25 Graveyard Shift Workers Reveal The Creepiest Thing They Have Seen After The Sun Set

These true stories from Ask Reddit will convince you to get a day job. Night shifts are way too risky.

The graveyard shift
Unsplash / Justin Schüler

1. I repeatedly saw a man fall to his death

“My very first job – working in a nightclub. The nightclub was above some clothes shop and right next to a multi-story car park. My job was running the cloakroom at the entrance of the club, and from my seat I could see the empty car park.

About a week into the job, around 1am when no one was coming or going, I was staring blankly into the distance, and I noticed a body fall from the top of the multi-storey car park and out of my vision below the nightclub. I got up and ran outside, to the edge and looked over, but there wasn’t a body on the floor.

This happened at least once a week, always around 1am, a body would just fall limply from the top of the car park and disappear before it hit the floor. It happened so much that I can remember what the body looked like, what the body was wearing, but whenever I mentioned it to the staff they said they have never seen or heard anything about it.

I watched the CCTV but the cameras didn’t reach that far. I looked up information to see if anyone had died there, but couldn’t find anything. It could have just been my imagination but it was just too clear.” — Yaxax

2. A man’s deceased wife called 911 to save his life

“I’m a medic that primarily works nightshift/graveyard, and we have seen some freaky stuff.

This is the creepiest one that I can’t explain. (Aside from the murders we work, assaults, rapes, etc.)

Got called out to a home, unknown reasons, ‘man down,’ and we were first on scene. A female frantically called, gave the address and apparently ‘can’t wake her husband up,’ then hung up. Unable to call back. PD was enroute but not here, and us thinking this quiet suburban neighborhood was safe, partner and I went in fully loaded. Monitor, med bag, oxygen, suction, everything. We’ve never had issues with this suburb before, it’s all quiet old people. We figured this guy probably died of cardiac arrest and we’re going to either have to work him or call DOA. The house was well kept and unsuspecting. We wanted to wait for PD, but every second counts in a potential cardiac arrest.

We open the front door, all the lights are on in the house. It’s 2AM.

Windows are open, drapes are flowing in the cool breeze, and we start yelling for people. ‘Ma’am? Sir? Medics! Paramedic squad is here, where are you so we can help?’ Etc.

Luckily there isn’t an upstairs, but we cover the entire inside of the house. Nothing is there. Not even animals. Empty. Every light is on in the house. No bloodstains, no sign of a struggle, anything. We radio in ‘patient not found, please advise.’ PD still isn’t here. We go back to wait by the truck but leave our gear on the driveway, in plain view.

We didn’t think to check the garage, but it wasn’t lit, and it had a stupid amount of locks on the outside. (Lights weren’t on in the garage windows.) My partner and I was NOT about to get murdered searching the property or garage. All of a sudden, my clock on my wrist beeps 3AM. My partner’s does too. Wtf? We got dispatched at 1:57AM, got there at 2:04… we looked on the computer. 3:01. Okay WHAT. We blink and rub our eyes, it’s 2:15. Um?

PD gets there and we talk, tell them what we found, which was obviously nothing.

They search and clear the house. But they think they hear a woman’s voice from under the floorboards near the garage. We hear it too. The lights flicker and go dark in the entire damn house. Windows and doors were open, and a big rush of cool air comes and blasts near us. We hear thumps like someone trying to get out, coming from the locked garage. Frantic and so thunderous, the firefighters heard it outside and came running in. PD breaks down the door and call in reinforcements.

We find an older man, 50-60, laying on his side in the middle of the garage. (3-car, was huge.)

He was delirious and dehydrated, with a broken hip and a few ribs. He’d slipped on some motor oil he spilled earlier, and couldn’t get up or crawl on his own. Been there almost all afternoon and night.

‘Who was the woman that called? Your wife? Where is she?’ An officer asked as we were loading him up.

‘My wife has been dead for 10 years, and I don’t have much family.’

‘Nobody lives in this house?’

‘Other than me, no.’

‘Then who called 911?’

He couldn’t answer.

There’s probably several explanations that could be perfectly plausible, but… the whole thing just didn’t sit right with any of us. The tension and unease was palpable. I like to think of it as the guy’s wife still looking out for him. As much negativity as we see in the field, it helped my partner and I make sense of it. In a way.

