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Urban legends are often mythical narratives fondly shared around a campfire. They’re passed down from generation to generation until they eventually become celebrated folklore.
However, some of these supposed works of fiction turn out to be true, doubling down on the creepy factor that already exists. Here are some examples shared by people on Reddit. You may find some familiar stories, but most of these you’re likely reading about for the first time.
If you have your own urban myths that you think should make it on this list, feel free to share them in the comments below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I went to a University near Valley Forge, PA. It used to be a POW camp and a Military Hospital before the college bought the entire property for one dollar in the 1960s (?) Since there are really only three universities near Valley Forge, PA it will not be hard to deduce which college it was lol
Anyways, there was a rumor that underground tunnels and all sorts of stuff was left abandoned in the abandoned sections of the college.
Sure enough, it was true. We found a tunnel hatch under our carpet in our dorm room (two hatches on the first floor....furthest most first floor dorm room of each building)
It was literally like stepping into 1945. Everything was preserved down there and the tunnels were massive. We eventually ended up in an "underground garage" where there were 4 Jeeps parked but all the tires had dry rotted. We realized this was actually beneath our soccer field.
Anyways, the tunnels lead to the cafeteria, the admin building, every dorm, and then an old abandoned section of our campus that we had no way of entering top side. We soon realized this was the hospital/morgue
When we got out of the tunnels and walked the floor it was still like 1945. All the hospital beds were still there, the surgical curtains were still there. Hell, even the tools (like the scalpel, saw, plyers, etc) were still on their trays.
It was like everyone all of the sudden up and left and nothing had been moved since then. The morgue still had its slabs and sometimes we would dare each other to slide in there for a period of time.
But yeah, it was an urban legend on campus until three of us decided to risk expulsion to see if it was true. And it was.
Upstaged75 3 hours ago
My college (in southwest Virginia) was part of the Underground Railroad and has tunnels/passageways underneath the campus. When I was there they were used for various secret societies. (There were no sororities and when I was there it was woman only) I was only involved in one society so I never saw most of the tunnels. No idea if they're still around because students aren't supposed to share that info. 😁 One of the weirdest ones was a group of women who wore black robes with hoods and walked around at night moaning. Then they would form a circle in one of the quads and stand there moaning for a while. 😂 I thought it was hilarious and would have loved to join them, but I never got invited. Small southern US colleges (especially single gender ones) usually have lots of interesting traditions. I had an amazing time there.
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#2
Black Volga.
In the 60s and 70s, there existed and urban legend in poland, that vampires in black limousines were kidnapping people, preferingly little children.
It was a tale parents told their kids who would then tell their friends etc.
Turns out it was a rumour that was spread by the polish secret police who actually used black cars to kidnapp people.
The aim was that no one would believe someone who would report they had witnessed a kidnapping.
Turnip and a Frog 2 hours ago
It’s an urban legend upon an urban legend. No Black Volga kidnappings ever happened in Poland. While secret services might have been arresting people for questioning in cases of more or less legitimate “activities detrimental to the state”, people were not being snatched off the streets by unmarked black cars to disappear forever. The story was a clever ruse to prevent kids from wandering off. Another such legend told for the same purpose was “the G***y kid-snatchers” stories - same concept, but ethnically based. Back in the day, the minority that stood out the most in a predominantly white society were the Roma people, plenty of prejudice was at play, so they functioned in common mindset as the Stranger, the boogeyman, whom you can suspect of the worst intentions.
#3
The North Pond Hermit. Things would go missing in this little vacation community and people attributed it to some mysterious dude. Turned out there was one, he lived out in the woods for 27 years without ever talking to anyone.
EDIT: He said "hi" to a hiker once during that 27 years. Best friend he ever had.
Upstaged75 3 hours ago
I read a book about this. It's called The Stranger in the Woods. Very interesting.
#4
The Wyckoff Wanderer, Wyckoff, NJ.
The myth was that an old man would wander the streets at night looking for his daughter who got hit by a fire truck or ambulance, can't remember.
Anyway, me and my friends were in high school driving home and we see him!
We pull over and start a conversation with him. I don't remember if we asked about his daughter or whatever but turns out he had a light sensitivity so he only walks at night.
He offered me a cigarette, a rollie, which I took but I don't smoke.
Really nice guy, just lonely.
