I’ve definitely seen some weird things while DRIVING at night, but (knock on wood) I have yet to encounter anything too strange while walking at night.
But you gotta be careful out there, ya know?
Because there are a lot of weirdos out there…
What’s the scariest thing you’ve seen while walking at night?
People on AskReddit shared their stories.
1. Tragedy.
“Found a guy who hanged himself in a park.
Called 911 and answered some questions.
It was a long night.”
2. Scary.
“Almost 100% sure I witnessed a kidnapping. I was going to get my mail late at night while living in an apartment complex and on the way back I noticed a woman in her pajamas surrounded by a few men right by a car.
There was an argument and looked like they forced her in the car and drove off, I found her slipper nearby on the grass.
I of course called the police and they came and I let them know what I saw but I never found out what actually happened.”
3. Time to go home.
“Was up on a hill in the countryside at midnight when a man with a rifle came out of nowhere, ran right past me, and wasn’t seen again.
I went home shortly after that.”
4. In the woods.
“Was out for a late walk in the rain, always enjoy it because it’s peaceful, smells great, quiet and never see anyone.
Walked off this trail back into the road and saw a big pile of garbage under a tarp at the end of the cul de sac the trail ends in, got a creepy chill like “that could be a d**d body or something and I’d never know” just got a weird feeling that snapped me out of my calm walk.
Picked up the pace. About 500 yds away parked car with a guy sitting there, in the dark, in the rain, like 11pmish car off, just sitting there. Got super creeped out at this point and changed my route back to the main road and hurried home.
Turns out it was a d**d body someone had dumped under that tarp, was under there for 4 days before someone investigated it. The guy in the car turned out to be just a random dude, guy lives there and totally unrelated to the body.
Still, took a few months off from my late night walks alone in the woods.”
5. Afraid of the dark.
“I’ve never been afraid of the dark.
Grew up in the countryside, where the nearest streetlight was 10 miles away, so I’m comfortable in dark places, so much so that I often take my dog for a walk at around midnight just because I like the peace and quiet of the night. I live in a city now so something about the dark is just soothing to me.
That being said, one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced, I genuinely have no explanation for. Living in a city I used to drive out 20-30 miles into the country to do some astrophotography. As I’m driving out one night I see this guy walking at the side of the road with no lights, reflectors and a big backpack.
Didn’t think much of it other than it being a little odd. 5 miles later, I see the same guy walking again. I haven’t changed directions, turned, and I’ve been doing ~50mph. As I drove past he looked and waved at me. I was pretty spooked but I drove on. I must be imagining things. It can’t be the same guy.
I get to my field in the middle of nowhere, park up and get the camera out, and turn off all the lights so my eyes adjust to the dark. All is going well, and for 30 minutes I’m content, and starting to relax.
Suddenly I hear a rustling near the hedge by the road. Crunching leaves, grass being kicked. It was footsteps. I immediately get a feeling of dread, like I’m in severe danger and something bad was going to happen. I grab my camera, toss it in the car, get in, lock the doors and turn on the headlights. When I turn out of the field. I pass where I heard the noise and saw fresh footprints in the mud but no sign of anyone.
I race back home, driving double the speed limit, constantly checking my mirrors for anyone. I park up around the corner and wait in the car with the lights off for 30 minutes, watching. Nothing shows up, I get home, lock all the doors and sleep with a knife under my pillow that night.
I honestly don’t know what really happened that night but part of me knows that creepy guy I passed on the road twice was in that field.”
6. Whoa!
“Many years ago my boyfriend and I decided to take a late night walk around his generally-safe neighborhood.
We got a few steps past the driveway when a shirtless guy came running over with a hammer in one hand, and a machete in the other. My boyfriend stayed super calm and asked the man what was going on.
Apparently, some man had just broken into his apartment and tried to kidnap his young daughter, so he was chasing him down to either shatter his fingers with the hammer or chop off his hands entirely with the machete, and he thought my boyfriend was possibly this man.
My boyfriend gave me his car keys and told me to take myself home (we lived apart at the time) so I went and got his car and by the time I was backing out of the driveway, the man was screaming at my boyfriend, who was just standing there calmly with his hands in the air.
I drove a block away so the man wouldn’t see me, rolled the windows down to try to hear what was happening, and called the cops. The machete man ended up running off and I don’t know if they ever got him. My boyfriend was fine though, thank god.”
7. Out for a stroll.
“A couple years ago, I was at the start of a typical weekday night stroll. I was living in an apartment complex in Florida at the time, so it was the only opportune time to do so, without being completely drenched.
The exact moment I was crossing the sidewalk adjacent to the entrance of said complex, I witnessed a middle aged dude punch his wife/significant other in her face, in full view of me, and another passerby.
The passerby called the cops, the dude was arrested. It wasn’t a scary situation to my own well being, but I did find the situation chilling for one, how nonchalant the guy was in a**aulting his wife/SO in public, and two, how both the abuser/SO were pleading for the cops not to be called.
It was domestic a**se so normalized, it happened in full public, without any second thought/rationale.”
8. RUN.
“Over 25 years ago, I was walking in a park at night. It was pitch black in this park, no lighting, other than the moon & the stars on a beautiful autumn night.