Still the creepiest shit to happen to me though, other than my ambulance dying on a long stretch of road while transporting a death row prisoner. (Tooootally different situation though.)

Might not seem that terrifying or spooky, but I’ll never forget the malice/evil/unease I felt when walking through that house. As soon as we found the guy, it went away.

And before I get tons of ‘why didn’t you break the door to the garage down to begin with?!’ comments, I’m not really supposed to do that. PD wasn’t there, they do the breaking and entering for me if we have probable cause. We’d already searched the house, found nothing (no woman, no victim, etc) and thought we might’ve witnessed a burglary or something, and wanted to keep potential evidence intact.

‘Why didn’t you leave when you felt your gut/the creepy feelings?’ The whole place was off, something wasn’t right. You could tell. But we could see multiple rooms clearly, the home was well lit and very open. I just wanted to find the person and GTFO, the sooner, the better.

Hope this qualifies as a graveyard shift/creepy event.” — EMS_Princess

3. We were surrounded by dead bodies and felt them watching us

“Here in japan, the entire culture is actively perpetuated by everyone’s ‘ancestors.’ Ive seen my fair share of old Japanese coots in places they shouldn’t be. But what really bugged me the most is when i went to Aokigahara forest, otherwise known as the forest of death. Me and a fellow Japanese friend took up a bet that we couldn’t stay a whole night in their alone. We took pink tape with us and marked antrail about 2 miles off the main trail. Everything was fine relatively, except we both admitted it felt like hundreds of people were watching us from the very second we left the main trail. Anyways we leave the next day and and unbeknownst to us, the government came into do their first annual body sweep the day after we left. They found like 26 bodies not terribly far from where we camped.” — Bad_Answers

4. I heard the sounds of a ghostly voice singing

“I have a good one! Last year, the hotel I work at got hit hard by hurricane Matthew causing us to close down for 3 months. However, they let me work my normal night shift there during that time doing various tasks. Now this hotel is medium sized. 8 floors, 104 rooms right on the ocean. I had a couple weird experiences while working in a empty hotel of that size but there’s only one I can’t really explain.

I had to do a security walk (aka check and make sure all doors are locked) and I normally listen to music on my phone as I do the walk. I had to take the stairs and almost at the top floor I pause my music for whatever reason. Right after I do I hear a women’s voice singing opera. Just like a mid tone held out note. It lasted 1 to 2 seconds or so but there was no way it was the echo from me pausing my music in the stairwell. Way way way too different. I just stood in the stairs for a minute in dead silence to see if I heard it again but I didn’t. Have no idea what it was. I’m not one for believing in ghosts, but this definitely made a bit uneasy.

Now with hurricane Irma coming I hope I don’t have to go through that again, nor do I hope that my hotel takes any damage. Only positive thing is it’s super hurricane proofed after last year.” — xtyxtbx

5. The lights came toward me like someone was walking toward me

“I work graveyard shift doing security at a facility that has a couple of large warehouses on it. It was Christmas day, so there were absolutely no other people on the property at all, which was going to mean a super easy night for me. As I was roving around the property, I noticed one of the bay doors was open in one of the warehouses. This was odd for any the doors to be left open, so I decided to check it out. I walked over to the bay door and walked inside the door.

Now one thing I must point out is that, in an effort to save money on utilities, all the lights in the warehouse are motion activated and turn on as you walk under them. After you’re out of the range of the sensor, the lights immediately shut off. So the lights are never on unless you’re moving directly underneath them.

So as I peered into the warehouses, I look down one of the aisle of shelves in the warehouse and see a light on in the distance approximately 300 yards away. Then the next one comes on. Then the next one. The lights were coming towards me as if there was someone walking towards me underneath the lights, yet there was absolute nothing down the aisles. After watching the lights move around the facility for a few seconds, I got weirded out and noped myself right out of there. Never figured out why it happened, but I always thought it was weird.” — vaultdweller64

6. My brother heard the voice of a ghost boy

“My brother is a late night janitor at an elementary school. He said he was alone watching YouTube videos with headphones on, in a dark office toward the end of his shift, when suddenly a kid loudly asked him to ‘clean my bench.’

Startled, my brother searched for the kid, replayed the video he was watching and was stumped when he didn’t come up with anything or anyone.

