Have you ever been somewhere and suddenly felt a chill run down your spine for absolutely no reason? Maybe the room got a little too quiet, a place started giving you bad vibes, or an unshakable feeling in your gut told you, “Nope, we need to leave. Right now.” Most of the time, we brush those feelings off and carry on. But every once in a while, that little inner alarm turns out to be right.
Today, we went down the rabbit hole of a thread asking people to share the scariest “We need to leave… now” moments they’ve ever experienced. Some of these stories are creepy, some are downright terrifying, and a few are so unsettling they’ll have you wondering whether our instincts know more than we do. Keep scrolling but don’t be surprised if you start paying a little more attention to your gut feelings afterward.
#1
Oh I have a good one! Me and a girl were in Amsterdam Centraal train station waiting overnight for an early morning train. We were sat in a seating area charging our phones and trying to stay awake when a guy walked thru the door, pretty normal homeless looking guy, didn’t look dutch and didn’t look particularly scary – I can’t tell you specifically what it was about him that made me know leave immediately but I made it clear to my girl that we should leave immediately, I had a really strong feeling. She wasn’t happy because we were comfy there but I insisted. I grew up in one or two sketchy places and I think I developed a bit of a 6th sense.
Anyway we walked a full external lap of the massive station, had a smoke, talked to some randomers out front of the station and then headed back to the seating area…
… Blood everywhere. One man on the floor being worked on by paramedics. What I assume was the homeless looking man in a police van outside the doors screaming like a demon. Shocked people all around with police taking their statements. Apparently he’d walked in, verbally challenged everyone in the room, and then stabbed the first person to reply to him in their chest.
Still to this day I couldn’t tell you what “looked” wrong with the guy, it wasn’t an aesthetic thing it was pure gut feeling. The “I told you so” to my girl was pretty satisfying too lol.
© Photo: TacticalRiotChimp
#2
I was blacked out drunk at 21 at a karaoke bar. I went out to smoke a cig when a VERY cute man pulled up in his mustang asking if I wanted to hang out.
I don’t remember any of this, it’s from my best friend’s POV who watched it all. I said yes and sat in his passenger’s seat. He then said “hey I have [illegal substance] at my friend’s house, it’s in the forest but it shouldn’t take long.”
Apparently I was cool with it, I was so messed up I just agreed to anything.
My friend watched and heard all of this from the sidewalk, she pulled on the door to get me out but it was locked so she started kicking his car with her heavy boots. He got pissed bc it was denting his car so he unlocked the passenger side and she immediately pulled me out and took me home.
I think he was going to kidnap me/do something bad to me. We saw him on the news for stalking hiking trails where a woman went missing and hasn’t been found even now. Thank god for my friend.
© Photo: pugleys
#3
Worked overnights at Dennys, dishwasher introduced me to his friend who came up there. Apparently they had been doing armed robberies together and they showed me a gun with a laser. Few days later when dude showed up looking for dishwasher at 2am wearing gloves I snuck the cook and other server out and we called the cops. It was dishwasher night off. They both got caught soon after for a robbery and got like 10-12 years for multiple robberies.
© Photo: erok25828
“It’s just a gut feeling.” Chances are, you’ve said those words at least once in your life. Maybe you suddenly decided not to take your usual route home, even though it was faster. Perhaps you met someone new and instantly felt like something was a little off. Or maybe you looked at a meal and thought, “Nope, I’m not eating that,” without really knowing why. We all experience these moments. Some people call them hunches, others call them instincts, inner wisdom, or simply intuition. Whatever name you give it, the idea is surprisingly similar: it’s that strange ability to understand or sense something almost instantly, without sitting down and logically thinking it through.
#4
The night of the Altadena fire. We were waiting for evacuation orders but we looked up at the hillside and saw the flames spreading fast. We both said, ‘We need to leave now!’
© Photo: sweatboxy
#5
Was in a bar as a 20yr old. This was a typical nightclub, but the vibe felt “off” from the beginning. I suggested we leave and go to a drinking bar, and about 10 seconds later a fight blew up beside us, someone pulled a gun, shot a guy and everyone stampeded out. I’m surprised nobody else was hurt in the outrush, it was chaos.
© Photo: depressionbingocard
#6
I had a family member getting divorced and we were at her house getting it cleaned out to be sold. Her ex was a good guy never a*****e. We were upstairs in her spare room packing and I literally had alarm bells suddenly ringing in my head all I could think of was danger, danger! I jumped up and grabbed her and yelled, “we need to leave now!” Goose bumps up and down my arm and I could feel the hair standing up on my head. I was terrified and scared the hell out of her and she was too shocked to protest. We dropped everything and rushed out and was pulling out of the driveway as he was coming down the street. He wasn’t supposed to be over that day. Turns out he started stalking her and police have become involved. I did not know you could have literal bells ringing in your head but you can. So scary.
© Photo: Significant_Smoke150
Interestingly, the term “gut feeling” didn’t appear out of nowhere. It actually comes from the idea that our digestive system can influence the way we think and feel. For a long time, scientists believed that the brain was firmly in charge and simply sent instructions down to the rest of the body. But research over the last few decades has revealed something much more fascinating. Your brain and your gut are constantly chatting with each other through an incredibly complex communication network involving nerves, hormones, immune cells, and even the trillions of bacteria living inside your digestive system. In other words, it’s not a one-way conversation at all. Your gut has plenty to say, and your brain is listening.
#7
Not me but my dad. We were living at a hotel for a while and the bartender lady was super nice to me and my family, kept in touch after. She kinda looked like Siouxsie Sioux and I thought she was cool.