#5
In Kenya mombasa there was a story about a woman with long black hair and a white dress who would be seen around the beach at night and it was to stop people from being at the beach swimming in the ocean. Turned out to be true. An older lady would sleep walk on the beach in her nighties. Even she didn't know until locals found the courage to follow her home.
#6
I live near a lake and there was an urban legend that there were huge lake monsters near the Hydroelectric dam.
Most people thought it was just some fishermen's tall tales, we all guessed it was just a twist on the classic 'the one that got away'.
Turns out divers went into the water behind the dam for a routine inspection to see if there was any damage after months of heavy flooding in the area. Apparently one of the divers got too close to what he originally thought was a large moss covered rock/boulder until it moved and tried to latch on to the divers arm. Apparently there are +-200 lb catfish behind the dam which thrive on the fish that go through the hydroelectric portion of the dam, the agitated water makes it easier for the large catfish to breath and grow past what is commonly found in the area, and the lack of fishers as all commercial fishing is banned for at least 1000 meters means these fish are truly free to grow to truly enormous sizes.
#7
This is, thankfully, a somewhat more light-hearted urban legend than a lot of the posted ones so far.
So, I'd heard several times from friends and whatnot hearsay tales about this creepy, near-mythical "shoe-licker" who resided in the Tampa area. Apparently, this dude would walk up to people in public spaces, and would ask them about their shoes, and ask to see the bottoms of them, and would then drop and do his best to lick the bottoms of the shoes before the person could step back down. Naturally, I thought that was just way too weird, and there was no way this wasn't just people making up some nonsense story.
Then I ran into the guy, at a taco truck.
Skinny dude, longish hair, probably homeless from how he was dressed. Could have been 18, could have been 30. Walks up as i'm waiting for what turns out to have been the best taco I've ever had in my existence (a cochinita pibil, for the curious), and asks about the shoes I'm wearing. I'd just finished performing, and was still wearing some Doc Marten boots, and was more than a little soused. He asks if he can see the treads or something like that, I'm all confused and am like "sure, why not", and he drops to the floor, grabs my boot, and starts licking away at the sole. I yelled at the dude, sort of kicked at him, and he scampers off. Weirdest interaction ever.
#8
The man that worked in a law firm on the 24th storey of a building. As a running gag, he would tell everyone that the windows in the building were unbreakable, then proceed to run at one of them full full force. Once, he did it and the glass didn't break, but the window popped out of the frame, and he fell 24 stories.
I saw this on an urban legend show when I was a kid, but found out later that this really happened in my city, Toronto, Canada. My boyfriend works in the same building and rumour has it that the man landed on a concrete bench at concourse level, a woman and her child had just been sitting there minutes before his fatal plunge.
Upstaged75 3 hours ago
The link doesn't work, but the guy's name was Garry Hoy. I'll post the correct link below.
#9
The Rat Man. In Southampton, it was rumoured that the reason there were so many rats about was because there was a mysterious man who would find secluded spots of unlit footpaths at night, and feed the rats raw meat. He would go somewhere else each night so the council couldn't catch him. I always assumed it was a silly campus legend.
Then my friend met him!
Well, it turned out to be rather dull. He exchanged a few words with him, my friend told him he shouldn't feed the rats, he said that they needed food, then he was on his way.
#10
Not really a legend, unless you didn't believe it,
My town and surrounding area has multiple old pirate smuggling tunnels under it, going from towns to beaches.
Most of the tunnels are under pub or shop basements.
Also when I say pirate I do mean arrrrr pirates.
Penzance, UK.
Upstaged75 2 hours ago
I was in Pirates of Penzance at theater camp one summer I played Ruth.😁 (If you read my other post about the girl who was m.urdered at a private school, this was the same place. We rehearsed in the Chapel - she was found in the woods just behind it)
#11
Girls at LSU would wake up thinking they were being watched & snuggled up against while sleeping. Turns out a guy broke in 12+ girls homes and snuggled them, ate their food etc and would slip out their windows. He was dubbed the serial snuggler.
#12
There's an urban legend in my town about a guy who hacked up his wife and kids to keep them from leaving him, then went to her closest friends and started picking them off one by one. It's one of those stories that gets told by the campfire to creep people out because this guy hid in the woods from police for about a month before he was caught. Thing is, it's not a legend. My family doesn't talk about it much, but we were on his list. His wife had knitted my baby blanket. We had to go into protective custody while he was on the loose.
