Reading these bone-chilling unsolved mysteries from the actual lives of real adults will have you doubting everything and sleeping with the lights on. That is, if you can fall asleep at all.
Walkie Talkies
“I was a young kid and my dad got me those cool two mile walkie talkies so we could talk whenever he drove near enough while working. We go to my grandma’s for Christmas and play with them. She has a huge patch of woods far behind her house and a big tree in the back. Come night, I’m in the back by myself thinking some kid stuff like what flavor of jello Batman likes the most when my walkie talkie goes off. Didn’t know I left it on. Basically what followed was somebody told me exactly what I looked like and what I was wearing. They said they were in the woods. I wish I could describe how it seemed like those woods walked towards me when it hit me. Sinking terror. I couldn’t get far enough away. Parents got involved. They thought it was my uncle playing a prank but we found out he was long gone. The mystery part isn’t the man in the woods, rather the fact he told me to look in the tree next to me. There was a f**king noose tied in it. It had definitely not been there earlier in the day, or we would have seen it instantly. Like, the window of time to be able to climb that tree and hang a noose with no one noticing was slim to none” (source)
Scariest Event Ever
“This was about 5-6 years ago. I’ve been getting silent calls for a while. Sometimes silent, sometimes just music. They never talked and they did not hang up until I did. It was a hidden number of course. After a while, the doorbell thing started happening. Someone would ring my doorbell late at night. 1-2 or 3 am. It was clear that it wasn’t someone I knew. First couple of times, I assumed it was an accident. Someone pushing the wrong button etc. After a few times, I became annoyed and tried to see who it was, looking down from my window. The ground floor of the building was a little convenience store. They had a sunshade thing over their store, and whoever it was, they always stayed very close to the building so i could never see the person. They would walk under the sunshade, stick to the side of the building and not step into the street until they reached the corner. I was never able to see them and it seemed like they were actually trying to stay hidden. Normally, I would go to sleep around the time most people got up for work, then I would stay up all night. One day, I stayed awake through the morning and noon, and fell asleep on my couch sometime in the afternoon and woke up to a dark apartment. I realized what woke me up, a whisper. Someone was whispering. I stayed very still to hear it. It was coming from the door. I got up very, very slowly. It took me forever to get up from the couch and walk 4 steps to the door because i was trying so hard to stay silent. I looked from the peephole. The building was dark, but i could see someone there. There’s a guy there, standing, his head down, wearing a hat, whispering. Since he was so close to the door, I couldn’t see him very well, but he was wearing dark clothing and a brimmed hat. Since the peephole did not provide a good enough angle, i couldn’t tell if he was talking on the phone or talking to himself. Then I thought if he tries to call me, my phone shouldn’t ring because he’s gonna hear it. I walked back to the living room, took my phone and turned it off. When I came back and looked, he was standing a few steps back, still whispering. Then he left. About a week after that, I woke up around noon and after a few hours, I ordered some food. When I closed the door after my food was delivered, it closed very easily and quietly. I was shocked because my door was weird and it would not close unless you slammed it really hard. This time…just, click. It closed without a sound. I looked at the lock. It was f**ked up. It was a big metal door and the edges right near the lock was full of scratches and it was mangled and bent. Someone messed the door up pretty bad. I walked around the apartment, there was no trace of anyone being inside. Nothing was stolen. I called a locksmith to change and fix the lock and the door. He said whoever did it, definitely managed to open the door. I got 4 security cameras installed around the apartment windows and my door. I guess i could have moved, but i was pissed. I wanted to catch him more than I wanted to deter him. He never came back” (source).
Boarding School Troubles
“I had a dear friend in high school that was forced to leave the school for unclear reasons. He was sent to a different boarding school and would call us almost every night saying how depressed he was, how he wanted to escape, etc. So my friend and I made up this whole plan to break him out (we had no car so not sure what we were thinking). Around February, four months after he left, we got this weird call from him saying he had escaped and was on his way back to our school. Then nothing. He never showed up. We tried to contact his family with no luck. This was 16 years ago and I still have no idea what happened to him” (source).