One time my parents were over at her&her man’s house to get [illegal substances] or whatever. My dad had a weird GTFO feeling and left.
A while later her & her man were on the news for stabbing a couple 20+ times and leaving them in a bathtub. My folks realized they were basically “casing” us and that could have been them.
© Photo: quntparty
#8
Met a serial killer a couple days before he got caught.
The hair was standing up on the back of my neck.
Somehow, I knew something was very, very wrong.
It was Leslie Allen Williams. The Whitmore Lake Killer.
© Photo: mw136913
#9
Hiking in Alaska. Up on a hillside I saw bear [feces] in the middle of an overgrown trail and was nope….
© Photo: whiskeytwn
This gut-brain connection helps explain why emotions often seem to show up physically in our bodies. Think about it. When you’re nervous, you might get butterflies in your stomach. When you’re anxious, your stomach can suddenly feel upset. And when something feels seriously wrong, you may experience that unmistakable sinking feeling in your gut. That’s because your digestive system is constantly sending updates back to your brain, and those signals don’t just help with digestion. They also travel to areas of the brain responsible for emotions, mood, attention, memory, and decision-making. In a way, your body sometimes picks up on subtle cues before your conscious mind has fully processed them.
#10
I was at a park behind my house in north NJ which had a stream running through it. It was a few hours after a big rainstorm. All of a sudden I got an eerie feeling because everything felt so quiet. So I told my friend let’s go back to my house (which is right up a hill overlooking the park) and minutes after getting home a torrent of water came flooding through the park from the stream.
Apparently a damn broke in NY and dumbed 6 feet of water over dozens of miles along this stream.
© Photo: TheIronMonkey53
#11
I was probably 8-9 years old walking home from a park with my friends a few blocks from my house. A maroon car with a white roof slowed down and the guy driving it was staring at us. He kept driving slowly next to us just watching us. He got to the corner and turned. We ran home. The next day at school, over the loudspeaker, they announced a man with dark hair and a mustache was driving around in a maroon car with a white roof trying to get kids to get in his car.
© Photo: Brondoma
#12
Summer camp counselor in Wisconsin. Tons of tornado activity that summer. On the first night I’d tell my campers to have their shoes next to their bed and jacket hanging on the corner of the bunk in case we had to go to the shelter in the middle of the night.
Our cabin had a wall in the middle separating me and my campers from the other counselor and campers on the other side. There was a door there to access that side.
I woke up in the middle of the night. I thought I could hear the tornado sirens but I wasn’t sure. I suddenly got this AWFUL feeling. I shouted over and over “WAKE UP! SHOES ON!” Those kids moved! And for some reason, I didn’t herd them out our normal door. I shoved them through the middle door, through the other side, and then across to the shelter. We joined all the other campers and waited.
At the all clear, we walked back, looked at our cabin, and froze. A massive tree had crashed through our end of the cabin. Probably half the campers and I would’ve been dead if we’d not left when we did.
© Photo: MamaRabbit4
Because of this, intuition can occasionally be incredibly useful. It may not predict lottery numbers or tell you the future, but it can sometimes alert you when something deserves your attention. Of course, experts also point out that intuition isn’t some magical superpower that works perfectly all the time. Professor Joel Pearson from the School of Psychology, an expert in cognitive neuroscience, developed five practical guidelines for understanding and using intuition more effectively. He calls it the “SMILE” method, and it begins with self-awareness. Before trusting your instincts, it’s important to check in with yourself emotionally. If you’re feeling extremely happy, stressed, angry, or upset, your emotions may be clouding your judgment.
#13
I snapped out of being d*****d after going for drinks. I was always the type that if I felt like I had one too many I’d go home. Well one night I was out with a friend, had one drink and then suddenly found my self walking down the street on the very wrong side of town. I’m guessing when I started to feel out of it I just left the bar and started walking. Well I flagged down a cop and asked him to bring me home. He did, cops are heroes.
© Photo: Rare_Independent_814
#14
Was looking for a place for rent. Saw an ad on Facebook marketplace and made an appointment with the “landlord”. When I arrived, there was a guy working on the windows and the front door was open. I walked up and asked him if he was the landlord he said yes. Stupidly, I walked in with him behind me. He guided me all the way to the back of the house, started showing me a random window as he was closing the bedroom door and putting his arm around my waist at the same time. Then it hit me. I turned around, flung the door open and ran out the house in an instant.
When I went back to the ad on marketplace that evening, it was gone. The landlord I emailed never responded back to me. Lesson learned: i shouldn’t have gone by myself.
© Photo: toebeans0611
#15
MY sister and I walked into a biker bar that we mistook for a Disco club back in the 80s. Two young girls dressed in tiny disco dresses and way high heels with wall to wall bikers. Turned around before the door even closed behind us. We could hear them laughing as we ran for the car.
© Photo: DangerousCap7973
The second idea is mastery. Believe it or not, intuition often develops through experience. The more time we spend doing something, the better our brains become at recognizing patterns and predicting outcomes. Think about a professional chef who can instantly tell that a recipe needs more seasoning, or an experienced driver who senses that another car is about to make an unsafe move. Their intuition didn’t appear overnight—it was built through years of learning and repetition. The same applies to almost every skill. Before intuition can guide you effectively, your brain needs enough experience to build those important mental connections.
