Let's face it – staying at home is equally exciting as going out; you get to enjoy your own company, all cozied up on the sofa while watching your favorite TV show. You're not wasting half of your salary on expensive drinks and are avoiding all those meaningless, drunken conversations, but, according to these Redditors, being alone at home is not always fun and games.

"What is the scariest, strangest, most unexplainable thing that has happened to you while home alone?" – this online user took it to a widely popular subreddit to find out what creepy things have happened to folks while they were all alone. The question has managed to receive nearly 25K upvotes and 8.2K worth of comments and freaky stories. 

More info: Reddit

#1

Years ago when I was 16 my dog passed away. He got cancer around his stomach and we had to put him down. I had this dog since I was 8 so for literally half of my life I lived with him. He was a beagle/basset hound mix and was probably the chillest dog you could ever meet.

Anyways when we had to put him down I was really sad about it and I missed him a lot in the following months (still do). My kitchen had tiled floor and our hallway had hardwood floors, so when he was alive his nails made a very distinct sound on the floors. We also had a small bell tied to his collar for a time so we could hear him if he was getting into stuff.

Well after he passed, when I was home alone I continued to hear the very distinct sound of his nails on the floor and his bell jingling every now and then. At first it really freaked me out but after the first few times I found it sweet that my little guy was still hanging around. It stopped after a few months and I took that as sign my little man had moved on.

Not really scary or unsettling but it’s something I can’t explain. We have no other animals and like I said these noises are very unique. Like I said though, it was nice hearing him around even after he was gone.

I miss ya a love ya Charly.

Image credits: hepatitis-yee

#2

I wasn't alone, but i was alone if you get my drift.

I took care of my mom during her final years with dementia. Every day was hard, but others seemed impossible. On really rough days I'd go into the garage too decompress, smoke pot, cry, rage, scream and sometimes hit trash cans with a baseball bat.

Well, 1 particularly hard day, (my mom had smeered feces all over the house). So, I was in the garage sobbing and mumbling incoherently to myself, when I said, out loud (to my previously deceased father); "Dad, i need help, what do I do?" ...when suddenly the garage door into the house swung open on its own and I went into some kind of trance and was able to clean up the house without having a complete meltdown.

I can't explain it but I'm pretty sure my dad was guiding me through the worst of it all.

Image credits: Relniv80

#3

Back in high school I'd usually be up all hours of the night playing games. I had a large dog at the time that would sleep in my room at night.

It was 2am and I was finally headed to bed but my dog wasn't with me so I ventured out to find him. I made my way across the house to the kitchen/dining room combo. I'm standing in the only door frame that leads to that side of the house. We had an island in the kitchen with a stool that the junk mail was usually kept on. So I walk up, call for my dog, and see him walk from behind the island to behind the dining room table set, knocking all the junk mail down as he did so.

I huff and flip on the light - no dog. I freak out, scramble back across the house, and end up finding him in my parent's room.

I regale the story the next day to my parents and younger sister (who often claimed to see stuff in the house). My sister pipes up and goes "Oh, that's the tall black thing. Yeah, sometimes it likes to crawl around on all fours."

Big nope.

Image credits: xo_Derpasaur_ox

#4

Many years ago--when my now 28 year old daughter was still an infant--me, her, and our dog were at the apartment we were living in at the time. My wife was at work, I was sitting on the couch watching TV, my daughter was asleep on a blanket pallet on the floor, and the dog (a German Shepherd / wolf hybrid mix) was about 10 feet away laying in the doorway between our kitchen and the living room area. At any rate, I was watching whatever it was that I was watching when all of a sudden, Thor (our dog) starts with this low level, guttural growling. I figure that he had heard someone in another apartment or walking by through the parking lot and don't think much of it. As a few seconds pass, I notice that it's getting...LOUDER and I can see out of the corner of my eye that he has lifted his head up off his paws, his ears are perked, and he's looking up at the ceiling over where my daughter was laying. I look up, don't see anything, tell him to knock it off.

