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Different things scare people. Some almost faint at the sight of a spider or a snake. Others pray to God that they never come across something supernatural, as they would immediately scream their guts out. And others have wildly distinct fears: they’re afraid of commitment, abandonment, or loneliness.
This list of scary things is mostly about the more tangible ones: natural disasters, the danger posed by other people, and unexplainable phenomena you can still see or feel. They come to you from a recent online thread where someone asked, “What's the scariest thing you've ever seen in real life?” As it turns out, mundane everyday things can freak people out just as much as extreme, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Read through them and let us know in the comments the most spooky and terrifying things you’ve witnessed yourselves, Pandas!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Long story somewhat short: I was involved in a flash flood with my Dad, we got trapped for a few days, helped some people and eventually made it to a better area to camp at least for a needed nights “sleep”. I remember being the most tired I have ever been after being out for so long with no sleep and little food and water and when I finally started to build a fire for us at last I only remember looking down and seeing that I had cut my left hand in half with my hatchet. I don’t even remember cutting wood or anything which is something I’ve done 1000 times without issue. I finally made it to a hospital that ended up being closed and had to go further all the way to Moab Hospital.
They didn’t do anything for me but Xray it and say “ we can’t fix that” so I got a expensive ambulance ride to the U. Only to be told the surgeon was dealing with people that had been in a devastating wreck, she gave me the choice to either “butt in line” or come back tomorrow. I chose to come back later and went home with my hand crudely taped, somewhat sewn and glued together. 2 days after I chopped it I had surgery, I had cut my hand clean all the way through from the right of my wrist up to the right of my middle finger tendons and all, all of it unattached. The surgeon fixed literally everything including the tendons and put screws in my hand and knuckle bones. And that was almost 2 years ago this month. It hurts sometimes since I’m an Auto Tech but I make it work.
Scariest part? My work messed my insurance up at my newish job. So the bills. Those were the scariest part which I’m still paying off to this day.
Sorry for the rant but I’ve never really talked about it much lol it’s hard to explain how we were trapped except for the fact we were on a mountain in the desert here and the storm came over the peak and surprised us quickly on the other side. We then were trapped on the mountain with Nile River looking sand washes all around it. I still have the scary scary insta360 footage but I can’t bring myself to watch it 🤣 all of this just so I could photograph a location I had tried to find for MONTHS. And yes, the photos were worth it.
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#2
A kidnapping.
About 8 years ago, Cabo San Lucas. I'm at a resort. It's hella late at night and my wife and I are a little drunk, having a smoke on the balcony. 4th floor. Semi overlooking one of the resort's parking lots.
A car pulls in and parks, lights off, doesn't turn off the engine. Someone gets out and walks towards our building. We don't think anything of it. Then a couple of minutes later the same person comes running back to the car, but this time holding something wrapped in a kids blanket, about the exact same size as our 2 year old that's sleeping in the next room.
The driver gets out, opens the rear door to the car, the runner places the blanket wrapped item in the back seat, and they absolutely blast out of the parking lot.
We were both like "well that was really weird."
Next morning, there are armed officers surrounding our building on the resort. Ask them what happened and one of them flat out told us that a child went missing last night.
I've never held my kids tighter than I did that day. It still haunts me. And with how Mexican media is, I never was able to get any resolution to the story. Just hope that kid eventually got home.
And I know that when my kids were around 2-3. If they were tired enough, I could carry them from A to B without them ever noticing.
#3
Walking at the base of a glacier outside of Anchorage by myself. Turn head and see a full-grown grizzly right in front of me. [He] had me if he wanted. Thankfully, he chose to respect my privacy.
#4
Tornado hitting our house. We lost a window and our back fence. The street & house behind us got leveled.
#5
My 2 year old niece choking on goldfish crackers. No panic, just grabbed her, spun her around, and gave her the heimlich. She sprayed crackers all over my brother's living room. Watching someone gasp for breath and look at you with the look of pure terror in their eyes is absolutely horrifying.
#6
Watching more and more of my family succumb to dementia. Knowing I’ll be in that same spot one day too.
#7
I was driving through a storm in Nashville and all of sudden the interior of my car lights up bright white. Then the loudest crack/bang I have ever heard. My ears started ringing so loud. Turns out lightning struck me. I thought I had got hit by a semi and died.