#16
Okay, this is some “Only in Texas” [stuff]. I was in a bar with friends when this dude rushed in and pulled out a gun. He put it to another guys head and pinned him against a wall. A bunch of guys jumped him and got the gun away (I was not one of them because screw that) and the bar owner took the gun, told the guy to go home, and he could COME BACK IN THE MORNING TO GET IT. No cops. No restraining order. Nothing.
I looked at my friends like we gotta get the [hell] outta here. He’s gonna go home and come back with another gun. Nobody wanted to leave. I had to threaten to leave them to get them to the car.
© Photo: The_Se7enthsign
#17
09/11/2001. I was in my office on the 37th floor of a building about 7 blocks from the WTC. When the 2nd plane hit I knew it wasn’t an accident and I decided it was not good to be in a tall building in NYC’s financial district. I was in a conference room with a bunch of my colleagues and I said “guys…I’m getting the hell out of here”, and most of us ran down 37 flights of stairs and got away from there. For some reason, my office mate decided not to leave, and he was exposed to the dust from the collapsed buildings. I heard from him not too long ago; he’s got cancer.
© Photo: Rob_S_Welch
#18
Age 11 girl, covering a paper route for a friend. One of the stops was an apartment building. While I was dropping papers outside of doors on the first floor a guy came out of one of the apartments and watched me. I figured he just thought i was a dumb kid up to no good.
I finished the floor and walked up the stairs to the next floor, there were 3 or 4 floors if I remember correctly, with stairwells at each end of the hallways. On the third floor he appeared from the stairwell at the other end of the hall and was still watching me. I finished up and used the stairs closest to me. I started up the next flight of stairs and something told me to stop and not open the door at the top floor and to wait. Sure enough, I could hear the door slam shut from the other end of the hall. I ran double time down all the flights to the outside and dropped the bag because I was so scared. I ran all the way home crying.
I ended up getting in huge trouble for abandoning the route and my friend lost her paper route. No one cared that I was being followed and in fact my grandparents (whom I lived with) told me I was lying and was just lazy. Ah the good ol’ early 90s. No one cared and I was grounded for a really long time.
© Photo: Magimae123
Another important distinction is the difference between instinct and intuition. People often use these words interchangeably, but they aren’t exactly the same thing. Instinct refers to behaviors we’re born with. For example, if you hand a baby a slice of lemon, there’s a good chance they’ll immediately make a funny face and spit it out. Intuition, on the other hand, is learned. Professor Pearson also warns that cravings and addictions can sometimes disguise themselves as intuition. The urge to check social media, have another drink, or place another bet can feel like a strong internal pull, but that doesn’t make it intuition. Sometimes our brains simply want something, and it’s important not to confuse those desires with genuine intuitive signals.
#19
I have several but the one that sticks out first happened in 2001. I was working in IT/IS and was set to interview the next morning at 9:00am sharp. I woke up early and was getting ready to head in. At the time, I was a system’s integration manager and was responsible for the code that did high speed arbitrage trades.
As I was heading to my interview (more of a presentation really), I suddenly became ill and threw up right in the street (I know…yuck). I had no idea what the hell was wrong with me, so I went into a Starbucks to get some water. I called my contact to let them know that we might need to reschedule because I was sick.
Approximately 45 or 50 minutes later, a plane hit the building I was supposed to be presenting in. It was the North Tower. The guy I had just spoken with later died because he didn’t get out in time or was too high up.
I think about that day often and the people I knew. A lot of really good people died that day and sometimes I feel guilty. I don’t know why I feel guilty, but everything in my life from that point forward was possible because I suddenly felt sick.
Some days life doesn’t even feel real. Some days feel borrowed and other days feel loaned — it is an extremely strange feeling as if there was another equally valid timeline where I did d*e. I can’t even put it into words. When a dozen people you knew suddenly d*e from a senseless act, it just makes me feel horribly sick inside. There were times that I felt s******l because I felt like I cheated d***h. I wish I could put the words together to better articulate my feelings.
I can still remember hearing the first tower fall. The wall of smoke and papers and broken bits of offices. It was the most sickening sound I had ever heard. I don’t even feel that I ever processed that day completely. To this day, I am terrified of going into tall buildings. At the time, I was probably 4 or 5 blocks away. Nothing in your life will ever prepare you for seeing someone fall and hit the pavement at over 125 miles an hour. It is the most sickening sound you can hear.
Ps: as a side note, I remember EMTs came into the Starbucks for water and the clerk working didn’t know what to do and charged the EMTs over a hundred dollars for two or three cases of water. You can look it up, but Starbucks corporate went nuts over it and was very public with apologies afterwards.
© Photo: usps_made_me_insane
#20
I had a guy pick me up from an airport that I had been talking to on and off over the coarse of a year. Had not met him before, but we had friends in common. When I met him, I got into his truck and the more he talked the weirder he became. He was a ranch hand and would start saying things but stopping himself. One thing he started to say was how women find him creepy. He talked about the previous tenant in his apartment and kept talking about her underwear he found, over and over again. I felt so scared and uncomfortable in a way I never felt before. Ive been on lots of dates, traveled abroad alone, been to frat parties solo, all situations where I could be vulnerable, but I never felt panic like I did with him. Initially I was going to spend a couple hours with him and then see my friend, but I lied and said my friend needed to see my ASAP. So after about 30 mins with him he dropped me off where I needed to be (thankfully) and I just sobbed to my friend about how scared I was. I blocked the guy on everything. Who knows if anything would have happened to me, but something was not right with him and I worry about any other women he comes across.