Right after I tell him to knock it off, he jumps up, starts circling my sleeping daughter (literally walking around the pallet she's laying on), and growling more and more intensely even stopping once and out right snarling and snapping his teeth...all while staring up at the ceiling. After about 2 minutes of this...and me having no clue on what to do since I can't see anything and I do NOT want to reach for my daughter with him circling her like that...he laid down next to my daughter, rested his head on her back, and stayed there for almost an hour...still intently staring up at the ceiling and occasionally growling.

To this day...I have NO idea what the Hell was going on or what he saw / sensed...but it was extremely creepy to me.

Image credits: Emcee_Such_N_Such

#5

One night I had forgotten to lock my apartment door and woke up in the middle of the night. My bedroom door was about 2 feet from my front door, as you walked into the apartment. First a big dog ran by, then a person. Holy s**t I was so scared and I screeched “Who is it?!?!!” A man said “It’s Doug!” As I was thinking to myself, who the f**k is Doug, he said “oh, s**t”. He turned around to go back out the front door saying “Sorry”. I asked “ Didn’t you have a dog with you?” He said “Oh, yeah. Hey, c’mon!”. He left, his dog ran out after him and I locked my front door.


edit: glad you all thought this was funny, because I did too, once my heart quit trying to beat right out of my chest! The next day the girls at work thought I was crazy for not being upset, but eh, done is done. Peace!

Image credits: scarletohairy

#6

In grade 9 my best friend and I were having a sleepover at my house. My parents and younger brother were visiting family so we were home alone. After it was dark outside we started watching a movie, we were laying on separate couches, watching the TV that was situated next to a door frame that leads to the kitchen, bedrooms and basement. In a matter of seconds, I see a feminine figure standing in the doorway, facing me, and for some reason I instinctively said “don’t leave me!” My friend laying on the other couch, also saw the figure and said to me “don’t worry, he’ll go away in a second” thinking it was my younger brother. The figure just faded away, kind of like mist, into the other room. We looked at each other and realized what had just happened, then quickly turned on all the lights and sat on the same couch. We’re 28 now. Still have absolutely no idea who or what that was or why I said that, but I still think about it often.

Image credits: raviolidotca

#7

About 15 years ago I was trying to sleep when my ex got out of bed to get ready for work.

He would sometimes do a workout before a shower but for some reason he decided to do his workout in the bedroom. I was really tired and tried to keep sleeping. I hadn't opened my eyes yet. But his breathing was getting really heavy and raspy and I was unable to get back to sleep. His breathing was so heavy and wierd i got so mad. I turn over and open my eyes to tell him to shut up only to find nobody in the room. The breathing suddenly stopped and I got a chilling feeling. Then I stepped out to find he had been upstairs in the shower

Image credits: catsandalcohol13

#8

One night I wasn’t feeling very well and the upstairs had a larger bathroom (downstairs was an old half bath and I wanted to leave that for her if my wife needed to use it at night) so I figured I might as well sleep in the guest room. My wife did not have a problem with this as she had work early the next day and I was constantly getting out of bed with food poisoning.
At some point in the night I awoke to the door slowly creak open and a female voice asking if I was feeling alright. I assumed it was my wife and replied “yes honey I’m fine, see you in the morning.” But the door never closed and no footsteps went down the stairs as I would’ve heard them in this 1800’s home original wood floors and stairs.
We were alone in the house that night.

Edit: i asked my wife about it the next morning and she said never came up to check to on me let alone wake up during the night.
I was facing away from the door when it happened and the unexpected silence following the question made me turn over to check. The door was wide open, no lights were on, and no footsteps.

Image credits: ButCaaaaarrll

#9

Not home alone, but upstairs alone. I saw a doppelgänger of my mom a few years back, and I think she heard mine. I was sitting in my bed, and looked up when I heard her coming up the stairs. She walked by my door, looking straight at me with no expression, and walked into her room and closed the door. I’d said hi as she walked but figured whatever, she didn’t hear me or maybe she was getting something from her room.