#8
My dad wailing and screaming on the ground going ballistic (definitely has bpd) and smashing my moms car with a lacrosse stick because he cheated and she was leaving him and moving away with me.
#9
My sister belly up in a pool.
I actually pulled her out gave her compressions and the water came out of her lungs. She’s 16 now and a brat but I’m thankful I found her.
#10
My husband changing (quite suddenly) from the loving, caring soulmate I’ve always known for 23 years into a total hateful stranger, accusing me of crazy things due to s****ophrenia/psychosis.
#11
I saw a truck coming head-on at our car.
The truck was so far into our lane it was on our shoulder, my shoulder (i was passenger). Next thing I remember was waking up, it was very smoky and dark, and the truck was basically in the dashboard of our car.
I still think about that.
#13
Had an escaped asylum patient come knocking on my door in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods, while I was home alone at only 16. Very surreal and I kept expecting some kids to jump out of the bushes to tell me I was being Punk'd.
Thankfully I was able to call the proper authorities and they managed to bring her back to where she needed to be. She seemed very nice, but the very fact that she had been watching me from the woods for an unknown amount of time while I was in my barn and was then able to sneak up behind me to my back door without me noticing until she was knocking on it and peeping through the window still creeps me out. She was even in a cliche hospital gown and barefoot, walking/pacing on sharp gravel without so much as wincing.
I hope she is doing better now.
#14
A tornado went right through my dad’s house in 2013. I was home alone and had two cats and two dogs. I didn’t have enough time to find my cats but I literally dragged my dogs to the bathroom and tried my best to hunker down in the bath tub. The noise alone gives me nightmares. All the animals were unharmed and the cats are both still alive today. I only had maybe 30 seconds between seeing the tornado and said tornado letting itself inside.
#15
Waking up to a room that I was asleep in being engulfed in flames, confused and barely able to breathe enough to crawl towards a door to get to fresh air. It's been 20 years and I still have weird dreams about it.
#16
Watching myself become like my alcoholic mother and not being able to put the bottle down. 50 days sober today.
#17
Walking the Old Rag Mountain trail in Virginia with my wife, we noticed a black bear cub climbing the slope about thirty yards to our left. My wife was thrilled to see it, but I immediately started scanning the woods for the mother. I spotted her about twenty yards to our right, which meant we were standing directly between the two.
My heart started racing as I kept my eyes on the mother bear and tried to explain to my wife how dangerous the situation was. She was still focused on the cub and didn’t realize the problem. I picked up a large branch from the ground and told her to start walking while staying ready to run if I told her to. She moved ahead and I followed behind, waving the branch and making as much noise as I could.
As we backed away, the mother bear ran to the exact spot where we had been standing, then stopped and watched us. Once we turned a corner and were out of her sight, we sprinted down the trail until we were safely away.
#18
I worked in an independent living facility for seniors. Long story short, a man who was a bit of a hermit passed away in his unit and tenants didn’t report the smell to us until he’d been gone for about two weeks. None of us wanted to go in there so we called the police for a wellness check, and when they opened his door, thousands, and I mean *thousands* of flies flew out. It was nightmare fuel. It’s been so long and I still remember it so vividly.
#19
Watching my Dad slowly suffering from Stage 4 esophageal cancer. Chemo didn't help, and he got weaker and weaker, skinnier and skinnier until he was pretty much a skeleton with skin stretched over. Passed away last year in September.
#20
The mafia burying someone in Peru.
I went there there to do volunteer work, we mostly helped a school and a nearby soup kitchen. But nut the program, Cross Cultural Solutions also offered other tourism benefits so when we left Lima to go to the dunes, we drove past a bunch of guys with a grave hole and a body in a sack.
Also in the city, we drove past a guy loading a hand gun right around the corner of a liquor store. South America is the wild west.
#21
Got lost on a solo hike in Yellowstone. Stood toe to toe with a bison surrounded by burnt out trees from the 80s wildfires.
No one will believe me, but I backed away and sat on a ridge for a few minutes. When the bison walked past the choke point, he nodded towards me.
#22
My youngest brother in the hospital after an extreme hyperglycemic attack.