© Photo: CulturalDefinition27
#21
A coworkers son showed up at my house late in the evening wanting to borrow a bicycle. He knew I was home alone. He was rather insistent. I declined to let him in. Subsequently he was later convicted of a multi-state, multi-victim assault, r0bbery, m*rder spree that landed him behind bars for the rest of his life. Thank goodness I didn’t let him in.
© Photo: Pale-Mud-1297
The next point in the SMILE framework is low probability. In simple terms, don’t rely on your feelings when it comes to numbers, statistics, or probabilities. Humans are surprisingly bad at estimating odds based purely on emotion. That’s why many people buy lottery tickets thinking they have a real chance of winning or panic over extremely unlikely events because they feel scary. When emotions take over, our brains often struggle to process probabilities accurately. So while your intuition might help you sense when something feels wrong in a social situation, it probably won’t help you calculate your chances of winning the jackpot.
#22
Being followed by some guys when I was 12 years old. We went to a neighbors house and knocked on just a random persons door. This was before cell phones.
© Photo: SunshineSweetLove1
#23
High school party at the wrestling coaches house…idk, had a weird feeling so I left.
That night resulted in a lot of minor in possession charges, d**g possession charges, it was a big deal. Something like 125ish people ended up getting arrested.
© Photo: GodSaidSmite
#24
I was 19 at a party. Suddenly most of the girls left and the only girls were me and three friends of mine. The guys put [adult content] on and started acting really weird smiling at us very creepily. I begged my friends to leave with me. One absolutely refused to leave.
They assaulted her. She didn’t tell us until a year later, but I saw that coming.
Finally, there’s environment. This idea goes back to experience and learning. Our intuition tends to be very context-specific. In other words, the patterns our brains learn in one environment don’t always transfer perfectly into another. Imagine learning to play tennis on a hard court. Your brain gradually learns how the ball bounces, how players move, and how certain situations usually unfold. But put that same player on grass, and things suddenly feel different. Their intuition needs time to adjust to the new environment. The same thing happens in everyday life. Our gut feelings often work best in situations and settings that are familiar to us.
#25
I was at a bar with a friend of mine for happy hour. Out of nowhere the bar got so quiet we got an eerie feeling. We [left] as quickly as we could back to her apartment and found out later there was a shooting just after we left.
#26
I was 13 and my best friend and I had taken the bus down to a neighborhood in Seattle that was still a little rough (it’s very gentrified now). We were sitting on a curb just chatting about where we wanted to eat and a man in his 30s walked over to us. He asked “do you girls need some money?” We weren’t scared, just confused, but told him “no thanks.”
I suppose it’s possible that he was some philanthropist who thought we were unhoused, but now that I’m an adult, I kinda doubt it.
#27
When I was 19 I was at a college party in an apartment complex, I got very drunk and when all the alcohol was gone I wandered around looking for more. I was really naive and walked into a neighboring apartment where 2 dudes were passed out drunk on the couch but one was awake in the kitchen. I asked if he had any booze and he said yeah in my room, I foolishly followed him in there. While my back was turned I heard the door lock. I spun around and he was blocking the door. I say “on second thought I need to go” but he shook his head no and started coming towards me. I started getting this sinking feeling in my chest, I knew I needed to leave but I would have to fight him off to get out. Before he could even touch me there’s banging on the door. The guy gets scared and unlocks it when these 3 guys come barreling in, they had been at the college party I was originally at and heard that I was lured into that room from someone who watched me wandering around outside. They started yelling at the guy calling him [out]. I didn’t stay to watch them fight, I got out of there so fast and was just relieved nothing bad happened to me.
At the end of the day, gut feelings remain one of the most fascinating parts of being human. They aren’t magic, and they certainly aren’t always right, but they can sometimes help us notice things our conscious minds haven’t fully processed yet. And judging by the stories in today’s post, there are moments when listening to that little voice inside can make all the difference. So, Pandas, which of these stories gave you chills? And have you ever had a gut feeling that turned out to be absolutely right? Let us know in the comments below.
#28
I live in a very nice, safe neighborhood, and walk for exercise every day. I’ve never once felt creeped out, and plenty of other women walk in this neighborhood too. One day, I was walking at dusk and an older lady stopped to talk to me. She was friendly but I didn’t think much of it.
The next day, I saw her again and she exclaimed, “did you ever see that guy who was following you?!” It scared me SO much because I really had no idea! I’d been listening to music, but she said there was a tall man following me closely, wearing all black, with long sleeves and a hoodie on. It definitely wasn’t cold enough to wear that either! She said that after we talked, she kept an eye on me, and he turned around and glared at her for ruining his good time, which freaked her out.
After that, I was super careful. I bought a whistle and pepper spray, and kept constantly turning around to look. When possible, I walked earlier. At first I was scared of any man I saw, but finally, I decided that it was probably just a creepy one-time thing.
It was dusk. I was feeling brave. I decided to do a victory lap around the neighborhood. I was telling myself, “see?! The boogeyman doesn’t exist! The b—“
Just as I thought this, I got to a really poorly lit part of the road, and saw a tall man just loitering in his yard, near the street. He was wearing black from head to toe, including a hat, and was just literally staring at the sidewalk. Ohhhhhh my god. I found the boogeyman! He IS real!!! Like…it was exactly the time I usually walked by, and he was literally standing out there waiting for me. He just had this malevolent vibe somehow, and my whole body just screamed at me that he was dangerous.