Upstaged75 3 hours ago (edited)
There's a private boarding/day high school in my area that has a large beautiful campus. During the summer it's turned into a camp, and my brother and I went there every year as kids. In 1973 a 14 year old girl from the school was kidnapped, t0rtured, and m.urdered. Her body was left bound to a tree on campus, partially clothed. (The campus is heavily wooded and quite big so they didn't find her right away) The man, who was 22 at the time, was caught and spent the rest of his life in prison. At camp we'd do an overnight campout at the end of every session, and for some reason the counselors thought this was appropriate story to tell us right before we went to bed. (It was the 80's. No one worried about scaring kids back then I guess?) I always thought it was just a scary story, until I was older and able to verify it for myself. It's a truly horrible one that should have never happened. I'll put a link to an article written by her younger sister below.
#13
There was an older guy in my hometown that we would call The SquirrelMan or Aqualung (after the Jethro Tull song). He wouldn't really talk to anyone, but he was always in one of the parks, and he always had squirrels on and around him. He'd feed them and apparently raise them. He always wore a black and red flannel jacket.
The Legend was that he could talk to the squirrels because the guy was on some sort of perma-trip.
Talking to my dad years later, it turns out he kinda knew the guy before he was like that, and that one night he had fallen asleep on a park bench with an entire sheet of acid in his pocket, and it had rained. So the guy really was permanently messed up, in a way.
Weather or not he could actually communicate with squirrels will always be up in the air however.
#14
Raymond Robinson: The Green Man.
Dude lost his eyes and nose and wandered the streets at night in Pennsylvania because he couldn’t go outside in the daytime because of how he looked. People saw him and an urban legend in PA was born.
#15
In Liverpool, kids are taught about Purple Aki from a young age. He’s been locally known and feared for honestly three decades. He likes feeling boys’ muscles and makes them do squats. He’s completely real, he’s even had court orders against him preventing him from feeling people’s muscles.
#16
We had an older couple that would come into the store I worked at when I was 15. They clearly had mental development/mental health problems and the rumor was they were siblings and the two teenage girls with them were their children.
About 5 years later I'd find out someone had called the state about them and turns out (from what I remember) to be mostly true. The parents were apparently the result of incest and they carried on the family tradition, as it were. I think the state removed their daughters and put them in state custody since they weren't able to take care of themselves, and I don't remember what happened to the parents.
#17
The ghost squirrel in my hometown of Dorking, UK. There was a ghost squirrel, called Albi, that was only ever seen in the graveyard at the church in town. Turns out, it was an albino squirrel that had a nest in one of the trees in the graveyard.
#18
In the small town I'm from there was one "homeless" guy. He technically lived with his mother but wasnt there much. His nick name was Sweet Pea. He was a big dude and of course developmentally disabled. He used to wander the town at night. Totally harmless but there's always that "better watch it or Sweet Pea will get you!" Well while he was wandering he used to go around to all the gas stations and collect the last little bit of oil left in all the oil cans in the trash. Everyone joked that he was actually rich from selling that oil. Well when his mom passed away, the went to go clean her house out. And he had 10 55 gallon drums of oil in his garage. He was selling it and that's how they survived financially.
#19
When I was a kid, my dad would take me and my brother to High Rock. It's a neat overlook and we could play on the rocks. It was fun, but also a little sobering (as much as things can be for kids) because a girl had passed away in a hang gliding accident if I remember right.
As you drive up to the parking lot for the overlook the road continues on into the woods. We asked our dad where it went and he told us that you'd be driving down the road and suddenly armed guards would pop out of the woods to stop you because there was a secret government base there.
That's the case, except it isn't really secret. It's Raven Rock, which is a nuclear bunker that can act as a remote Pentagon if the country is attacked. Cheney went there during Sept 11 while Bush was taken somewhere else. You will be detained if you trespass on the property.
I went back to High Rock a few years ago while visiting family and while hanging out at the overlook a truck of teenagers showed up. They asked if I knew what was up the access road and I told them Raven Rock and not to keep going because they'd be detained. They decided they wanted to check it out anyway. An hour later when I left High Rock those kids had not come back yet, so I figured they were getting chewed out by a soldier.
Fun fact: Raven Rock is the headquarters of the Enclave in Fallout 3!