He was staying home from college after not feeling good for the past few weeks. He was drinking concerning amounts of water, constantly feeling super tired and dizzy, and was generally just feeling weak. Then, one day during his stay, he got super sick and threw up on the living room floor. My dad ended up taking him to the hospital because he was so concerned about him.
Sure enough, when he gets to the hospital and they get to take his blood sugar levels, his BS is SO HIGH that the machine they used kept climbing until it read “ERROR”. A more accurate reading would later show his BS was around 600.
After a day or two after being admitted into the ICU, my younger brother and I went to the hospital with our parents to visit, and he looked nearly half-d**d. His cheeks and eyes were sunken. His shoulder blades, spine, collarbone, and ribs were all super visible with how thin he had become. His normally tan skin had become super pale and taut. The doctors would tell us later that if he’d come in any later, we likely would’ve lost him with how bad his condition had gotten.
Nowadays, he’s doing a lot better. He’s managing his Type 1 diabetes really well, and he’s recently been engaged to his long-time girlfriend (who is a very sweet girl who helps him with managing his medication and stuff).
#23
A power line fell in our back yard and was jumping and sparking all over the place right when it happened. Then one of the guys from the electrical company that came to fix it was told it was no longer live (it wasn't jumping and sparking anymore). It was live. He flew about 20 feet right out of his boots. His son was there with him. He was a few days away from retirement. Luckily the boots saved his life and the current wasn't able to ground itself through him. He said it hurt [badly]. I thought he was d**d.
#24
The ones I love d***g in front of me. You wouldn’t want to not be with them. But you will not be the same.
#25
Tractor trailer crushing a car into the railing on an overpass. The first thing I saw was a car door flying through the air. It was terrifying and so, so fast.
I was the only one badly injured in the resulting pile-up accident. Still need my hip replaced.
#26
We were driving through a satellite city outside of Brasilia on the way to Chapada dos Veadeiros, and there were men standing on the side of the road, holding dogs in their arms.
It's a typical scam they use: they wait for a diplomatic plate/wealthy-looking car to drive past, then throw the dog in the car's way, so the car hits the dog, which forces the driver to stop. Then, because you've stopped, the men will put a gun to your head and hold you at gunpoint while they rob you. Absolutely terrifying to see in real life for the first time, especially as a child. I cried for ages in the car, it was so awful.
#27
After I pushed my mom to leave my psychotic father we moved in with my grandfather. One night I went downstairs to get a drink which meant passing by the front door that had two big windows on either side of it.
Two feet away from me was my father pointing a loaded gun at me demanding I open the door.
Didn’t have cell phones back then so when I jumped to duck behind something I couldn’t get to the phone bc it was in clear sight of the window.
I just stayed hunkered down until he finally left.
That was 30 years ago and I still can’t be around first floor windows at night.
#28
Really early 2000’s there was this guy at work cleaning a very large industrial shredder never shut the emergency bottom off and just casually decided to un jammed it.. saw 2 of his fingers fly off instantly happened so fast it didn’t register to him until he heard our screams.. every now and then that sequence plays in my mind and I must admit it makes me cry.
#29
Early COVID d****s. Air hunger is hard to watch. We didn’t have the equipment to protect us and we didn’t have effective treatments for the patients. Thought I was going to get it and give to my family up until I vaccinated. I Stood in line at our local AFB for 4 hours to get it- and I was happy to do so.
#30
Me and a friend were riding our bicycles and we stopped for a rest halfway up a steep hill. A motorcycle rider going too fast to make a turn where we were went under a truck that was heading in the other direction. His head still in the helmet went rolling past and almost hit us.
#31
When visited usa for first time i was at a gastation filling up a rented camaro. Was near a 3lane 50mph zone road. A biker who had greenlight came at like 80+mph, he was FAST! Then a car did not respect its redlight, biker t boned him. When i close my eyes i can still see the white t shirt and black helmet tumble through the air at 15-20 feet high and hitting the asphalt... not even a flinch, nothing. Just quiet.
Police soon arrived and coverd him up. The noise of the crash, the noise of him hitting the ground, seeing him fly, a life over before my eyes, the blood on his white t shirt laying there...will haunt me till i d*e.