There was no way in HELL I was walking by that house. Thankfully, I was across the road to begin with. But idk where the courage came from, but suddenly I seethed with anger and refused to let him win. I planted my feet firmly on the sidewalk and angrily glared at him, boring a hole through his head. How dare he make me feel unsafe in my own neighborhood?! We stared at each other for a minute or so, and then he actually backed down and walked back to his front porch. He just pitifully stood there, trying to hide behind a small tree. He knew I was onto him!
Then I knew I had to get the HELL out!!! I walked backwards, refusing to let him out of my sight, and once I got far enough, I ran as fast as I could home!
The next night, I drove by at that exact same time, and he was walking out of the house in all black. So creepy! Then the next week was daylight savings, so the daylight situation changed, and I never have had an issue with him again. It was creepy, though, when I realized that he sits in his car frequently, and his driveway has a perfect view into my bedroom. Since then I have been very, very careful about shutting the blinds!
#29
That time in a cab at night in a seedy part of Mexico while on vacation with my mom and dad and brothers. The cab drove us out to a remote beach in Tampico, Mexico and we were scared we were about to get robbed and worse. Finally, my dad convinced the cab driver to take us to town to the nearest hotel. We were so lost in Mexico.
#30
I used to hook up with this guy, we were pretty much on the outs at this point. The last time I saw him and stayed at his house, I had a very disturbing, terrifying nightmare and I woke up scared out of my sleep. Even though I didn’t move or anything, I was laying very still next to him, my heart pounding, I thought he was asleep the whole time and all of a sudden he puts his hand firmly on my leg and tells me in a serious voice to go back to sleep.
#31
In 1986, I was 20f yr old and living in Albuquerque NM. I (just me and my Wheaton terrier dog Tanner) was driving up through northern NM, omw to Southern Colorado to meet a bunch of family to go camping. I pulled over on the side of the road to stretch and give my dog a few minutes to walk and go potty. Mind you, this wasnt like a major hwy road, but not like a country dirt road either. I was far enough off the road that I let him off his leash and I was standing about 20 yds from where my car was and the edge of the road. I saw a pickup truck drive by with 2 guys in it, and noticed they slowed down and looked at me. A minute later I see them flip a U turn and head back toward my direction. I got this awful feeling that they were gonna do something bad to me. I called my dog and he was a little further back than me, kinda heading towards a wooded area. I called him again and he wouldn’t come. By this time the 2 guys are almost stopped. I SCREAMED at my dog and he came and we both RAN back to my car. I literally started my car and took off as I was shutting my door. The 2 guys followed me for a couple of minutes and then turned around again, and headed back the way they were originally coming from. I have no doubt I would’ve been seriously assaulted or worse!!
#32
Was 19 and pumping gas at 11pm going to my then BFs house. I was wearing SHORT shorts and a sweater when a van pulled up right next to me, the sliding door opened and 3 men got out walking toward me. I jumped in the car and peeled out. Didn’t even pay for the gas.
#33
Was 19 or 20 just moved out..
Older man, prolly in 70s started chatting me up. Was trying to convince me to get in his car to go to Panera. got to his car and he opened the door. Thankfully i stood my ground.
Scary tbh. .
#34
I’m a weather nerd. I like watching radar maps to plan my days accordingly. About ten years ago we took our son to a boyscout event at a local park. I warned everyone on the way there that our area looked perfect for tornados and we might be leaving early. I was told to stop being anxious.
The event was going well but weather was picking up. I checked the radar again and warned my husband we needed to leave as the pressure systems were showing hook like formation near us. I Called our kids over and was collecting our things, He told me “oh my god calm down there isn’t going to be a torna-“
Just then everyone’s phones get the tornado warning alert and the emergency sirens start blaring, everyone freaks out and starts grabbing their kids and picnic stuff and are running to their cars.
#35
I’m a college student in architecture who always biked to the studio building. Leaving studio close to midnight, I spot a group of 6 guys messing with each other, walking towards me as I fiddle with my bike lock. The lock is still not off and I see one nudge his friend and yell “Hey! Nice bike!” as they all pick up their pace towards me.
I’ve never [left] quicker than taking off that bike lock and putting feet to pedal. Very glad to not have had my bike stolen as it was my daily mode of transport.
#36
I was spending my erasmus exchange student time in a foreign country. Mostly great memories, but there was one guy there that just, creeped the hell out of me. The best description would be that to the eyes of my…psyche? He looked like he was surrounded by a black cloud of sheer darkness.
He sat next to me in the first class, properly introduced himself, was perfectly polite. But I could not stand being near him. I avoided every party, every event he went on. My friends said I was being irrational, discriminative and whatnot. But I just couldn’t do it.
A few weeks passed. He tried to a*****t a girl first time he was left alone with someone. He was waiting for just that moment. After that, every one of my friends ran to me with “oh my god you were right, you were right, we take back everything, we will listen from now on”.
#37
I took my family to an activity we left and we’re all tired and a little hungry. My wife wanted to get home as soon as possible to eat. For some reason I was hell bent on getting something now. I wasn’t that hungry but told her in a stern voice we were getting food. My wife and I are really chill with each other and she asked me what’s up. I said I just feel like we have to go before heading home. She read my vibe and we got food. We got stuck in a traffic jam going home. We proceeded to watch 2 lifeflight helicopters land and 3 people lost their lives. It happened right at the time we would’ve been right where it happened. Freaks me out still but learned to listen to intuition a lot more.
#38
There were so many of these before I was 30ish. Let’s pick one….