#20
*Throwaway since I tell this story irl*
There was an urban legend at my high school that one of the janitors quit because he saw a set of bloody footprints down the hallway.
My bad that was me.
One day, I was staying late to complete a class project and dropped a heavy glass pane on my toe. It left a huge gash that I couldn't get to stop bleeding. Now, my school was the kinda place where having a shoe full of blood would get you a weeks detention instead of a hospital visit so I make sure to check around before I limped on home to bandage myself up.
Our high school was a rectangle with a sunken library in the middle so we had hallways that framed it. I was at one corner and at the other end was the janitor finishing up mopping the hallway.
As soon as he turned the corner, I took off my shoes and socks since they were so full of blood I couldn't property walk and walked down the hallway and out the door. This left a perfect trail of bloody footprints all the way until the hallway dried out, which happened to be exactly where the exit door was.
As the rest of the story goes, he turned around when he heard the door close and found a trail of bloody footprints down the hallway with no one there to take responsibility. Dude quit on the spot.
Sorry to freak you out Janitor, ghosts aren't real (or at least don't do that).
#21
In the early to mid 00's, it was widely reported on conspiracy theory websites that the US government was intercepting emails and phone calls. It was stated to be impossible.
#22
When I was a kid, my buddy lived in the same neighborhood as the Jesus/Charles Manson-looking guy who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart. When we would hang out at my friend's house, we would always see the guy and joke that he was a criminal or something. Lots of us figured he was somehow crazy and we'd create these hypothetical scenarios of the crazy stuff he must be doing. Then one day we see him on the news and realize we might have been in a lot more danger than we thought.
Upstaged75 2 hours ago
Brian David Mitchell is his name. He's a disgusting waste of space. I read Elizabeth's book. Wish I hadn't. Poor woman. 😥
#23
We've got a dude in milwaukee dubbed the "milverine," the milwaukee wolverine. he looks sort of like a midwestern logan from the x-men, and he's sighted all over downtown briskly walking around with his shirt off. like, no matter what he's doing, rain, shine, blistering heat or freezing cold, he's got his shirt off.
turns out he's just a scruffy construction worker who's pretty ripped and vaguely looks like the superhero. apparently he's a nice guy and locals often tell people not to bother him because it's just rude. for a while a few years ago people were approaching him all the time, probably for photos and whatnot.
#24
The Asylum Lake tunnels in Kalamazoo are real! There is a small lake and wildlife area just off of WMU's campus and for a long time there were rumors going around that they were still there and accessible! Well turns out that was true and there was an old set of stairs that was partially buried that lead to a walled up tunnel entrance.
A few people used hand tools and ended up breaking part of the wall down and got inside only to find the tunnels fully intact albeit a bit damp and murky!
Somehow the authorities got wind and went and sealed the entrance again but it's still very obvious where that was if you are really looking for them!
#25
Where I live there was a legend about a Child and pet eating monster on the east side of town. We called it the "Beast from the East". One child was reported missing, multiple pets as well, there was even a mangled up deer found just out on the train tracks in that area, and the trains no longer use that track/it was blocked off so a train couldn't have ran over the deer.
There were coyotes out in the woods around town, some, lynx, and maybe even wolverines, so most people assumed those animals were comming into town, to follow the deer that would herd there every fall/spring, and just pick off pets because they were easy prey if not fenced in properly.
Well, a few years ago a trapper set up their traps to possibly catch some of these animals for fur and help reduce the amount of missing pets. He ended up snaring a mountain lion... Mountain lions should not exist this far east in Canada as they are considered "extinct" on the eastern side of Canada and we are only a few hundred (maybe 200 ~ 300) miles from Manitoba. Most lions stick close to the Alberta side if they are anywhere in Saskatchewan.
So the Beast from the East was real, although it was just an elusive big cat, we knew there was an actual monster living near town even though law enforcement/the forest rangers kept saying otherwise.
#26
There where abandoned tunnels below my town (A large part use to be a self sustaining mental institution covering several square miles.) Everyone talked about them, but noone ever talked about actually being in them. Went spelunking in the woods and found an old maintenance shack. There was a basement that was flooded. Went back a couple years later when there was bad drought. Basement has a rusted door leading into said tunnels. Nothing special, and no escaped crazy people.
SwordInTheDarkness 4 hours ago
I wish people would stop referring to mental patients as "crazy people." It's degrading and dismissive of the mentally ill.
