17 People Share the Creepiest Thing That Happened When They Were Home Alone

Staying home alone is an exciting rite of passage for many tweens and teens ... but this list of creepy things that have happened to people when they we solo will make you never want to stay home alone again.

This AskReddit thread is full of mysterious phone calls and creaking doors, shadowy figures and straight-up home invasions. Each and every one of these stories could be a scene in a horror movie. We're just glad these people lived to tell their tales.

Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill), was active in the Wichita, Kansas, area between 1974 and 1991. SargetheGarbageBarge's mom was living in Wichita while he was active. One day, she was home with her brother. She was upstairs and he was downstairs. He heard a noise in the backyard and then the power went out (a signature BTK move).

Her brother yelled for her to run away, and she did. She hopped out the window and ran barefoot to a Pizza Hut, where she called the police. They checked everything out, and it was fine, but holy heck I would not want to stay home alone after that.

RubberWetSpot was home alone on a Saturday morning in the 1970s. They were 9 years old and taking a bath when they heard someone break into their house. Could you imagine? Just as the intruder was opening the bathroom door, about to find this poor kid in the tub, the doorbell rang.

Their mom had returned from the store and had arms full of grocery bags, so she rang the doorbell to try and get some help carrying them in. She saw the person's shadow high-tail it down the stairs and out of the house. So spooky.

Sometimes the spooks are never explained, and those are the scariest stories of all. When rarestereocats was doing the dishes alone in their house one day, they "heard what sounded like somebody trying to talk to me." They lived in a city, so they weren't too concerned, but then, again, they hear "what sounds like somebody's death rattle right by my ear."

They said it sounded like someone was choking to death right next to them. They spun around with a fright, but there was nothing there. The cats sprinted to the basement, clearly scared of something. But they searched the house, knife in hand, and found absolutely nothing. Chills.

Creepy phone calls are the worst. Wendysspicynuggs got a phone call one day when they were home alone, and the person asked how their TV was holding up. They thought it was the company checking up on it, but then the person told them exactly what channel they were watching. The voice said, "Don't worry. I can see you but you can't see me." Terrifying.

They were 9 years old at the time and their 17-year-old sister, who was babysitting, told them to hide in the closet. They called the police, who of course came out and found nothing. Needless to say, they quickly installed security cameras and never had an incident like that again.

This story is very of-the-time, and very creepy. Bool1n was playing video games at home alone one night when they saw someone new added them on Snapchat. They accepted, then a few minutes later received a message from their new "friend." It was a grainy, far-away photo of them playing video games, obviously taken just a few minutes before. There was no text, just a picture showing they were being spied on.

Obviously, they freaked out, grabbed a knife, and started turning on all the lights in the house. Suddenly, someone stomped up the stairs, so they ran outside, only to see their two friends filming them and laughing. It was all a prank. A horrifying, terrible prank.

Sleep paralysis is no joke, and shieldtoadinquisitor had a terrifying incident when they were staying at their parents' place. They woke up paralyzed and saw someone sneaking around the bedroom. The person, who was wearing dark clothes and had their face obscured, came into the room, sat on the bed, and leaned closer and closer. Eventually, the sleeper was able to break the paralysis and check to make sure the front door was locked. It wasn't. So the question remains ... was this real or a nightmare?

Dogs often sense spooky things before we do, and that can be a good or a bad thing. Sushi-rollin was 10-ish when they were home alone on a stormy night. They were watching TV when their dog, who never barks, started going crazy, sprinting to the front door, then the back by the pool and the sliding doors, barking her head off like there was someone there.

They turned the lights on but saw nothing. Then, the dog ran to the garage door, still acting erratically. It was wide open. "Sushi" shut it immediately, grabbed the dog, and hid in the closet. When their parents got home, they noticed muddy footprints around the house. That dog probably saved that kid's life.