He remembered that there was a memorial bench for a boy who was hit by a car and killed a year or so prior, and so he went outside and made sure it was tidy. He felt better but was still obviously shaken.

The deceased kid’s sister goes to school there to this day, and my brother knows his family and sees the boy’s mom often. I asked him if he ever told the mom about it, and he said no, he just makes sure the bench is spotless.” — Wedonthaveallday 

7. We swore we heard someone say our name at the psychiatric facility

“I work the graveyard shift at a psychiatric facility. One night I was working with someone with the same first name as me, we were in separate rooms and we both heard someone call our name. I went to see what she wanted just as she was going to come see what I needed. All the residents were asleep and do not speak and we were the only staff on the area. We were so creeped out and we still bring it up whenever we work together!” — seshwan_thewarrior

8. There was a ghost trapped inside of our hotel

“I work midnights at a hotel and have experienced a few weird things, and others that have had the shift have experienced unexplained things as well.

We lock all the doors after a certain time and these experiences have all happened after we have had the doors locked.

I have had cabinet drawers open by themselves (when i’m not around), I have heard footsteps, and frequently get the feeling i’m being watched.

The craziest experience I’ve had occurred just a couple of weeks ago. There is an automatic paper towel dispenser in the restroom on the opposite side of the restroom, visible in the mirror. I was washing my hands and heard the paper towel dispenser activate, so I quickly turned around to see it dispensing a paper towel on its own. After it finished dispensing the paper towel, as I was watching, the paper towel lifted up from the bottom and stayed upwards for a few seconds then dropped limp. There were no air vents on that side of the restroom near the paper towel dispenser. It gave me the chills, but was interesting to experience.” — Magick-Man

9. All of the lights went out during my night shift

“Was fitting fire doors in an office block on night shift and finished early.

Couldn’t leave as i had to wait on the alarm being set so I decided to watch The Exorcism Of Emily Rose on my phone and earphones.

About 45 minutes into it, right at a shocking screaming moment every light in the floor I was on went out.

Needless to say I almost shit myself.

Turns out I’d been sat still for so long the motion sensors decided no one was in and the automatic shut down kicked in.” — jlpw

10. We saw a strange, distorted face on the security cameras

“When I was in college I took a part time job stocking shelves at Kohls. We would arrive at 2AM and work until 7AM. Each morning we have 5 people arrive like clock work. We would walk in through the same door and take the far left aisle to get to the back of the store where the employee lounge was located. On this morning I took the middle aisle because I wanted to bypass the lounge and go to the inventory room to load up my cart.

Department stores are creepy when they are not open especially with 90% of the lights turned off. The floor sometimes has Mannequins half dressed and in the aisles because they are constantly shifting product around after closing up the day before. You also have birds in the building that get startled and fly around scaring the bejeesus out of you.

On this morning I walked down the center aisle and noticed this man walking from the back of the store to the front. He looked to be an older gent wearing business clothes. I thought it was odd but sometimes the regional manager would show up early at this time but that guy was tall. As we approached one another I couldn’t get a good view of his face. He was wearing really thick eye glasses that cast a shadow over his mouth and chin blocking any chance of making eye contact. It was awkward so when we got within 10 feet of each other I said, ‘good morning’ giving a quick look but couldn’t really see his face so I looked back down. He gave a cheerful ‘good morning’ response. I continued to the back as he continued to the front. I went into the inventory room and began unboxing items and placing on them on the cart.

The manager of the morning team came back and started giving me the instructions for the Christmas items. She was very charismatic and always happy. After she finished giving me my action items I asked who was the corporate guy I saw this morning. She gave me this weird look and said nobody is expected this morning. She asked for a description and I shared it with her. She felt it could be the new regional marketing guy but that couldn’t be because he doesn’t have keys and they never come at 2AM. She darted off to the neighboring admin office to find out if anyone was expected and I went back to work.

20 minutes later she comes back saying that nobody was expected and the security system showed no entries since closing the night before. She joked asking if I was pulling one on her or if had been drinking. I told her to check the cameras because I definitely saw someone. She asked if I would go with her to the security room to check the camera feed. I agreed and she grabbed my arm and walked me to the room. She joked saying lets go see if we can find your new imaginary friend on the cameras.