#32
This is a horrible thread to be reading right before bed. And I keep getting reminded of scary things I’ve been through that have escaped my mind!
I guess the scariest thing I’ve been through recently was being a victim of an attempted aggravated a*****t and carjacking back in March. I was at Target at 5pm on a Sunday, super busy time, parked in the middle of the lot nearby lots of others.
I was driving my new 2025 bronco that I hadn’t even had for a year yet. I was leaving a store at the opposite end of the strip so I drove down the lot to park closer. I’m guessing because I wasn’t driving faster than 20 mph and was only in drive for maybe less than 2 minutes, my automatic locks didn’t come on (if any ford owners know why or about this please enlighten me).
I parked and opened my phone to look at a notification I got and out of the corner of my eye I saw someone running in front of my car and to my driver side door. I immediately tried locking it but he had already gotten the handle opened. We struggled over the door for a few seconds while I screamed at the top of my lungs. He over powered me and got it fully opened. I cocked back my fist and either hesitated or was stopped by a higher power because he raised a hammer and was about to swing it towards my head. I said “Okay! Okay! You can take it!” and unbuckled my seatbelt and ran out of the car.
My guardian angels were looking out for me and sent two bystanders to intervene. One opened my passenger door and got in my car and the other opened the driver side and started pulling him out. He ended up leaving my car and started running where an additional 2 men joined in the chase. He ran into a neighborhood where he hopped some fences, tried to steal a corvette and a truck, and then were met with police armed with AR-15s. He was arrested and I did a drive by ID in the back of the patrol car where he stared directly into my eyes through the window. It was chilling.
That night I found out he was released 6 days prior for his 4th a*****t charge. A few days after I received notice that they were offering him a plea deal for 11-21 years, I got a call saying he had died in custody. It’s been about 6 weeks since and there is still no public information on what happened.
I look back and think maybe if my doors were locked, he would have busted my window and potentially hit me with the hammer while doing that. My car and I came out physically unscathed. Just some additional trauma to add to my existing ptsd. Life is crazy man.
#34
Passing a blood clot the size of a grapefruit a few days after giving birth. I was sitting on the couch and felt a sudden sense of dread and like something was wrong, and the felt a weight push down in me like I was giving birth again. Tried to get to the bathroom but it came out and I caught it in my hands not knowing what it was. It was HUGE. And the blood started pouring out of me. I had retained placenta and didn’t know.
#35
Full blown house fire.
It [annoys] me off how lax some people are with fire safety because an actual building fire is significantly worse than what you see on tv/movies.
#36
Lived in oklahoma for three years and the sirens still make my stomach drop. the worst was watching a wall cloud rotate directly over my apartment complex while the news anchors tried to sound calm. you can prep all you want but theres something primal about seeing the sky turn that particular green, like the atmosphere itself is sick.
#37
I was surfing at Masonboro Island in NC. A water spout formed about 200 yards from me. It was nothing I could do but sit and watch. Impossible to paddle away. Luckily it never got any closer than 100 yards.
#38
Watching a wildfire burn down my town last week. Being a first responder I’m used to crisis and emergency but this one hit different. Our house is in the evac zone and something that seemed a bit abstract suddenly became a reality. My wife frantically trying to gather important things for all of us and knowing anything we didn’t take would be gone forever. Heavy dope.
#40
16 foot waves, pouring rain and 70 MPH winds in the middle of the ocean at night on a 39 foot boat. I was 8.
#41
9/11 twin towers. I was barely 21 out of undergrad and moved to the west village. The months after 9/11 were probably more scary. It was a deeper type of scary. It got in your bones.
#42
I once did a plumbing job in a funeral home with a cadaver in the room. Not a pleasant experience. Would not recommend.
#44
My mom not knowing who I was because she was having a horrible allergic reaction to a medication she was prescribed.
My brother withering away from cancer.
His funeral.
My mom's funeral.
A UFO by a nuclear power plant... way too close to me and the plant for comfort.