Then, about 5 seconds later, she yells up the stairs from downstairs and says “did you call me?” and I am not ashamed to say I freaked the f**k out. She came upstairs, looked down the hall and said “did you close my door?” I didn’t, and neither did she; she never closed that door because one of our cats primarily lived in her bedroom and so she always kept the door open so the cat could come and go as she pleased. And it wasn’t just closed as if the wind had shut it, it was fully closed and the windows were shut.

Ma said she had very clearly heard me yell “hey mom, come here” from upstairs. I had done no such thing.

I’m never entirely sure what I believe and what I don’t, but I was totally sober, not tired, and it wasn’t some “movement out of the corner of the eye” thing.

Image credits: blackesthearted

#10

Many years ago, I was 14 or so, my first night alone in the house when my parents were out. Lying on the living room floor reading, my cat sleeping next to me. Suddenly, cat wakes up, stares intently into the dark corner of the room behind me, hair on end, growls and then bolts out of the room and upstairs. I look behind me and see nothing, but follow cat upstairs and hide under the covers. Freaked me out.

Image credits: LairdofWingHaven

#11

I was at home by myself on a call with some friends when all of a sudden my dog begins to bark like crazy, which was odd since it was the middle of the night and he's usually sleep. I go downstairs to check on him and find him barking at our hall closet, terrified I grabbed my bat that I keep in my room just in case and open the door. There was nothing out of usual at first at then I look down and notice a familiar looking object at the bottom of the closet. It was my mom's necklace she had lost when I was 9, (i'm 15 now just to put in perspective how long it's been). I showed it to my mom at breakfast and she was just as shocked as I was. I still have no clue how it got there or how my dog knew it was in there, definitely one of the oddest occurrences of my life.

Image credits: SomeRandomIdiot14

#12

Not really home alone but when I was little I remember as my Dad was taking us to bed, I ran up first to sneak behind my bedroom door. The plan was to jump out and scare my brother before bed (as my bedroom was just opposite the bathroom and he had to walk past it to get to his room).

However, behind the bedroom door was two strange men hiding. One had a beard and long hair the other I don’t clearly remember, but think he was very skinny. The guy with long hair whispered to me to ‘Go away’, so I calmly went away and slept with my dad (mum was working nights and this wasn’t uncommon for me so he never questioned it). I was rightly spooked, and didn’t want to be on my own, but didn’t tell told my dad what I saw as I was petrified inside. Straight up thought I’d been told off by some creepy ghosts.

We were robbed that night. My brother also woke up that night to go to the bathroom and saw the downstairs light on from the staircase. At the time he thought it was our mother, and would normally if he got up early run down and see her. For some reason he didn’t go downstairs that night and instead hopped in bed with me and our dad too.

When my mum came home the downstairs was trashed and she was terrified something happened to us. She ran up stairs in a panic and found us all in bed safe and sound. Home insurance was able to salvage most of the losses, and we got a dog not long after that as a deterrent for thieves which growing up never had another issue again. So I guess not really unexplainable but strange / scary story!

Image credits: CauctusBUTT

#13

I’ve seen figures moving, they look like my dead dog.
Sometimes people go through denial and make up things to comfort themselves but I’m not in denial. I know that I see that old a*s dog walking around and sleeping under beds and pawing the door. I can see her hop off the couch from the corner of my eye. I mentioned it to my mom and she was like “I miss her too bud.”

Image credits: JustRealRealist

#14

Grew up in a haunted house. One time me and my family had come home from being out. Family stayed outside to clean up a bunch of toys and bikes we had left out in the front yard. I went into the house to pee, as I’m peeing I can hear someone like sloshing their hands back and forth in the big box of legos my little brother had in his room. I finish up and I’m like “aren’t you supposed to be outside helping everyone clean” and as I turn into his room I see the box of legos in the corner with the lid on, no one there, still making the sloshing sound. Ran out of there as fast as I could.