Ok, so I had the dumb hobby of wandering into estates in North Central New Jersey because they had really nice grounds – looked like Versailles to me. Or Gatsby. Take your pick. Definitely looked like old money even if new money had recently bought the place. There was this one where I couldn’t see any evidence of security, so I was pretty far away from the treeline when I heard the skitter of small feet and a gate opening. With some pretty quick math and a bit of a guess, I bolted. We were raised during intense Presidential Fitness tests and I had a decent 100M dash and was trained to high jump. Cleared their fence and that’s when I saw my first rotterman. Didn’t go back there. They had security.
#39
The Biltmore indoor swimming pool. As soon as I stepped foot in that room on the self guided tour, I got violently nauseous and hot. I had a sense of blackness beginning to swim in my vision. My husband asked me if I was okay because I had began to sweat profusely and he said I had lost all the color in my face and my lips were purple. I felt a distinct feeling of being unable to breathe as my throat felt obstructed. The iPhone in my hand that I was using to take photos with shut off due to overheating in the middle of this. The air was stale and warm but it was not that hot. I could not focus to answer my husband’s questions if i was okay. Thankfully he said we have to leave and we did. As soon as I got outside I felt completely normal again. I am not a woo woo kinda gal and rather enjoyed the gardens but would never step foot in that building again. Not if you paid me millions.
#40
Myself, my best friend, and his girlfriend decided to go to a night club. Unbeknownst to us, it was Mexican hip hop night, so there were almost no other white people in the club. Whatever, no big deal. It was fun.
Then the only other white person we saw comes strolling up to us all drunk and says the following VERY loudly “hey, thank god other white people. White power, am I right?”
We got up out of there. We wanted nothing to do with that.
#41
I (girl) at the time was 23 years old.
I lived in the same apartment building as a couple coworkers. One guy invited a bunch of people over to his place one night for drinks. I walked over (thankfully).
When I got there it was me, my male coworker, and his male roommate. We watched some Tv and a had some beer. It was fine.
Another male acquaintance showed up a couple hours later with two women that I didn’t know. One of my friends whispered to me that he thought they were [sex workers]. After observing them for awhile I realized this was likely true.
I realized after a while that there were 2 [sex workers], 3 men, and me.
I made some comment about how I had left something in my apartment and I was just gonna run home and get it. I didn’t go back.
#42
Borrego Springs, CA. Quiet hike to the end of the lovely desert trail, beautiful scenery. No one else around. Mid-May. Noon. 95 degrees and rising. No shade. We didn’t bring water. I looked around, said “Oh, damn.”, told her, “We have to leave. Right now.”
She started looking funny on the way back, her face got pretty red, and I wondered how far I could carry her. Fortunately we made it back to the car before either of us passed out.
Only time in 40+ years together I ever made an environmental mistake like that.
Or, the time I was strolling around the non-tourist area at Luxor, Egypt, with this crazy Canadian fellow tourist off the Nile cruise boat, who was muscled like Schwarzenegger and not afraid of anything. He wanted to see how the locals lived, and their market area. The locals started pressing closer, asking us a lot of questions and getting more aggressive, and I thought we might not make it back to the boat. This dude just told them to get lost, and we walked back without incident.
Luxor wasn’t nearly the fright I had when she was hiking with me.
#43
I was in an old thrift/antique shop with my friend. This place was PACKED. Might have just been a hoarders house by how much stuff there was but everything had a tag. really it was a house with all the doors opened and available to go into. All the rooms were filled with costumes, war antiques, clothes, old smithing stuff, etx. There was a sign saying it was a thift shop.
My friend wanders around and finds a hallway to a door. She grabs me and we enter (there wasn’t a no entry or anything on it). We were also the only customers at the time
The room was completely bare except for 1 beach lounge chair in the middle of the room. And I think it was a windowless room but I could be mis-remembering that.
I grabbed her hand and said “we are leaving now” while she is still asking “why is there only a lounge chair in here?”.
The owner was already iffy but that made my gut drop so fast and I practically yanked her out of there.
#44
TLDR: while camping in the woods my partner and I were approached by a man who we believe is the same man who m******d a camper in the same area a few months later. We ran away as soon as we had the chance, potentially saving us.
My partner and I were on our first trip away together, hiking a remote section of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. We were 23, and a little reckless. By late afternoon, we sought a place to camp off the trail. We thought it would be more romantic to camp somewhere remote rather than a campsite. Due to the steep terrain, we found the only viable flat spot—a small section approximately 50ft off the main trail.
Before putting up the tent, we scouted the immediate perimeter to confirm there were no other suitable flat areas nearby. Because of high winds, we erected a tarp to create a windbreak. We saw no other hikers all afternoon; the area was completely isolated. These are important details because of what happened next.
As daylight faded, we lit a campfire and prepared dinner. Just as it was becoming dark, my partner spotted a man approaching the camp from the trail. The man was moving slowly and hesitantly.
Initially, I thought the figure might be a park ranger, but a visceral “off” feeling immediately took hold of both of us. Noticing he was being watched, the man sped up to a normal walking pace. My partner stood up, met the man at the edge of the camp site, and placed his hand in his pocket to clearly signal he was armed with a knife. While my partner maintained direct, unwavering eye contact, I experienced an uncharacteristic instinct to look down. I felt that making eye contact might provoke the man, so I intentionally avoided seeing his face.
The man appeared strung out and erratic. He carried no traditional hiking gear—no tent, no sleeping bag, and no light source. His only possession was a small drawstring bag. He began asking if we were “having a party” and who else was with us. It appeared he was attempting to discern the number of people in the camp, which was obscured by the tarp. When my partner refused to move or grant him entry into the camp, the man began walking in a wide semicircle around the perimeter. My partner mirrored him step-for-step, keeping his body between the stranger and me at all times.
