1. Marscy

So this happened when I was about 9 or 10- probably 9. This isn’t relevant, but I’m a girl. I thought nothing of it at the time, and only really realized the creepiness a year later.

For context: My neighborhood back then was pretty safe (it still is) and we had a security alarm, but only left it on at night. I had gotten home from school, and had spent an hour or so on the computer (so it was around 3 or 4 pm) and I was home alone (my dad was at work, my mom and brothers were grocery shopping.)

The desk that had the laptop was next to an archway which led to the dining room which had a wine rack (which my siblings and I never touched, fearing we’d somehow break the wine bottles) and a wardrobe/cabinet thing which had other alcohol in it (like vodka and sake) which my siblings and I also never touched since we thought alcohol was gross. The cabinet wardrobe thing was right next to the archway closest to the laptop.

So I was playing on the laptop and glance at the dining room, and notice the wardrobe cabinet door is wide open. I think nothing of it, until I glance at it again, look down and notice a pair of bare feet. The cabinet door closes and a woman is standing there, mid to late twenties, and I distinctly remember her looking pretty and she had red-ish hair. She notices me looking and smiles at me, and stops rummaging through the cabinet.

I had just gotten a puppy who was very fluffy and adorable- and social. When she stopped, I notice she’s holding my puppy, saying how cute he is and how she wishes she had a dog. I agree with her, and then I ask: “Are you one of my mom’s friends?” because sometimes they babysat my siblings and I.

She responds no, while cooing over my puppy. There’s a silence, and she puts him down and he wanders over to me and lays down. She walks away and I cautiously follow her, and notice at the steps of the door she was using to leave were several bottles of different alcoholic drinks. I thought that was weird, but since I rarely went into the cabinet, I didn’t recognize the bottles as ours.

I thought that was weird, and went back to playing on the computer. My mom and brothers come back, and my mom asks me how my day was and I tell her about the lady. My mom kind of freezes, trying not to freak out, I think. I didn’t tell her the lady took anything because I didn’t know that stuff was ours. She asks how she got in, and I tell my mom that I think she got in through our garage door because that’s how she left. I mention she had some alcohol bottles with her. My mom (which, to me at the time, was acting weird) tells me with a serious/freaked out look on her face to lock the garage door next time and don’t let strangers in, etc. (she knew I didn’t let the lady in, but I guess she was freaked out that someone was in her house with her kid)

Later, like a few days, my mom tells me who the lady was. Apparently our next door neighbors had a twenty something year old alcoholic daughter and she came to them asking for alcohol and money, and they said no, so she came into our house to get her fix.

A year or so later, when someone was asking me about my dog, I suddenly thought about that and got freaked out about how easily she could have taken him from me.

Tl;dr: Lady walks into my house while it’s unlocked and I’m home alone and 9 years old, takes some alcoholic drinks from the house, could have also taken my dog or other valuable stuff. Ask if she’s my mom’s friend, says no, takes the alcohol, leaves. Turns out she’s the neighbor’s alcoholic daughter.

2. coldbeeronsunday

This happened circa 1971 or 1972, when my mother was about 14 or 15 years old. The incident occurred in a heavily wooded area near Montevallo, Alabama (close to Birmingham).

My mother is the oldest of 5 children – she has 3 sister and a brother, who is the baby of the family. One weekend in the cooler months of the fall, my grandfather decided to take the whole family – my grandmother, my mother, and all my aunts and uncles, so seven people total – into the woods for target practice with a rifle. My mother grew up quite poor and they didn’t always live in the best neighborhoods, so my grandfather wanted to teach the kids how to defend themselves with the rifle if need be.

Like I said, it was later in the fall, so the trees were bare and there were lots of leaves on the ground. The wooded area was just off a dirt road, so this was a fairly rural area they were in. Since it was so far off the beaten path, my grandfather became startled when he heard the roar of a car engine so deep in the woods. My mom remembers the car as being a blue Ford Galaxie.