Image credits: FlapjacksInProtest

#15

I wasn't home alone but I was awake by myself one Saturday morning in the 80s when I was around 7 or so. I believe my mom was the only one home because my dad went to the lake to go fishing that weekend, and I'm not sure where my older brothers were, maybe they went with him, idk.

Anyways, my mom's sleeping in, and I'm in the living room by myself, watching Saturday morning cartoons and making a fort out of sheets and cushions. Something made me turn around and I saw my dad in his pajamas standing in the hallway entrance with his hands on his hips, looking the mess I was making and shaking his head. He then turned around and walked into my room, which was just off the hallway entrance. Dude. I didn't even look, I just booked it to my parents room and woke my mom up.

I don't remember what happened after that, this was around 35 years ago. And yes, my dad was fine, nothing had happened to him.

Image credits: smriversong

#16

Not me, but my dad and sister.

1. My sister's room shared a wall with the living room and the couch was against this wall. My dad and stepmom would knock on the wall if they needed something. One night, my sister is doing her homework and hears a knock on the wall, so she shouts, "What?" No answer. This repeats several times before my sister gets pissed and storms into the living room shouting, "WHAT?!" The living room was empty as my dad and stepmom had left 30 minutes prior to go on a walk.

2. There was a basement in the house that always made everyone feel uneasy, but it was great for storage. The dogs refused to go down there. My dad was grabbing something from the basement, and while going back up the stairs he had this sudden feeling of dread. The dogs started barking like crazy so my dad started running up the stairs. When he closed the door at the top, the dogs stopped barking and he felt relief.

3. My sister was home alone and was walking down the 40ish foot hallway when she heard footsteps behind her. She looked back to see nothing, but when she started walking again the sounds started again. She began running and the footsteps picked up the pace as well. She ran out of the front door and to a friend's house and refused to be home alone in that house ever again.

Image credits: batkevn

#17

I heard two people talking in the ceiling. We don't have an attic to speak of and the voices weren't upset or whispering. Just talking to each other.

Found out later I have auditory hallucinations when sleep deprived. Yes, it was after I had a baby lol

In case you see this, hi Russel!

Image credits: LetsNotandSayWeDidOk

#18

I very clearly saw a guy walk into my room.

But when I went after him there was nobody there. I checked in the closet, under my bed, everywhere one could hide in my room.

Image credits: HighlyOffensive10

#19

My husband used to leave for work at 4 am. Most days I kept sleeping but one morning I couldn't so I made a nest on the living room floor, right in front of the TV and played oblivion.

After an hour or so of playing, I heard the eeriest music. It was behind me and coming closer and I thought "holy f**k I'm gonna die. Who knew It be just like a movie?"

Before suddenly remembering that my baby sister had left her broken phone at our house. It was her ring tone, steadily getting louder... playing the walking dead theme song (which I don't watch).

Image credits: limastockholm

#20

this happened when I was a kid

I used to sleep with my door closed and I have no
idea what time it was but I had heard my door creak open. When I opened my eyes I could only make out a figure of a strange tall man with a hat and a coat, he just sat on my bed and stared at my door. This went on for a few minutes before he got up and left, I don’t have many memories of my childhood but this one I can relive very well

Image credits: Yuk1yuk11

#21

My sister and I were home alone and we heard someone big running up the stairs. the stairs make lots of noise with slight pressure so when there’s someone big on them you can tell. I went out of my room to check but saw no one anywhere and my sister also came out of her room and she asked if that was me I said no and we both looked around to see if there was anyone but found no one in the whole house. We were confused and called our parents and just waited until they got back and that was that.

Image credits: JtSudbury04

#22

I have aphantasia, which is relevant to the story. I can't visualize things and I have no visual memory. I 'remember' the things I see by having a constant narration in my head and I can remember what I thought.

So, my little brother was always terrified of the basement and would not for the life of him go down there. I was also a bit but older so I had to be braver. I was always the one sent down to get stuff.