Missing
“I have an ex that disappeared, can’t find any mention of her online and there’s no reports of anything sinister happening and she’s not reported missing. I figured this out about 2 years after we broke up. But it’s strange to not be able to find anyone anywhere online” (source).
Mysterious Savior
“When on a vacation in Germany I used to go to this pool that was deeper than my height. I could not swim at the time but I was hanging out in the big and warm section that was slightly deeper than my height. I managed to not drown by holding my breath, going underwater and jumping from the bottom to catch my breath. But on time it didn’t go as planned and I started drowning. It was seconds but to me it felt like long minutes. I thought I was going to die. Then I felt someone grabbing me by my arm and lifting me out of the water in one motion. I was choking and had water in my eyes. It took me around 10 seconds to be able to see again but there was no one around me. I asked a lady that was sitting in the pool just in front of me when I was drowning but she was not even aware I was drowning and didn’t see anyone getting me out of the pool. I quickly went to the lifeguard booth and he was sitting there minding his own business – he was too far to be the one that got me out of water. To this day I have no idea who saved me. Two days later there was a camera overseeing the pool that I had nearly drowned in” (source).
A Father’s True Identity
“Long story short, friend’s father was known as one person his whole life, no one in the family questioned it as there was no one to question. He said he was an only child and both parents were dead. Father gets cancer and passes away. A few years later my friend decides to look into his genealogy and discovers that the name his father went by belonged to a person who had died many years before. Further searching and he found that there was literally no documents or evidence of his father existing until a couple of years before he met his mother, when he was in his mid 20’s (or at least that’s how old his acquired identity said he was). Haven’t heard much since, but it’s definitely a mystery for my friends family as the man they knew as husband and father was not the man he claimed to be and they may never know for sure” (source).
Christmas Miracle
“My mother always tells me the story when she was growing up and how she really wanted this doll for Christmas. My grandpa recently had lost his job and money was very tight and the doll was pretty expensive. She wrote a letter to santa talking about her family, how good she had been, and about her dad losing his job. Well, one day before Christmas, the mail man comes to the door with a box and a letter from Santa. My grandparents had bought my mother the doll and it was sitting in the basement so they were surprised to see one delivered to the house. To this day, my grandparents and my mother have no idea who bought the doll for her” (source)
How Long Had He Been Inside Our Home?
“I woke up, groggy and confused and needing to pee very very badly, and suddenly I heard a voice. With 8 people in the house, that wasn’t uncommon; someone had probably gotten up to go to the washroom and either started talking to someone else or they had answered the phone. Well, it turns out that couldn’t have been possible because I didn’t recognize the voice. That was what immediately woke me up, and I froze, clutching my blanket while sitting up in bed. It was a man; his voice wasn’t deep and he kept prattling on about some ‘treasure’. He was right outside the door, but he never turned the doorknob or made any attempt at entering one of the rooms. He just kept passing by, as if pacing, all the while talking to himself about a ‘treasure’. I was terrified and looked over to my aunt, who was sound asleep. I still don’t know how I managed to not wet the bed. Eventually the voice went silent, and I somehow fell asleep. The next morning, everyone is doing their thing, getting ready for work or school or busy in the kitchen, so I assumed it was just a dream. I really wish I’d kept my mouth shut. As I’m eating breakfast, I told my mom and grandmother (who were both in the kitchen) about the voice, and laughed at how weird the brain is. They froze. Everyone froze. It turns out the voice was real. I hadn’t mentioned his obsession with a ‘treasure’, but my grandfather did. As did my mother. And brother. Everyone agreed about the ‘treasure’. Apparently, the man had combed the entire house, but he never actually entered any of the rooms. Nothing was stolen, all the doors were locked, and all the windows had screens, none of which were missing. Two weeks later, while I was helping my grandparents clean the garage, my grandmother found several empty Coke cans behind the old sofa, which had been up against one of the walls for quite some time. There were also empty bags of chips, candy wrappers, and fruit cores and peels. All of which were taken from the garage. The sofa was high enough for someone to lay underneath. He had been inside our house. Inside our garage. We still don’t know who he was, how he got in, and, most importantly: How long had he been inside our home?” (source).