Realizing he could not find an opening, the man stated he was going to “go put up his tent.” He turned and walked straight up the steep mountain—a direction we knew had no flat ground for camping.
We squatted by the campfire together in absolute silence. We tracked the sound of his footsteps as he moved up the hill. After approximately 20 seconds, the footsteps stopped abruptly. **They did not fade away; the man had simply stopped moving.** He was positioned uphill in the pitch black, invisible to us, while we were perfectly illuminated by the campfire.
I asked my partner if he had heard of “weird things happening in the woods.” In that moment, we made a snap decision to abandon our camp. My partner handed me a hammer for defense and took the rear position, telling me “If anything happens to me, run and don’t look back.” We cut our lights to avoid being targets when we got to the trail, and began sprinting through the woods clutching hammers and knives. We ran for at least a mile in the pitch darkness, unsure of the terrain or if we were being followed, fueled entirely by adrenaline.
Upon reaching our car, we drove for an irrationally long time, unable to feel safe. We filed a report with a park ranger that night and recorded a video description of the man for our records.
Returning the next day to retrieve our gear, we confirmed there was physically no place the man could have camped in the direction he had walked.
Months later, I was still haunted by the experience. I couldn’t think of an innocent reason he could have approached us with no camp gear, and the way his footsteps stopped in the dark haunted me. I had a feeling that the incident wasn’t isolated, and did a google search for whether there had been any recent incidents on that part of the trail. I discovered news of a double stabbing on the same trail 6 months later.
Before looking at a photo of the killer, I asked my partner to use AI to generate an image of the face he remembered: a white man, gaunt, with shortish dreadlocks and a strung out look. The AI image was an unmistakable match for the mugshot. I began reading about the killer, and learned that he had a reputation for harassing campers on the trial for a while, in a similar way to how he acted with us.
#45
I have a few quick ones.
– riding my dirtbike solo, I kept feeling like I was being watched. The hairs on my neck would stand up and random chills on a sunny day. I noped out to the main trail, as I’m leaving I thought I heard something chasing my bike but I didn’t see anything. Neighbor came over like two days later and told me NPS caught a mountain lion right where I was.
– Partying with some army buddies at an apt complex off post, we had just got back from Iraq. Buncha local dudes showed up, something just felt way off about them. My Spidey senses were going off like crazy and I thought I was having a ptsd thing. So I went outside to handle it and while I was out there one of the dudes pulled a gun over a beer pong argument in a house full of grunts. It didn’t go well for him and nobody died.
– Driving thru Kansas on a cross country trip and I’m the only car on the hwy. It’s kinda overcast, but nothing crazy. Then I saw like 5 hooks forming up in a field like right next to me. So I’m like oh, I’m in danger. I started doing like 10-15 over and naturally pass 2 cops. They hit the berries on me and the cop was like, “Hay son, noticed you was goin about 15 over? That’s way too slow, them naders are’a comin man! Follow me. Don’t let up.” We did like 130-140 all the way to the state line. Cool dude.
#46
I went on a girls cruise to Nassau and out of nowhere a man popped out from behind some trees and sat next to me on a bench next to the beach. He was so close he put his head on my shoulder. I jumped up and grabbed my sister. She was so confused because didn’t see what was happening. I explained after we left. It was weird.
#47
When I was eleven years old and this old couple wanted us to go with them in their van. Not kidding.
#48
What I can only assume would have turned into a kidnap in a foreign country. Was studying abroad and we were supposed to make connections in the community. One of my teammates (who’d done absolutely nothing up until this point) found the sketchiest guy who just happened to have all the information we needed back at his office. I had a bad feeling from the start as nothing really lined up or made sense and he was extremely pushy about us going to his office. I tried multiple times to get us out of the situation on the walk to the office but my dumb teammate was oblivious and kept pushing back at me. Eventually we were led down to a parking garage where his office apparently was (his very large friend with gloves on also joined us along the way)…I made one final attempt to get us the hell out by saying our professor would be looking for us soon. Thankfully, the guy seemed to get worried about that and let us leave. Dumb dumb still didn’t understand what was so wrong about a nice guy trying to help and wanted to try to meet up with him the next day.
#49
At a rifle range. Pickup showed up. Two to three guys get out, grab their guns out of the back and THEN OPEN BEERS. We left pronto.
#50
16, home alone while my parents were out for the evening. Decided to go meet a friend at the movies. Got ready and got to the garage to leave out of our back side door and had every single warning sign tell me not too go out of that side door. So I turned around, walked through house and quietly went out the front door. Start walking to my car parked in the driveway and see 2 men, backs to me, leaning against the garage crouched down staring at the side door. (We lived in a large estate, nearest neighbors were a mile away). I dropped to my knees and crawled quietly to my car, jumped into the passenger side, locked the doors, and hopped into drivers seat to drive away. Guys didn’t react fast enough because they were so fixated on the side door and it was nighttime, that by the time I was in the drivers seat and car started they hadn’t expected me to leave that way. Drove straight to my friends house and her Parents called the police. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.
#51
I ignored that gut feeling.
I arrived at a hotel, looked nice, was kinda off of the main area, in Pembroke ON. I parked and when I got out, I got a visceral reaction in my gut. I felt uncomfortable but I ignored it cause I was in a small town and exhausted.
I had my son with me, he must have been 4 or 5.
Everything was fine when I checked in. Everything was fine.