My brother and I were talking about the basement one day and I was prying about why he was so scared. He would barricade the door at night and stuff. He told me he sometimes hears things from down there, scratching and weird sounding talking in some language.

I was immediately alarmed and told him someone must be sneaking in through the door down there.

He said what door, there's no door down there. He even brought up that I can never remember anything visual but I argued back that he hasn't even been down there for years!

We argued back and forth. I went downstairs and came back up, proud to declare that there indeed was a door down there.

He got really pale and upset and asked my dad if there was a door in the basement. Dad laughed and said "a door to what? It's underground, of course not."

I'm getting super mad. I know I can't remember things idly but I just checked. Our little argument kept going a bit, me trying to get him to go down with me.

Finally he did. No door. Four concrete walls.

I wailed, "but I've been inside!"

My brother and I ran upstairs and barricaded the door and neither of us would go down again.

Image credits: wylderpixie

#23

I was home alone for a bit and someone knocked on my front door. I went to go check who it was, I was confused because I wasn’t expecting anyone, and then nobody was there so I shut the door and locked it. I turned around and saw these two people with a ladder in my backyard attempting to go through the door to my porch. Thank God I was able to see them through the glass sliding door in my living room or else they might have actually entered my house. I was so scared omg… anyways these people saw me looking at them and they left. In not even 10 minutes a cop car showed up outside of my house on the street and was with these two people. To this day I have no idea what this was bc the cop didn’t talk to me but yeah gave me trauma

Image credits: Adventurous_Drama445

#24

Not home alone but only one in right side of the house. Went to my mom's bathroom to wash my hands and saw a pair of feet behind the half open door. Laughed and said "very funny Ma, I see you", then finished up and left.

Bumped into my mother in the kitchen unpacking, nobody else was in the house. I'm glad whatever was behind the door didn't peek out.

Image credits: SatanWithFur

#25

Years ago a few weeks after I moved into my now current apartment I'm still in, my one cat at the time woke me up in the middle of the night. Not sure why, but I then heard something, so I got up to investigate. Wandered my way down the hall into the kitchen to see that every single cupboard (11 of them) top and bottom, were open. Like wiiiiiide open. Ooookay then, this is fine

I casually closed them and headed back to bed (probably hid under the covers till the morning lol). To this day, 11 years later I still have no idea what happened there but, I'm sure it was the building ghost saying hello and welcoming me to the place.

There's been a couple others things that have happened here and still happen that I cannot explain. But I'm okay with it.

Image credits: dontatmekay

#26

3 weird things: 1. Am legally blind but can see OK with special glasses. Couldn’t find them for awhile after getting friends to help search. They left and I went to rest out of anxiety, nodded off and woke up with the glasses in my hand. 2. Not a sleepwalker but woke up in a pantry closet pulling pajamas and old newspapers out of a small hole in the wall in the back of it (old farmhouse). 3. Was up late wrapping presents on Christmas Eve, not alone in the house but everyone was asleep, and legit heard jingle bells on the roof. No tracks in the snow etc.

#27

When I was younger I used to live in this super old, s***ty house in the middle of the woods. There was a small clearing, with an average sized yard and the rest was thick woods. One night I was walking up to our gate to go inside and I seen a very tall figure looking in my bedroom window. My light was on, which was weird since I hadn't been in there, or turned it on, so I could see the figure with it's face and hands pressed up against my window. Whatever or whoever it was must have heard me because they looked in my direction before booking it to the back of the yard, and presumably into the woods since there was nowhere else to go and the back yard area wasn't fenced in. I never slept in that room again.

Image credits: rhinestone_eyes-

#28

My parents were on a road trip, just left, and I sat down at my desk. I thought "Weekend alone by myself" and a voice yelled into my right ear "NO" so loud it hurt.

