddenly, Sasha called us back to the house. Dude, oh my God. Look at that shit. She almost screamed. The whole door from the outside down to the basement was completely scratched. Like when something or someone desperately wants to get inside. We all got the chills and we went inside the house to call the police. Until they arrived, Sam and I decided to check the big gate to the barn where we had saw the person at last night. There was something carved next to the gate in the wood. It said, I know you're there and I will come back. We both just looked at each other with absolute horror in our eyes. Around half an hour later, a police officer who's also a friend of my mom, came by. We told him and his colleague everything and we showed them the footage. I was absolutely shocked when the officer then told us that they were actually on hunt for this man. Apparently he had broke out of the mental hospital that was in the bigger town around 15 kilometers away from us, and he had even broken into a house in the neighboring town. He also definitely had at least a knife on him because that's what he stole from the house. This person is completely delusional and extremely dangerous. The police told us we had a search around the property until the evening, but they never found anything. I will never forget the face of that man, that's for sure. Also, to my knowledge, they never did find the man, but I really hope he got the help that he very much needs.