Dark Figure
“Alright there is one event that happened to me in high-school that I’ve always wondered about. There was a month or so where my sleep paralysis was happening almost every night. In these paralysis episodes they mostly consisted of me seeing a dark figure walking around my room. Coming by my bed and staring at me, similar things like this. Well, I wake up one morning to my dad asking me if I had woken up in the middle of the night to use the restroom or anything like that, I inform him that I did not. He goes on to tell me that he heard footsteps in my room (my room was upstairs) that night so he comes up to see what’s going on. In my closet there is a door that leads to the attic, which at this time he found open, which is odd since there is usually a lock on it. After he told me this we kind of just shrugged it off as an odd occurrence. Later on that same week I find a question mark written into the dust of a mirror that sits against my wall, which I am more than 100% sure had not been there before that day, and it had been dusty for a while so it’s not like someone did that a month ago or whenever” (source).
Disappearing Teacher
“When I was a freshman in High School it was around November I believe and I was in English class. The teacher receives a phone call in the middle of class and she picks it up. After being on the phone for around 15 seconds she walks out of the class and never comes back. We got a sub teacher the next day and eventually the school hired a new teacher to replace her. To this day I have never heard for sure why she left, I have heard plenty of rumors as to where she has been but most likely it will never be released to the students as to why she left and the school administration will only know” (source).
Unclaimed X-Ray Machine
“This one will forever bug me. So I moved into a new apartment and of course you still get junk mail from people living there. I kept getting dental catalogs from different companies addressed to a Dr. Russian Sounding Name. Then we kept getting his bills, bank statements, insurance mail, and even a massive investment portfolio. At first, I would just throw them away, but then then the mail in his name started getting sent in with URGENT or RESPOND PROMPTLY. I just found this to be strange, why didn’t this dentist tell his bank and investors his new address? I even tried googling him and he had a practice in my city, but Google listed it as “perms rely closed.” No trace of the guy on Facebook or any social media. One day I get this MASSIVE box, like I can’t even drag it inside hardly. I got curious (yes I know this is illegal) and opened it a few months later. It’s a f**king dental X-Ray machine. I looked it up and it’s worth anywhere from $2000-$10,000. I still have the machine sitting in my closet, and it’s been almost a year, yet no word from Russian dentist guy. At this point I just want to know what happened to him, like obviously this machine cost him a decent amount and he hasn’t looked for it”(source).
Whispering Pines Bible Camp
“When I was a kid I went to a bible camp called Whispering Pines in Alberta, Canada. I never like going at first, but after the first day I always had a great time afterwards. One of the activities was sleeping under the stars. Each person was in a cabin with 2 counsellors and about 7-8 kids. 2 cabins at a time would go to this one spot with a bunch of tents and we’d make fires, roast marshmallows, sing to jesus and then watch the stars before falling asleep.One morning we all woke up to a bloodcurdling scream. I’ll never forget it. It wasn’t multiple screams and then the scream fading away. It was a single loud scream at the top of your lungs for about 5 seconds, and then silence. We all woke up, come outside our tents and discovered one of the kids was missing. We looked around for a bit, but couldn’t find him. Eventually we packed up and left, while one counsellor stayed behind in case the kid came back. At lunch the management staff announced to the entire group that someone was missing and we were going to go search for him. I remember being organized into search parties and looking around the whole camp for him. I remember looking in the outhouses, in all the activity areas, in the woods. But no one ever found him. The weird thing was that after, that was all that happened. The police never showed up (as far as I can recall). No announcement was ever made about what was to come next. It seemed like life just went on. No update was ever given. Every couple months I’ll google the camp ground and try to find any article that I can on this missing kid. Not a damn thing is out there. Probably doesn’t help that I don’t remember his name, but for some reason the name Daniel rings a bell. My parents don’t even remember this happening, but surely a parent would remember something like this if you sent your kid to a camp and an event like this happened. This was probably around summer of 1992 or 1993. Don’t remember the exact age I was. But I remember it all like it was yesterday” (source)
Back From the Dead
“About 8 or 9 years ago my uncle passed away. Fast forward to three years ago my family and I are sitting down at dinner. The phone rings and we just let it go to the answering machine. After dinner my brother checked the caller id and the name read my uncle’s first name, middle initial, and last name. However the creepier thing is that the number that we were called from is our phone number. Is it even possible to call your own number? To this day I still wonder who would’ve been on the other line if someone picked it up” (source).