#45
Years ago my friend dropped me off in the back of a restaurant so I could go in while she found parking. This was late at night at a 24 hr restaurant. I got out, watched her car drive away turned my head and saw another truck pull in the same way we did. But in the blink of an eye a really tall, large man flew out of the truck super fast and ran full speed towards me with his arms stretched out while saying "you're beautiful, I'm taking you home". I ran but was no match for his speed and knew he would grab me at any moment. Luckily for me, my friend noticed that the restaurant was permanently closed and drove back to pick me up - no exaggeration, his hands were starting to touch me right when her car door pulled right in front of me. The sight of the car slowed him down a bit, I jumped in and told her to drive fast. But seeing that really large man running straight at me with a horrible look in his eyes still gives me nightmares. Terrifying.
#46
Was debating on this but screw it. Really dont care who believes me.
When I was 16, me and a friend who lived in my neighborhood walked to the movies with a third friend to see Bride of Chucky. Well after the movie, we walked the third friend home then proceeded to walk home as we did countless times. Well there is this man-made ditch we would jump across on the path home. Now I have no idea what caused me to stop but I did which caused my friend to stop as well and say "what"? Soon as he said that, a tall shadow figure materialized right in front of us, human shaped but had to be atleast 10 to 11 feet tall. Instantly my friend took off. Of course I followed behind him.
This thing had no color or dimensions to it. Its hard to explain. It was like a shadow that was 3rd dimensional? But it didnt pursue us or anything. It materialized facing us but turned to its right and took a step slowly. I dunno what else after that because I was in the wind.
Get this.. I was living with my grandma and grandpa at the time. When I told my grandma about it, she believed me. My grandpa didnt.. He swore I must've saw "some old drunk".. Then 2 wks later, my grandpa comes home. Eyes as big as saucers and pale. He saw what I saw. Scared the [hell] out of him too. Theres things out here we cant explain..
#47
My patient, who I was chatting with, just suddenly getting more and more bradycardic (slow heart rate) right into asystole (no heart rate). She died despite us coding her. We never figured out why.
#48
I don’t know if most would find this scary but it terrified me to my core. I was in a supermarket in Brooklyn with my mom on 9/11. It was after the planes hit but before the towers fell. There was a woman who worked there whose son worked in the towers and she hasn’t heard from him. Her and a bunch of her coworkers were watching the events unfold live on a small tv at the customer service desk. When the first tower started to collapse this woman started screaming like I’ve never heard before. It stopped me in my tracks. It was a scream that came from her soul. A woman watching a building fall that her child might have been in. I do not know if her son made it out alive but I’ll never forget that moment.
#50
In the moment, an ex and I swerved off a shoulder on a mountain road and went over. Watching the ground rushing up towards the car was a sight I probably won't forget.
#51
Witnessed my grandpa having a stroke at 13-14. i’ll never forget the look of pure terror in his eyes.
#52
For context I work with dogs:
Two unaltered male GSD’s in a bad scuffle. Had to use a jaw wedge and eventually my own hand strength to get them apart. Worst one I’ve seen by a mile and got a few nasty wounds from it. Both dogs had bad injuries.
#53
A lady that shot out of an SUV after an early morning (2AM) car crash from not wearing her seatbelt. I happened upon the accident before first responders so I saw her pale as a sheet, supine, head turned to the side eyes open not blinking.
#54
A cougar, across a creek from me and my uncle. The “creek” could be crossed in 1 step so we were less than 10 feet from each other.
#55
My sister deceased with tubes down her throat in hospital after about 3 seconds of warning.
#56
Human omelette.
Guy wrecked a fully loaded dump truck going 70mph on a country road. He got ejected and the truck rolled over top of him and crushed his head.
Air temp that day was 109°. By the time we got on scene, his brain and one of his eyes had started sizzling on the asphalt.
#57
The 1978 Mississauga train derailment which caused 100 foot flames and made mustard gas and we had to evacuate quickly.
#59
When I was in 2nd grade, I was standing with the crossing guard in front of our school when a student on the other side of the road stepped off the curb and seemingly out of no where (it all happened so fast) she was hit by a car. We all saw it, adults, kids. She was my friend and I remember hearing screaming and first seeing her lunch box bent and the contents scattered then seeing her body under the car and her long hair laying across her face and on the road. I'm not sure its the scariest but its what immediately popped into my head when I read the post.