I was really amazed at the technology Kohls had. They were not using the cameras for security purposes but for business as well. She explained they had software that would capture shopping behavior that helped Kohls identify where to put items on the floor. I was pretty impressed.

She pulled up interface for the cameras and set the dial to the hour we arrived and it started to play the first camera angle. I saw me but nothing! I couldn’t remember exactly where we crossed paths but I thought it was in the area this camera was showing. She asked if I was drunk again. My mind was blown. I really started to question my sanity and saying there is no way he is not on film. She pulled up the next camera angle and this time we saw a shadow figure moving around in the back next to the walls. It was quickly scrambling around weaving through the clothes racks with the clothes moving around on their hangers. No visible human being just looked like something dark and short running through the women’s section. I went from questioning my sanity to being completely freaked out. We both got the chills and she stood up to turn on the lights in the room we were in. We were both in disbelief.

After viewing again she said let’s look at all the angles to make sure this is real. She clicked the next camera pointed in that direction. It started to play and we saw a dark shape that resembled a person this time but it was a person moving around on all fours really fast and low to the ground. Like something you see in a movie. At this point the manager picked up the phone to call 911.

I told her there is no way the guy I saw was that athletic. He was well into his 50’s and about 230lbs. While she was on the phone with 911 she clicked on the next camera angle which give us the overhead 360 view. Jeesh I get goose bumps thinking about this again. This angle you could see the man in clothes finally but his face is so freaky looking that our jaws dropped. She hung up the phone. I yelled – why did you hang up? I saw her eyes start to water and she hit the speaker phone option and dialed 911 again. To this day I still cannot explain that face. It was like he had no mouth or lips with the chin slowly taking shape as he moved. However with those glasses on and little to no lights made it difficult to confirm what we were actually seeing.

We played the next camera at the exact time we arrived showing toward the front going out of the building. She set it at 10x forward and this one showed nobody leaving. Now we have camera angles confirming someone or something from the back moving to the front of the building but as it moved passed the dressing rooms there is a gap in the mid section between cameras. It couldn’t be found. I said it is still here. She asked me to get on the overhead speaker and ask everyone to come to the lounge. I did so and heard her telling police that we had an intruder or a possible squatter but didn’t feel safe and asked that they hurry. She got on the intercom and repeated my message but stated it was for a quick meeting. She switched the screen showing the live camera feed to focus on the front entrance of the store seeing if it would ever show up and leave.

I started to hear everyone coming to the lounge and we received notification from the 911 operator that two officers had arrived and asked we open the door. Thank goodness the patrolmen were sitting in the parking lot next door. She told the operator that they come to the back of the building because she felt the intruder was still in the middle of the store. We continued to look through different camera angles until we heard banging on the door next to us saying POLICE. She jumped up and disarmed it. But couldn’t get it to unlock. She realized she was using the wrong key but finally got it open.

Two officers walk in and we started to vomit information. They asked for 1 person to speak at a time and to slow down. After explaining that we believe the person is still in the building they started to be alert. One cop said he would stay with the us and the other volunteered to walk the floor. The cop that stayed asked to see the video.

I sat there watching the cops face instead of the video. I couldn’t watch it again. He was disturbed by what he was seeing. He kept saying – these are not normal moving patterns and asked if we thought it was a dog. He kept rewinding and I suggested he look at the other angles. He got 10 seconds into the other video and grabbed his radio on his shoulder and request assistance. He specifically requested 5 of the closest patrol men in the area. He looked at the video system hardware and asked what year it was purchased. She explained it was brand new and he asked if the brightness could be increased. She brightened it but it didn’t help and then came the distorted face scene. He said, HOLY SHIT this guy is not human. He started to question the quality of the video. Then I told him I saw guy this morning but he looked normal considering it was dark. I explained that we both said good morning and he was wearing typical business clothes. I shared that his face looked odd because his thick glasses cast a shadow on his face. I noticed he felt relief after I explained and we continued to go through the footage and he kept saying this is really freaky. This guy went from a demon running on all fours to a casual guy from a distance. He claimed he had never seen anything this bizarre and definitely felt he was still in the building.