Disappearance of Jeremy
“When I was in grade school, I made friends with another boy that I will call Jeremy. Jeremy was the smartest kid I have ever met in my entire life. He skipped 3 grades, and went from 2nd grade to 6th grade, and still remained at the top of his class. He always had an intense interest in nuclear physics, and he would talk online with professors and other adults about it. We continued to hang out, up until I was in 7th grade, and he was taking college level courses. He had his IQ tested during Junior year, and it was 165. This was the highest in our town’s history, and he had a feature in the local paper. Anyways, during his Junior year and my 7th grade year (keep in mind, we were both 12 at the time) he took a class called ASR, or advanced science research. This is when he really started to get serious about nuclear physics. He would spend hours each day talking with professors and scientists online. He was so wrapped up in his research that he would rarely come to school. This is where it gets weird. One day, he invited me over. We were playing baseball in his front yard, when a non descript black SUV pulled up next to his curb. Two men in suits got out and began walking towards the house. Our 12 year old minds immediately thought “stranger danger”, and we ran inside, locking the door. The men walked up to the door, and knocked. We were so scared. His mom went to the door, and one of the men revealed a badge and asked to be let in, and he would like to speak to her about her son. The mom told them they couldn’t come in, but she would be happy to speak to them on the porch. Me and Jeremy, being the nosy bastards we were, wanted to listen in on their conversation, so we went up to his door and pressed our ears against it. That was when one of the men came into the house and told us to go in the basement, to not listen to the conversation and it wasn’t any of our business. We complied, and about two hours later, his mom called him out onto the porch. She then told me that it was probably time I go home which was unusual since I ate dinner and stayed late there all the time. When I walked outside to go home, Jeremy’s mom was on the porch, in tears, and Jeremy was talking to one of the men. The men told me to go home, and one of them pulled me aside and said it would be best if I kept this a secret. The next day, there was a for sale sign in front of Jeremy’s house. Jeremy never showed up at school again, and his parents cars were never in the driveway of his house. It was like he disappeared off the face of the earth” (source).
Worst Way To Be Stood Up
“So about 3 years ago I was single and on many dating apps. This one girl messaged me who was cute I saw she was from Winnipeg (I’m from the Greater Toronto Area), but thought, what the hell, could be a fun convo. Well, we hit it off. We had a bunch in common, and our humor was super in sync. I found out pretty quickly that she had a kid, but the guy was mostly out of the picture. I was cool with it. Either way, the reason she was looking for guys in Toronto, is because she was moving here for school in just over half a year. After about 2 months we wanted to hear each other’s voices, so we had a phone call. The voice matched her picture pretty well. So we pretty much spoke on the phone daily for about 6 more months. Then that faithful day came. I had a softball tournament the day she was flying in and she wanted to come watch so bad. Well… She never showed. Hey, flights get delayed right? I called her that night. Nothing… The next morning… Nothing… Did I say something wrong? I can’t remember anything that struck me. I try to play it cool and wait a week. One last call… Nothing! She literally disappeared. Even her profile was gone. I was so weirded out by the fact that I talked to this girl for 7 months, real conversations, and then suddenly nothing” (source).
Bagel Bandit
“When I was in high school I was really good friends with my neighbor and I would sleep over her house pretty often. One morning we woke up and her entire front yard and her driveway were completely covered in bagels. Perfectly good, fresh bagels. We counted the bagels as we cleaned them up and there was a total of 175 bagels. It was super weird and we had absolutely no idea how it happened. A few months later I was sleeping at her house and once again we woke up to a yard of bagels. This happened on three other occasions each months apart and only ever when I was at her house. We have yet to figure out the mystery behind the bagel bandit” (source).