They had an outdoor pool and of course my son wanted to go so we suited up and walked down to the outdoor pool. There was an entrance to outside (parking lot) and then an entrance to the hotel, enclosed by a fence.
After about 10 min of swimming, my little guy couldnt swim yet, so I was holding him and swimming around and I looked up and there was a man, standing in the doorway to the parking lot, mind you the hotel door is like 5 feet away from that door so I was trapped.
He had an open button up shirt, his pants didnt fit and were barely on and has no shoes. He was dirty and watching us. Watching me. He asked me questions and iykyk, he just stared. Asked if I ever went to church….
I was stuck, middle of the pool, child in arms, who cant swim.
He went into the hotel, I think to look around, check if anyone was coming…. in that moment, I bolted for the hotel phone and called the front desk to get someone to me immediately. He came back as I hung up and I grabbed my kid.
At that PRECISE moment, a group of men came out of the main hotel doors, i heard them. I screamed and the men came and the homeless man bolted.
While ive had incidents that have scarred me and had actual physical harm on me, this was the worst. I knew his intentions and I had my child. I never felt that kind of fear.
I should have listened to my gut when I first got there.
Even though “nothing happened”, man that one messed me up for a few years.
#52
On a friends trip with about 8 couples to Puerto Vallarta. We all left the resort and went into a nearby town for dinner, had a great time and then explored the town square. The sun set and we were waiting for Ubers to take everyone back to the resort; group one left and then group 2. The rest of us are waiting for our Uber and a very fancy black Mercedes pulls up in this town of junk cars and just sits there watching us wait. It was weird as hell, finally our car came and we left. We didn’t belong there after dark and were aware it was time to go.
#53
Me 11 my brother 10. On vacation in a holiday town walking from the condo across the parking lot to the 7/11. A young man parked a red sports car between us and the entrance. He told my brother to “come here” he insisted and wouldn’t take his eyes off my brother. He asked a few times then started demanding but from his initial time speaking my heart was in my throat. We were both instantly trembling we just knew. I screamed at him “NO” and we took off running and hid in some bushes. He waited for 5 minutes in his car and then left. Never went in the 7-11.
Absolutely no doubt he was going to kidnap my brother. His eyes were locked on my little bro. Looked animalistic. I could also feel the hatred he was expelling toward me. He never looked at me but I could tell he was angry I was in the way. I can’t describe it.even though he only spoke I KNEW he would’ve k****d him. I later said that guy was going to try to m****t you and my bro looked at me and said he was going to k**l me.
#54
Pre uber in the early 2000 my friend had triple a plus (basically unlimited towes). We’d get drunk, call the tow truck saying our car wouldn’t start and get a tipsy tow home. This one time the driver took us out in the middle of nowhere onto a locked property (image a big fence, dogs everywhere, etc) and wouldn’t say why were there. We wouldn’t get out of the truck and thankfully I had my flip phone and was calling everyone I knew explaining that if I died or went missing I was with this specific driver and if was him. He could see me frantically calling people but not hear what I was saying. Eventually he took us home.
#55
Grand Central Station, NYC. The station was packed with people and becoming more crowded by the minute as more commuters flowed in to catch their commuter trains home. No trains were leaving because a suspicious suitcase was found on the tracks a few miles north of the station.
As I waited and observed the situation, the thought occurred to me that the suitcase could have been a ruse, and there would be far more casualties if the real target was the very crowded Grand Central Station.
I got the heck out of there and walked about 12-blocks away until I found an interesting family restaurant serving foods from Nepal. I enjoyed a delicious meal in delightful surroundings, relaxed, and two hours later after learning all was well and trains were running again, I made my way back to the train station.
#56
I was walking home from a night out with my girlfriend. The area was busy so we cut down an alley behind a group of 6 or so people and you could smell the pot off them. We were walking a bit faster than them and as we were just passing them some cops came out from behind some dumpsters and said freeze to everyone. We froze for a microsecond and I then just kept holding my GF’s hand and kept walking. One of the cops looked at us for a second and she looked back at the bigger group and told them all to get on the ground. We just kept walking home in silence and when we got in the apartment we finally breathed a breath of relief. This was before legal m*******a in our country.
#57
My husband and I went to Greece for our babymoon recently. We wanted to do this rail biking tour but it was about 45 minutes from Athens and since we were staying in the city, we did not rent a car. We ended up taking an Uber there which was pretty easy. When we got there and after the Uber drove off, one of the tour guides said to make sure we have a ride back or make sure we get to the train right after due to the limited times it ran. Well, we didn’t have a set ride back and figured we could just walk to a nearby restaurant and get food, then make our way to the train or try calling an Uber.
We pick a restaurant and begin our walk. We felt uneasy with how quiet the town was outside of the tour, there wasn’t a single car that drove by for like 30 minutes. After walking that entire time, we find the restaurant we picked was totally busted and not in service. In fact, that’s how all the restaurants were despite the pictures online and it saying they were open on Google. On top of that, there were stray dogs that started to come out around the area and I began to panic a little. We start walking towards the train and the area became more and more sketchy. More dogs, warehouses, abandoned houses, still barley any cars or people. We decided to get out ASAP and call the walk quits. Meanwhile, I’m looking at anything around me I could possibly climb in the event one of these dogs decided to attack me. Luckily an Uber did find us and picked us up, it was the only one in the area.
WELL, turns out that the walk to the train was considered the outskirts of town in a Romani settlement, known for being very unsafe. We had no idea but felt the danger immediately. Glad we got out of that area safely. Always have a car or ride back to Athens from Megara :).
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