Within 5 minutes the other patrol men started to show up and they did a search of the store area. We all stayed in the back watching the cops watch the video. After looking through all the video and searching the floor nobody was found and no video showed him leaving. They got out their paper work and started to interview us. During this time we viewed all camera angles in fast mode to see if we could see him before we all arrived. We found one instance where a coat fell from the hanger onto the ground but nothing near it. No video of anyone except the crew that closed. The entry system log was shared showing no intrusion or access request was made.

In the end they had no idea who it was or what exactly happened. A report was filed and video was taken. The cops went to the neighboring stores and went through their video feeds. Nothing. We opened at usual time and no shelves were stocked beforehand.

Short version: Opened up a department store in the early hours to find someone already in the building. Looked on the video to see who it was and found a total of 10 seconds of something human like on all fours and around 15 seconds of someone with a distorted face but video did not show that person or thing leaving.” — RocketSurgeon22

11. I have seen cold shadows walk passed

“I work nights as a nurse a couple different places. The oldest building I work at is 100% haunted to the max. Usually nurses will go lay down on their breaks and shut their eyes, I refuse. Too many times we have seen cold shadows walk passed, doors opening/closing on their own, call lights going off in empty rooms. Theres one room specifically were we had a patient code (start to die) that we were trying to resuscitate, it was a particularly messy code, Every time I walk passed that room on nights my hair stands up and I get this really scary gut feeling, often I will see the hall light outside of that room flicker.

After this patient passed away, a couple nights later, a large container HURLED off of this very stable/high up shelf out of no where onto my coworker, who then screamed “Its Ms. XXXXXX!!!!!”

100% haunted.” — disco_diva

12. I delivered pizza to a place that reminded me of The Shining

“I work as a pizza delivery driver and one late night I delivered to this elderly community complex. I pull up and walk inside the main entrance lobby and immediately feel a sudden sense of dread. It was empty and silent and the lobby resembled that of the Overlook Hotel from the Shining. There was just that sense of eery history around.

As I walked in the elevator, I began to wonder how many people must have died in the rooms throughout the years. And as I’m thinking this, the elevator door stops midway from closing and stays slightly open for a solid 7 seconds. All the while I’m just standing there in the elevator expecting to be snatched by Bagul or something.

The elevator door finally closed and I delivered the pizza to the customer but that one delivery had me feeling pretty creeped out for the rest of the night and as if though I avoided some kind of harm.” — PagliacciOpera

13. Eggs would break and chip packets would crinkle in the empty grocery store

“I remember as a teen I needed some extra cash for my warhammer 40k addiction and saving for my first car and I got a job doing a solo overnight cleaning shift at a local supermarket.

When I was doing the interview the manager told me that no one has ever stayed at the job longer than 3 months people would quit with no explanation.

I promptly scoffed and said it’s an easy enough job, I’m happy to stick around the pay was amazing for my age and I lived around the corner.

Well my first night was going well, I started at about 11pm let myself in and finished at about 5am. When it got to about 2am I heard in the roof above me what sounded like furniture being moved around and lots of banging.

I thought oh maybe there is another nightshifter hanging around… then I realized the whole place was locked and I had full view of the only entrance. So I ran to the stairs and trying to be badass I pushed open the door and all I see is a dark storage room filled with chairs and shelves.

And

No one to be seen.

Now I was getting a bit freaked out and I finished my shift without issue.

Then as the nights went on more freaky shit started happening, I would be stacking a shelf and I hear crack and a fucking egg would be broken behind me. I would hear chip packets get crumpled and always movement upstairs. Like this place was empty but it was going nuts!!! I would get bad feelings in certain areas of the place until the worst of it at my 3 month mark. I came in and one of those eggs (the egg occurrence was common) flew straight at me and the door just blew the fuck open.

Now I could run

But no I needed the money.

So I stayed in this job for another 6 months.

How I dealt with it, every night I would get totally hammered and I would do my job fucked off my face laughing at all the weird shit that would happen.

That place was life changing there was so much more that happened but that was the jist of it.” — diddyp_ 

14. The dead body moaned like a ghost

“When I first started working with the medical examiner, one of the dieners asked me to come in and prepare the autopsy one day. We would typically do our autopsies at dark-o-clock in the morning due to the pathologist’s schedule, which meant I had to go in at an hour til dark-o-clock to prepare the body.

