Carnival rides.

Swimming in the ocean.

Electricity.

When I was a child I was playing out in the front yard of my house when a white van pulled up on the road, the sliding door opened and a guy in his early 20's waved at me to go over to him.


Luckily I was a shy kid and got scared and ran inside and told my parents about a strange man in a van calling me over. My parents raced outside but the van was gone by then and it is was only as an adult I think back and I realize what a serious situation that was, I could have been abducted that day and worse.

I was at an internal work event/party at a fancy hotel in a different state — it was 80s themed. I started talking to some dude, I barely knew anyone there so I was trying to network, and he tells me he doesn't work for my company. Okay, no worries, I make a joke about free food. He stares me straight in the eye and picks up one of my French Fries off my plate, dips it in ketchup and eats it without saying a word.

I kind of freaked out and dropped the food in the trash and just walked out of the room and decide not to think about it. A few minutes later, there he is, staring at me. I change rooms again; I'm short so I hid behind people and pretended to talk to people I kind of recognized from my home office. He follows me, every few minutes I see him.

I finally got the courage to approach a woman I knew the name of from some meetings and seeing her around the office. When I asked if the party had any kind of security she immediately asked if it was about the dude in the blue jacket and white hat. Apparently she'd noticed him staring at me creepily, so I didn't have to try and convince anyone.

Security took him away and everyone moved on but I was scared and paranoid for the rest of the business trip.

Edit: thank you every one who has sent kind words and awards, I was just telling my story for my own sake but I'm glad so many people have seen it and I feel for everyone who has had similar experiences

To all the people who keep sending me creepy messages: wtf is wrong with you that you read this and that's your response?? Seriously stop.

When I was maybe 10 I was over at a friend’s house hanging out. Her neighbor was out of town and my friend was feeding the cat while they were gone. So my friend and I went over to feed the cat. Immediately upon opening the door, we heard someone walking upstairs. They were loud, heavy, slowww footsteps - like didn’t even sound human.

My friend and I just looked at each other and sprinted back to her house. The worst part was we told her mom and the mom didn’t believe us and made us go back and finish feeding the cat alone! We were terrified but did it.

When the neighbor came back, they found that their house had been broken into.

ETA: As for my friend’s mom’s reaction: we were in upper end suburbs in the early 2000s - at the time I think people thought these were incredibly safe with no crime (not the magnets for robbery they often were). It also probably totally sounded like we thought it was a monster/ghost! At that age we didn’t really understand what it was. But definitely in the future when my kids are scared - even if it’s a “monster” - I will know better to listen to them!