#60
My 2 year old son, pale as a ghost, passing in and out of consciousness from being unable to breath, coughing so violently that there were tiny blood spatters all over his crib. The blood vessels around his eyes were all ruptured too. I called 911 in a panic, genuinely believing I was watching my child d*e right in front of me.
It turned out to be severe croup complicated by what we now know was a respiratory illness-induced asthma attack. He now has to take two different kinds of inhalers every time he so much as gets the sniffles.
#61
As I was walking to the ER to visit my Mom.....A woman was ripped out of the ambulance bleeding all over the place about to deliver a baby as blood is just oozing onto the floor dripping off the stretcher as doctors and paramedics were running with her flying through the main doors of the hospital... Craziest thing I've ever seen....something seemed wrong as they were yelling she needs to be in the OR in less than a few minutes or she won't make it. Hoping her and that baby survived. This was at North Side Hospital, Lawrenceville Georgia.
#62
One night in February 2018, I woke up to the sound of my bedroom door creaking open. I could clearly see the outline of someone standing there but when I turned on the light, there was no one there. And the door was still slowly closing, as if whoever or whatever had been there was leaving.
What made it more scary was that my Fire alarm had illuminated in the corridor, sensing movement, but there was nobody there. I was so scared and my heart was pumping in my chest, It's a miracle I didn't have a heart attack in that moment.
I moved out of that house the next day. The memory creeps me out till this day.
#63
My 15 month old son, limp and quiet, after being run over on his chest and head. He turned 13 last month.
#65
When I was a kid my cousin's and I all saw an alien staring at us through my living room window late at night. We all saw it. We all still talk about it. We have no idea what it actually was but it was just there, staring at us with these eyes. It was humanoid but not human. I still see the eyes when I try to fall asleep sometimes. We just call it the alien.
#66
I grew up in a house that i swear was haunted. I saw faces, disembodied eyes, heard voices, heard random clicking that went away when I got close, felt someone standing directly behind me, you name it, i've seen it. Even seen apparitions, full body ones that disappeared the second I turned the light on.
#67
Took a charter boat out from Port Augusta Australia to the White Pointer (Great White) feeding area - and I got to stare down the gullet of a real 14' White Pointer...from 2~3 feet away.
The realization that one could just fall into that maw and just disappear...
Never did that again.
#68
When the crash cart was called to my wife’s hospital room. Sort of a false alarm, I found out later, but it absolutely focused my attention and tightened my sphincters in the moment.
#69
Didn't see it but felt an earthquake...north of Edmonton Alberta...not a place you expect earthquakes.
It felt like a giant landed on my roof. Does that make sense? No but it felt like my whole house moved down like something heavy just landed on it.
Super unnerving. There were a few aftershocks that night and I just didn't feel safe. I'm supposed to feel safe and secure in my home and I didn't.
Like it was a baby earthquake but I just wasn't expecting it.
#70
A derecho (land hurricane) sitting on top of our house and city for over an hour. The winds made it a category 4 hurricane. All we could hear was glass breaking and the walls/ground shaking from the trees falling all around us.
#72
Doing CPR on an infant and hearing the wails of the mother and other children, then hearing the furious pounding steps of the father that just got home rampaging up stairs.
He was in a frenzy, but we were able to talk him down.
Grief makes people do weird things man, i thought me and my partner were about to get k****d how those steps and shouts sounded.
#73
A snapped metal cable whipping inches from my neck at near lightning speed.
Spent the rest of the day contemplating all the alternate realities and how lucky I was to be experiencing the one where I lived unscathed.
#74
Probably the time in Glacier that I turned a corner and saw a moose with her calf probably at the bare minimum distance I should have been at.
Okay, no problem, the trail swung out farther away, so I kept walking but kept my eye on them and took some pictures.
Then the [jerk] walking towards me goes off trail and starts walking up to them taking pictures. Didn't know moose could make the noise I heard out of the mom, but I started walking away *fast*.
Thankfully no one was hurt, but come on, people.
#75
Perez Hilton reminded me.
Early in my career I was called to meet with a teenager whose usual therapist was out that day (group home). By the time I got there she had cut herself so much she was covered in blood, and staff still couldn’t get whatever she was cutting with away. I was able to de-escalate, and she eventually spit a broken piece of glass out of her mouth and let me take it.
The first glimpse I got of her that day will always stick with me.
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