Queenofwands78 also came face-to-face with terror after their dogs were going crazy growling and barking. They thought she just had to go outside, so they opened the door to see a masked stranger standing right there. Ahhhhh! Luckily, the guy took off running, but that could have been so much worse. No word on whether the dog tried to go after the wannabe burglar. I'm just glad their plan was foiled and they immediately gave up.

Foalanisalupo was watching a spooky TV show and the program paused by itself on the image of the "cursed item." It was then that their dog turned to face the television and started to growl. Like, what?! This is some real ghost stuff. My dog doesn't even realize when there are dogs on the TV, let alone a supposedly cursed object. I need to know if it was a like, real-life History Channel-type show or a supposed fiction story. I don't know which one is worse.

The "people in creepy masks" trope is super common in horror movies, but you know why? Because it works. And because it apparently also happens in real life. Saulios420 was 10 years old, home alone, and playing video games when they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. They called out "Hello!" and heard the footsteps turn and go back down the stairs. The door slams, and they look out the window to see someone in a "weird baby mask and black sweater, black gloves, black everything." NO THANK YOU.

Freeze_Frogmire either had a brain fart or something truly spooky went on. Their towel hanger has four hooks, but they always only use the first and third. During the day, they opened their bathroom door and the towel that's normally on the first hook was there, hanging on the fourth hook. They had no visitors, and they never ever used that fourth hook. Either they unconsciously moved the towel, or they have a mystery person living in their attic.

Mzrose25 definitely, certainly, 100 percent has a ghost in their house. There is no other explanation for what happened. "My front door," they explain, "despite being locked and shut tightly, opened multiple times. I had to put a chair in front of it to stop it from opening." Like, what? Did this just mysteriously start happening one day after years of the door being fine? And then did it stop as suddenly and mysteriously as it started? I have so many questions, but only one answer: ghosts.

Gil_beard fell asleep on their couch one night and was woken up at three in the morning by a mysterious cell phone ringing in the basement. That's a big no thanks from me. When they finally went to check, the basement door was wide open. Someone was definitely in their basement and then high-tailed it out of there when their phone accidentally went off. Either that or the ghost of a cell phone is trying to haunt them.

Phantom sounds and voices are always super unsettling to experience. Red_sled got home from work and went upstairs to the bathroom. That's when they heard their daughter crying from the bedroom. They thought they'd somehow forgotten to take her to school and had accidentally left her at home all day, so they ran into the bedroom. But no one was there. They checked the whole house ... nothing. Their daughter was safe at school. So creepy.

This one truly made my heart leap into my throat as I read it. Choosycrisps was home alone with their two babies asleep upstairs. Suddenly, a man's voice came over the baby monitor "shushing a stirring baby, very softly." Obviously, they freak out and go check on the babies, who are both fast asleep. Ten minutes later, the male voice comes over the monitor again, this time saying, "Shh, come on [daughter's name], take your medicine." NUH UH!

They run up, but there's no man, no awake baby. Six months later, they learn that their neighbors down the street have a daughter with the same name. Seems like the frequencies of the baby monitors got crossed. But that's insanely scary!

Cats are notoriously mischievious, as NotANaziOrCommie knows well. One night, they heard their cat running around in the middle of the night making tons of sound, as cats are wont to do. They tried to ignore it, but then they heard glass shatter. They went upstairs to check on their cat and see what the little bugger broke, but get this: The cat was "sound asleep" and nothing was broken.

They even realized the cat had been asleep for a while because when they picked her up, "she did that stretch-and-yawn thing that cats do after waking up from a long nap." The explanation is obvious: ghost cat.

LilHugger5 was 10 when they could have sworn they saw Jeff the Killer. They looked out the window and "saw a guy in a stained white hoodie and jeans, wielding a knife." Yeah, nope. Obviously, they freaked out, locked all the doors, and hid in the attic with their little sister.

When their parents got home 30 minutes later, they said they saw "a guy in a hood trying to hop over our fence." They moved our two weeks later, thank goodness.