So, here’s me – a kid fresh out of college – in the morgue during the dark of night (like 3 o clock in the morning) surrounded by bodies, thinking to myself “wow, this is how every horror movie starts.” The decedent I was to prepare for autopsy was a larger person and I had to move the body from the gurney and the body bag onto the autopsy table myself. I was still pretty new, so I struggled for a while, and as I was pushing the deceased’s torso up onto the table I heard a low wheezing sound escape the deceased’s mouth.

If I hadn’t studied anatomy and physiology, I would have dropped the body – potentially ruining the autopsy – and pissed myself running out the morgue. As it stands, I was pretty freaked out, but remembered that air gets in/stays in your lungs after you die. Pushing the decedent I had forced some of it out through the trachea. Anyway, this caused a dead body to moan like a ghost while I was trying to move it around – while alone, in the morgue, with a fridge full of dead people, at like 3 o clock in the morning. Literal graveyard shift, but a totally explainable phenomenon.” — two_one_fiver

15. A woman’s spirit kept trying to leave the room

“I have worked night shift for 15 of my 18 years in medicine. I’ve worked in all kinds of facilities. There’s quite a few stories from all of these years but this one happened a few years ago.

We had a patient who was dying. She was Native American and her family asked if we could open the window so her spirit could exit. My charge nurse and I apologized profusely and explained that it was not possible as the windows don’t open at all. The lady passed away a few hours later.

A few days later I was sitting at the desk across from the room and I was expecting a patient so I had the room set up and ready to go. We had a slide board on the bed. It’s a long plastic board used to help slide patients from one bed to another. Anyway, as I’m sitting there, I see the slide board fly off the bed and hit the wall. No one was in the room and I was the only person near the room but I was still easily 20+ feet away from the door to the room. I went in and picked up the board and said, ‘You’re dead. You have to move on.’ We had a few more things happen like the heart monitor showing the heart rhythm of a dying patient when no one is in there. Every time, I just go in there and tell her she’s dead.

Eventually it stopped happening so I hope she finally found her way out.” — LaVieLaMort

16. There was a ghost hidden inside of the clothing store

“I worked at Kohls for a few years. I would work overnight doing clearance. We think the men’s section was haunted. I would call him ‘Robert.’ No idea why. One day I was working in the Men’s section by myself. I kept stacking these boxes. They weren’t towers. Mostly they were two or three and they were wide boxes. So I’m sitting there printing clearance labels and listening to my music, nowhere near the boxes and they kept being knocked over. Eventually, I just say, ‘Robert I’m here by myself so stop it.’ It didn’t happen again but I always said something to him before I would work in his ‘section.'” — lurlina

17. Lights and radios turned on inside of empty rooms

“I currently work at what used to be, and I guess still is, a convent. The mother house where I work is more of an assisted living facility for elderly nuns currently, with the more independent women living in separate housing down the valley from us. The building has been around since the late 19th Century and most of the women here are in their 80s and 90s. This is where most of them pass away. More than once I’ve seen lights on in a room I never went into, radios in empty rooms are on and playing something, etc. It’s fucking weird.” — Zyzzy

18. I heard a shooting on my way into work

“I think I heard a shooting as I was walking into work. I was going from the parking garage at 10pm and I heard a really loud popping noise a few times so I walked to the edge (I parked on the 5th floor) and looked over and saw three kids running down the street way below. I think about an hour later, one of my co-workers told me that the ER had gotten a shooting victim in.” — GrimeyTimey

19. I spotted a mysterious person hiding in the warehouse

“I worked the Night shift at an Amazon warehouse that used to be owned by a Zappos, on slow nights management would send people home, I was stuck working a very slow night with only 2 other employees in an ENORMOUS warehouse where you’d hardly see anyone else amongst the 5 floors and hundreds and hundreds of racks on a normal day. When I started to catch glimpses of someone wearing red turning the corners as I did, I waited until lunch and checked out what my coworkers were wearing and none of them were wearing red.” — thedarkshadoo

20. My office building has been haunted after a man hanged himself

“I work nights at a taxi office located in a very old office with a mechanics garage attached to the building. Some people say a man hanged himself in the garage but I’ve never seen any proof of that but whatever. I do for 100% that the last manager died in his office here though.

Things happen all the time, the kettle and microwave turn themselves on, the clock has fell off the wall a few times, the hand drier he bathroom comes on when I’m on my own in the office and I can hear it.