Image credits: Th4ab

#29

Was 17 years old left alone from Thursday to Sunday with our family's dog, who was pretty small and starting to have trouble climbing stairs in his old age. I'd be working every morning while my parents were out of town

Came home from my shift on Friday and everything about the kitchen table was a mess. Napkins were taken out of the holder, all of the mail was thrown on the floor, salt and pepper shaker on the other side if the kitchen but together, and one of the chairs pulled far away from the table. Our dog's never done anything like this, and I'd be especially surprised if he was even capable of climbing on top of the table. I reset it all.

Saturday, I come back to find the exact same configuration. Don't have the pictures anymore, but every detail was just as I found it the day before. Pretty much the entire night I'm convinced there's gonna be a ghost coming to get me and I sleep horribly and barely rest for work on Sunday.

I leave for work and make sure the place was orderly when I left, because I knew my parents would be back before I was out of work. When I go on my lunch break I call my mom and ask about all of the details from the passed two days, and she just goes "Yeah, why did you leave such a mess?" she didn't get pictures so I can't verify how similar the mess was, but regardless I can't believe my old dog would have done that, for the details three consecutive days, AND I don't even know if he was strong enough to move the chairs or climb on the table. Only time anything like this ever happened while I was left alone.

Image credits: bubbisha

#30

I got up in the middle of the night to pee and happened to glance out the window to my backyard to see a glowing yellow figure that looked like it was collecting soil samples from my backyard. I absolutely s**t myself and bumped into the sink. The figure stopped what it was doing and looked at me. I bolted back to my room and woke my wife but when we went back it was gone.
Funny thing is I've told this story to other people and the wife of a friend of mine burst into tears and said she had seen the same thing when she was a child but nobody believed her.

People asking for more detail it looked to be about 7ft tall as when it stood up it was well taller than my fence. I couldn't make out any detail because it was glowing so strongly and.my adrenalin was pumping like crazy and i live in very populated suburban Sydney it was also between 2-3am

Also it was through a fly acreen and open window from upstairs bathroom.

I can post a pic from my perspective if people are interested (and i can work out how to post it)

Image credits: Homelander44

#31

I did not sleep more than 2-3 hours a night for 3-4 months, an what happens is, your brain wants it’s REM sleep and you dream while awake. So I was lying in bed reading when I heard what sounded like big bare feet coming up the stairs, I live alone and the doors where locked so I kinda freaked out. And up pups the head of a gray alien looking towards me with malice. I jumped up in my bed, hit my head on the slanted roof and knocked myself out. Still a mark in my roof.

Image credits: Tofflus1

#32

Footsteps on the roof. At my friend's house. And their parent was an international diplomat.

Image credits: ExplosiveDisassembly

#33

I woke up in the middle of the night to someone standing next to my bed. I thought I knew who it was (a friend & this person shared the same physique), but remembered that they don't drive, and I have never given them my address.

I talked to my parents in the morning, but they had never woken up. Besides, this person was rail thin. **Definitely** neither my mom nor dad.

I still don't know 100% of all that happened. The night was a blur. I remember only bits and pieces.

Image credits: BoringNameBoringLife

#34

One night when my parents were out and I was home alone (I was about 11-12 at the time):

The chain broke on the weight for the dong on the grandfather clock, causing it to crash to the bottom of the case.

It "resounded" through the house, as if a break-in were underway. I hid in my room with the door locked until they got home and discovered the source of the noise.

There it was: grandfather's pendulum still swinging, but no dong striking on the hour.

#35

It was just me and my small dog at home. I had started getting ready to go to bed and had my dog in my bedroom ready to sleep and cuddle together. When I was turning off the lights I heard something in the living room so I was frozen because my dog was already in bed. I was in the hallway and was about to turn off the light when I heard a low growl coming from the dark living room. I turned off the lights and booked it to my room.

Image credits: Doyoulikejaaazzzz

#36

I was working on something in the garage at home. We have 4 bikes in there. One of the bike bells rang on its own. A few days later I was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen from where the garbage disposal is located. Suddenly the disposal turned on for a second.