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16 Terrifying Moments That Made Urban Explorers Drop Their Flashlights And Bolt
Article created by: Rūta Zumbrickaitė
There’s something about an old, crumbling building that sparks a very specific kind of curiosity. Peeling wallpaper? Yes, please. Weird mirrors and creepy symbols? Even better. A suspicious liquid that causes nosebleeds and makes concrete smoke? Okay, now I’m drawing the line.
Because there really is a fine line between “adventurous” and “absolutely not,” and that usually comes after you hear unexplained footsteps in a pitch-black hallway.
Yep, Reddit’s delivered another goldmine. Someone asked the chilling question: “People who like to explore abandoned buildings – what’s the biggest 'Nope, I'm out' moment you had?” - and the responses range from unsettling to nightmare fuel.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Broke into an abandoned house in the village I grew up in in England back when I was a teenager, maybe 15 year ago now.
Was with a couple friends but broke off by myself and ventured upstairs, when I turned at the top of the stairs I saw a figure standing in the darkness just staring at me.
I bolted out of the building as quickly as I could and my friends heard me and panicked, they weren't far behind. Went back there a couple of weeks later with a bigger group to "prove my story" and to my embarrasment.. it was a tall mirror at the top of the stairs, the figure I saw was me. Not my proudest moment.
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#2
Late to the party but used to work for a guy renovating houses. He'd buy dumps for like 5 to 10 thousand that had been abandoned for years, we'd fix them up, and he'd rent the houses out. His daughter would go to houses to take pictures after he bought them since he'd buy a lot of them site unseen because they were so cheap.
One house she went to take pictures at and she was kinda creeped out by the basement and did not want to go in. She just opened the door, leaned in, reached her arm out and took a picture. When her dad reviewed the pictures he saw a man standing in the basement about 5 feet from the camera staring directly into it.
#3
My friends and I went into the Gibraltar Mansion in Wilmington, DE. It was cool until we came across a room with and older man squatting in it. He was terrified of us and we felt pretty horrible, so we left after apologizing.
Edit: Squatting is a term meaning living somewhere illegally. The confusion this caused is absolutely hilarious though.
#4
I walked into a old abandoned cabin in my neighborhood. I saw movement around me and when I shined my flashlight to the walls there were thousands of cockroaches and spiders on the walls. I noped right out of there
#5
Exploring an abandoned prison part of the ceiling collapsed. It didn't hit me but it was close enough to knock me over. I guess [users] used it as a place to shoot up because I fell on an old needle. I got tested to make sure I didn't get anything from it but it scared me enough to stay away from abandoned buildings to this day.
#6
There was a coffin, a real coffin. We were in a abandoned factory that some rich family had owned, and there was this one room with a bunch of personal stuff, letters from the fifties, furniture, old photographs, clothes, even booze, like someone’s home had been put in there. In the middle of it all a coffin. I swear. The room was gloomy, it was a late summer afternoon, no power and we didn’t have flashlights. My friend was like “we gotta open this coffin, we can’t leave unless we do, we gotta” and straight up lifted the lid. A sweet smell came from the darkness. When my grandmother died I was the one to find the corpse and I remember that one quite well. So my heart skipped a couple of beats. The coffin was full of candles. They had a sweet smell.
Edit: typos.
#7
I used to walk around an abandoned building near a forest which was initially a child hospital in the 70s, a refugee housing in the 90s and a language school for Chinese students till 2007. Since then it's abandoned. The students left quite suddenly, so I found diaries, certificates and even food. It was interesting since the place was not vandalized at that time. Once I was inside the building again when I realized someone else was walking upstairs. I never left this place so fast, jumped over the gate and headed to my car. When I reached there, a policecar stopped in front of the building and the two officers jumped over the fence to enter the building.
No idea what was there, but sometimes I wonder if I avoided more than just a report for trespassing.
#8
Went exploring an old Nato missile site in Europe with some friends. It was so dark in one room, we almost stepped into a open lift shaft that went down about 150 ft. We didn't notice it because of other shadows on the ground when using our flashlights. Minutes later, cops pulled up to investigate the area. We didn't realize that there were motion sensors installed on the perimeter.
On the way out, we nearly got locked in due to a safety on the exit door that locks closed if you don't hold a switch in the guard room next door.
#9
This is not scary but its interesting story. My friend was walking in the forest and found old house. When he moved some stuff the ceiling broke and old german light machine gun fell down.
#11
Used to break into this old abandoned childrens hospital with some friends when we were teens.
One time (I think perhaps the last time) there was a fresh, child-sized hand print in the dust on a wall, and what seemed like blood droplets/spray nearby.
#12
Abandoned insane asylum on long island. Giant place with plenty of history. My friend and I were joking about getting haunted by "lobotomized ghosts."
We go in and start taking photos. One of the first shots came out with what seriously looked like a little orb dude. We decided to stop making fun of the undead, but we did forge ahead. It was very creepy, especially when we found the morgue.
#13
As 12 year old kids, we were exploring the woods as kids do. The forest parted to an open field and in the distance was an abandoned farm. Naturally we crept inside and in one of the horse stalls were all discarded hypodermic needles and old food. Our parents were quite mad when we told them what we found.
#14
A group of us went into an old abandoned care home. (We got in legally). It was pitch black and I mean the type of darkness where you cannot see you hand in front of your face even when you let your eyes adjust. Fortunately we had a few light sources with us. After walking around and finding copious amounts of evidence that there was squatters staying there (not at the time of our arrival thank god). We found ourselves standing in a room filled with graffiti but not graffiti from a paint can. This was spelled in dried blood and excrement. The stench was horrendous. We got out of there so quick and have never been back since.
#15
We were finally going to explore the second floor. We went up the outside stairs (for context it was an abandoned house not a building) and we were facing the brick sealed entrance which had a whole where a person could fit.
Out of nowhere, my mate's phone started playing loud music and he quickly turned it off. We looked at each other and laughed, not knowing what would follow. The second after we were filled with relief, from the other side of the entrance, we heard a cough and a door creeking. My mate just turned to me and said "Run! " and we did.
Afterwards, we concluded it was probably just a homeless person living there. But, we were never completely sure.
#16
Friends leg fell through the floor.
Edit: since this blew up a bit bit of added context. She was wearing heels and the place was so run down some of the roof was missing.
We got her out she was relatively easy pick up.
It was at an office building at a partially abandoned naval base in California.
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