#27
I often wonder if Steven Kings "children of the corn" was based on a northern town in Maine. I don't recall the name of the town, but my friends and I stopped in on our way to the furthest US point east.
The town struck me very weird because every store clerk was like 14-17 max. Not just one or two stores- every store. Aside from ourselves, we did not come across one adult in the 2 or so hours we were there. It was a depressed town, nearly a ghost town and left me with a really unsettled feeling.
#28
Whispering Monkey People. One of the countries in Southeast Asia (can't remember which one) had a myth about "Monkey People" who would talk in soft voices and kidnap people. In the last decade some archaeologists uncovered an offshoot of Proto Humans that co-existed with Homo Sapiens in that area for several thousand years. Based on their physiology there was something about their throat or mouth that would have made them only able to whisper.
#29
When I was about 12 years old a friend and I were playing in the woods that were known for being “creepy”. While building a fort, a strange man snuck up behind us and yelled at us to get off his land and never come back yadda yadda. It really startled us as we knew the land was a public area and had never been threatened by an adult before. Several years later we found out he was an actual bank robber, wanted by the FBI for years. We were building our fort a few feet from his stash!
#30
There was once a time when a neighbour told me someone kept walking round the courtyard of my apartment complex that looked shifty and I thought I’d check it out, so I walked round there at the same time every night for 2 weeks and eventually the police came and arrested me for loitering, after explaining what had happened they let me go with no charge, so I accidentally became an urban legend if that counts.
Upstaged75 3 hours ago
🤣🤣 Why wouldn't you just look out the window or something? Not so much an urban legend as "that weird idiot".
#31
The Phoenix Lights. When I was younger, I witnessed the first appearance (1997). I believe it's just an experimental aircraft or something, and nothing alien. But they really did appear, and thousands of people have seen them.
The picture from the newspaper clipping used Photoshop to generate what others described to the editor, but they got it wrong. The lights were miles apart, the angle was wider (obtuse), and they were either not moving or moving slowly. An outline of an aircraft could not be seen as the image implies. It was very dark that night so it is likely the aircraft(s) were black or using some sort of digital image blending camouflage (Like Predator).
#32
"Welcome to the world of AIDS" is an urban legend about a man meeting a woman at a bar, going back to his place to sleep together, only to have him wake up to her being gone and the famous slogan "Welcome to the world of AIDS" written on his bathroom mirror. The urban legend has many different versions variations.
This was largely considered an urban legend. That is, until "stealth pozzing" actually turned out to be a very real think. Modern actual cases involve a British man named Daryll Rowe, who, already knowing he had hiv, would send a text after sleeping together to his many victims saying things like "I have HIV LOL. Oops" and "I'm riddled." Others have also been convicted for knowingly doing this on Craigslist.
#33
That there's "something" making people disappear in our area in Nevada. As a kid it was more so they were hinting at aliens.
Then as we grew up the disappearances have been a little too eerie and its been suspected that there's investigations that have been going on as to whether or not there's a criminal in our area.
Elladine DesIsles 28 minutes ago (edited)
I live in Toronto's Church-Wellesley Village (aka the gay village). For years, I walked by the haunting, smiling faces of men gazing out at me from "missing" posters every time I left my house, gradually increasing in number. I'm not sure it would ever have been considered an urban legend, precisely, but over those years community members were convinced there was a serial k*ller operating in the neighbourhood. All the while, Toronto police denied this, insisting there was no connection between any of the cases, and no evidence anyone had d*ed at all. They maintained that position, right up until the arrest of a man who would ultimately be convicted of m*rdering and dismembering eight men, most of whose faces I knew well from the "missing" posters that had papered the neighbourhood all those years.
#34
Sewer alligators. If alligators and other animals are 'flushed' or disposed of into plumbing...yea they can survive and hangout.
#35
I’m not sure if this counts, but in my high school, we used to find animal bones on the football field and they were always burned.
We assumed it was some deranged high schoolers trying to scare the public or something stupid like that. The bones were mostly dog and cat bones.
What we learned was much scarier. My high school was a private Christian school. Well, it turns out the bones were from the occult meeting to have rituals on our fields and curse the school. The animals they burned were also people’s pets that they stole in the middle of the night.
We learned this because the cops hid one night to see who was doing this over and over.
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