Despite the fact that my grandfather had a gun, he totally freaked out and told my grandma and the kids to hide under a pile of leaves in the woods. He hid with them. The man in the driver’s seat got out, dragged a woman’s body out of the car, and just dumped her there in the woods and drove away. After my grandfather was sure the man had gone, everyone came out of hiding and the woman sat up and stared them straight in the face. My grandfather asked the woman if she needed help. She said no, she would be fine. She didn’t seem to be injured and obviously didn’t want help – she hadn’t put up a fight with the man when he was dragging her out of the car (she must have known him?) – so my grandfather cut the shooting lesson short and decided to rush the kids home to safety.

Well, on the trail back to the dirt road where my grandfather had parked their car, they passed the man in the blue Ford Galaxie driving out of the woods. My mom looked over and noticed that he had a huge machete laying across the front seats right beside him. My grandfather made sure that the man could see that he was carrying a rifle, but everyone was careful not to give away what they had just seen. The man struck up small talk with my grandfather, asked him how he was doing and what they were doing out in the woods. My grandfather explained that he had just taken his family out for some target practice with the rifle. The man told him to have a nice a day and continued driving.

The next day, my grandfather went back out to that spot in the woods. There was not a body there. However, he did find the woman’s wig, her purse, some Kleenex, and a pair of eyeglasses. He collected the items and took them home. According to my grandfather, that area of the woods was known for having shallow graves and being a dumping site for bodies. My mother became hysterical when he walked in the door carrying that stuff, she started screaming “He killed that lady! He killed that lady!” My grandfather ended up taking the items to the police station, but my mom doesn’t think anything ever came of it – she never heard anything else about it after that.

Well, she did hear one other thing about it, I guess. Early the next morning, my grandmother called my mom when she arrived at work, just before the kids left for school. She told them not to take the bus that day, that she would come home and pick them up and drive them to school. When my mom asked why, my grandmother said, “Because that car is waiting for you at the bus stop.”

3. egegegeg

About two months ago, me and my friend were on a coach back to our home town after she came with me to London to look at a university. Our coach ends up being delayed so we’re on a late one, leaving at about 09:45pm. We’re both pretty tired after getting up at 5am to get to London, so she asks the man behind her if she can recline her seat a bit as there was no one sat next to him, and he agrees.

We both fall asleep sort of on the coach and suddenly she wakes me up panicing. She’ll telling me that the guy behind her keeps feeling up her back through the gap made by her reclining her chair. I told her (in my half asleep state) he probably did it by accident and to go back to sleep. About 20 minutes later she’s repeatedly whispering my name to get my attention. Straight away I look at the gap between our two seats and his hand is there. I put my head in the gap and stared at this dude dead in his eyes and made it clear not to touch her again. I then put her seat forward, and positioned myself so I was covering the gap between the seat.

Now I’m wide awake. As he was sat in the seat directly behind me and it was dark outside, I was able to see his body in the reflection of the window without seeing his face, meaning he couldn’t see me watching him. I stared at him for about 20 minutes before thinking he must have got the picture by now. I turn and put some music on and give my friend a headphone so she feels better.

Some time later, I feel a pull on my seat. Straight away I look in the reflection and see this dude’s holding onto my seat and is peering over the top of it. I lean forward and he catches my eye in the window. He sat down straight away and tried to style it out pretending he was adjusting the overhead aircon. I put my head between the gap and stare at him for about 20 seconds so he knows not to try anything again.

At this point my friend is getting really stressed and upset. I talk loud enough for him to hear and reassure him that I won’t let him do anything again, and put myself back covering the gap. About 20 minutes later she freaks out again. She starts shouting at this man and I see that he has moved seats and has put his hand on the outside of the two seats. This time I’m not having it anymore and turn around and tell him to leave my friend the fuck alone, raising my voice. He just leant back and pretended to be asleep. Unfortunately some guys on the coach were drunk and were being loud so no one heard us shouting to offer help.

About another hour into the journey, we all had to get off the coach because of a mix up and get a taxi back to our home town. We stand up and get off the coach away, after staring at the man and making sure he wasn’t behind us. We told the coach driver what had happened and requested he didn’t put us on a coach with him, but the man had gone at this point. I ended up getting a taxi back with one of the drunk guys on the coach and his girlfriend (both of which I knew, small world.)