The creepiest thing to happen was this;

Where I sit in my office, I can see out of the door, right down a corridor. The floor is tiled and the doors squeak like hell when they open. I was just sitting there watching a film/doing my work one night and hear a noise getting louder, so I look over my computer down the corridor and a single silver ball bearing is just rolling down the corridor towards me.

I picked it up and put it in my pocket.” — TinFoilTrousers

21. Ghosts walked around the hospital at night

“Ghosts walking around the O.R. in the hospital I work at. Don’t care if no one believes me, seeing an old man walking with an IV drip holder and then watching him disappear was enough for me. I work second shift now.” — Blood_Wash

22. I heard desperate gasps coming from a tank

“I worked third shift as a security guard at an Aquarium. After a couple nights I started noticing the sound of desperate gasps for breath from one of the tanks. I kept investigating and kept finding nothing. Months this went on. I’d be doing my rounds and wheezing gasp would echo through the massive concrete building as though someone were drowning. Creeped me the fuck out the more I heard it and to make matters worse: none of the animals reacted to it. It was like I was the only one who heard it.” — mike_d85

23. Our radar told us our ship was about to collide with something

“I was a Martime Officer aboard a containership many years ago, sailing in the Indian Ocean. During a night shift an object showed on the radar on collision course. We tried to get a visual confirmation but there was nothing to be seen (it was a clear night with an almost full moon and a calm sea). After waiting for almost an hour, where the radar indicated the object stayed on collision course with the same speed, and no visual confirmation, the captain was called. The 5 man on the bridge at that moment — of which 2 well seasoned officers and a captain — couldn’t figure out what was going on. The captain decided to perform an evasive maneuver, the other ship ‘changed course’ together with us staying on collision course. Both radars gave an equal reading and ECDIS showed a ship with a name and call sign. We tried to reach the ship via VHF but couldn’t get a response. When the ships got closer it became very clear there was nothing above the water. Though it was most likely a malfunction the captain decided to muster in the lifeboats (while he waited on the bridge with the CEO) and be ready to deploy on impact. When the dot on the radar ‘collided’ with us it disappeared and nothing happened. In the next harbor the radars were thoroughly checked by experts flown in but there was found to be nothing wrong. It was pretty scary.” — InquisitiveAboutYou

24. I was forced to carry a bloody fetus through the hospital halls

“Worked the night shift at a hospital as a security guard.

Got a call from the ER one night. They asked me to come back to one of their patient rooms. When I got there, a nurse came out of the room holding a pink dish pan. She held it out for me to, and I took it with out looking to see what was in it.

Then I looked down. The tub was about half-full of blood and slimy stuff, with whispy-looking bits of translucent membrane floating around in it. It looked like what I assume a school of jelly fish swimming in blood would look like.

‘Nurse, what am I holding?’ I asked.

The nurse explained that a pregnant woman who’d arrived via ambulance miscarried.

‘Nurse, why am I holding a miscarried fetus in a dish tub?’ I asked.

Apparently, the miscarriage had to be reported to the maternity ward, and they needed the remains, as per their policy. Right…

I didn’t ask anymore questions. I set off down the big empty halls of the hospital, just me and my tub of fetus. The maternity ward was on the other side of the hospital, so there was plenty of time for curiosity to get the best of me. I couldn’t help looking down into the tub, peering at the contents of what would have eventually been a baby.

The whole experience was surreal, and a little creepy. But hey, at least I didn’t drop the tub.” — turkishpitboss 

25. The inmates in prison talked to themselves during the night

“I work graveyards at a jail. One night, when I was doing a floor check, I noticed an inmate standing in the middle of his cell. That wouldn’t have been too weird, except this particular inmate was wheelchair bound, because he only had one leg. And he was doing squats while holding the wheelchair over his head. I guess it wasn’t particularly creepy, but it was definitely an odd sight to see.

Then there’s the inmate who will have full conversations with an imaginary person, complete with hand gestures and laughter. Sometimes it seems like a friendly conversation, sometimes he seems very angry at whoever or whatever he’s talking to. Extra creepy because he only does this at night, and only when standing in the corner of his cell.” — PsychedelicGoat42 Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Holly is the author of Severe(d): A Creepy Poetry Collection.

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