I couldn’t see very well, but I knew the area, & was walking along the road, which ran parallel to a small river. The moonlight would bounce of the water, & all you would hear is the trickle from the slow running river & slight breeze in the trees. I loved those walks.
That was until the one night, in the d**d silence & pitch black, I distinctly hear a mans voice out of the woods say very clearly: “Young girls shouldn’t go walking alone in the woods at night.”
I FROZE. I looked in the direction of the voice & couldn’t see a d**n thing. I RAN HOME. That was the last evening walk I took in that park.”
9. Footprints.
“I live out in the country, more woods and fields around me than houses. There are several dirt paths through the woods that farmers use for their tractors and all during the day.
I like to run on these paths because it’s usually quiet and no traffic unlike the road. During the hottest part of the summer I run at night because it’s cooler outside.
So one night, it had rained during the day, so all the tracks on the path were gone. I was out running around midnight. I had an uneasy feeling but didn’t see anything.
But then I circled around and on my 2nd pass down a particular way, I saw my footprints, but then I saw another set of prints, bigger than mine, that hadn’t been there before. Then I saw they made the turn the same way I had earlier.
I cut it short that night, never saw anyone, but still.”
10. The rough side of town.
“As someone who used to… make sure trains had an adequate coating of paint, I spent a good amount of time walking around the rougher sides of town at night.
Worst thing I ever saw was in Seattle, was walking down the street under an overpass in an industrial district and a homeless woman asked if I could buy her a beer since she didn’t have an ID. Bought her a 40, talked to her about her daughters, watched her smoke m**h, all in about 2 minutes.
She started reading to me from a lightly singed Bible, about the devil specifically at which point I was looking for a quick and polite exit (who doesn’t when someone whips out the Bible?)
At which point 3 men rode by with a gallon jug, and doused her tent in something, maybe gasoline, perhaps turpentine or kerosene, really didn’t stick around to find out. Lit her tent on fire.
She ran into the burning tent. I’ll never forget watching her run out screaming and crying, holding a duffel bag, her white coat completely engulfed in flames.
I took off running (guys on bikes didn’t look thrilled to see me), called SPD, but they didn’t seem to care much after I told them what part of SODO I saw it happen in. Hid amongst the trains for a few hours after that.”
11. Hollywood.
“I (33f) don’t personally feel particularly unsafe walking alone at night which is helpful because the first two years I lived in Los Angeles, I worked late and didn’t have a car so I had to rely on public transportation.
The first month I lived in Hollywood, I was getting off the last Red Line train at Hollywood/Highland at like 2 am and saw a guy who’d just been sta**ed bleeding out on the sidewalk in front of the Forever 21 near the corner.
The blood was running down the stars on the sidewalk toward the street and a cop was just standing there all nonchalant as this dude cried into the lap of someone trying to comfort him. I wish I knew what happened to him, but when I tried looking it up, there were no reports of anything and they’d just hosed off the sidewalk in the night for the morning tourists. It’s like it never happened.
Another time, while walking home down Highland toward Santa Monica Blvd, I saw a guy pull a g** on one of the hookers that hung around the area and he ran away when he saw me watching. That hooker always said hi to me after that whenever I’d see her on my night walks home.
Hollywood at night is a different city.”
12. Yikes.
“There was a park somewhat deep in a heavily wooded forest up in the Sierra Nevada mountains where I grew up. This is on the outskirts of a small town of 5000 people.
The park was crazy dark at night because the trees block the night sky completely and Zero electric lights in the park.
I took a girl there one night to go swing on these massive swings at the far side of the park. We parked the car at the long perimeter fence at the one opening in the chain to get in. We felt our way past the trees and stumbled on the uneven grass.
There were lots of old growth roots to trip on and it was pretty hilarious to try and find the swings with our single tiny flip phone light. We finally found them and had been swinging as high as we could and laughing in the dark when all of a sudden we heard the voice of a man in the distance behind us. Deep in the brush. He was yelling something.
We immediately went silent – still swinging fast back and forth too high to jump and too startled to try and kick the ground to make too much noise and draw attention. The sound of the man thrashing toward us in the brush in a the distance got closer and close in just a few moments when we finally realized what he was yelling: “I’LL. F**KING. K**L. YOU.”
You know when someone says something and you know that they mean it? Like on an instinctive level? We both knew he meant it.
So without saying anything we both bailed out of the swings. In the dark. Hit the ground hard and knocked the wind out of us. We grabbed hands and ran in the dark in a random direction – Tripping, hitting trees etc. all the while the man was still v**lently yelling and coming our way behind us in the dark.
Before we knew it we ran face first into the chain fence at the edge of the park and began to quickly feel along it to the right for a time until we found the opening in the fence. Jumping in the car. Turning the key. The headlights flipped on automatically just in time to reveal a furious wild eyed man run full speed through the fence and literally slam his hands on the hood of the car screaming!
Already in reverse we hit the gas and sped backward up the country road leaving the man standing there loosing his mind.”
Now we want to hear your creepy stories!
Please share them with us in the comments.
Thanks a million!
