One of the gifts technology has given pet owners is the ability for the people caring for our animals to update us with a quick photo or video of our pet. One Reddit user’s dogsitter was taking a totally ordinary video of the dog. They didn’t notice anything strange until they played the video back and noticed a figure in the background.

See the video play as a gif here.

Here’s a still from the video of the dog coming down the hallway:

The figure emerges behind the dog:

Figure is fully visible:

Figure is entering the hallway:

After realizing they may not be alone in the house, the dogsitter called the police who were unable to catch anyone lurking in the home.

They took to Reddit’s “Reddit Bureau of Investigation” (a subreddit dedicated to solving mysteries) to ask for help in figuring out what could possibly be going on. Another user posted a similar story that might explain what’s happening here:

Something very similar happened to me. I was watching a friends dog while they were away. Went to the house with other friends to feed the dog and they wrote some stupid shit on a dry erase board on the fridge. About 10 minutes after leaving, I went back to erase the dry erase board and found the house ransacked. It seems the burglar was in the house hiding when we arrived and finished robbing the place after we left.

I’m going to guess it’s a similar situation here. A burglar was in the apparently empty house. When the dog sitter arrived, the burglar hid. The dogs already met and sniffed Mr. Burglar and stopped caring about him. Afraid of getting caught, the burglar dashed across the hall to a better escape/hiding/ambush spot. The dog sitter didn’t see him and left without incident.

Whatever is going on, this video is terrifying. It’s also creepy that the dogs themselves don’t react to the stranger, as if he’s somehow made them feel comfortable (perhaps this person sneaks into the home often?). I know I’m going to be checking the playback for the videos I take casually from now on.