As we move further and further into Spooktober, it’s my great pleasure to give you a list of some truly unbelievable tales that people swear up and down happened to them. Some are scary, some are ridiculous, and all of them are absolutely surprising. They come at us via u/Tiny_Map5886‘s AskRedding query:
“What’s something you can swear you saw but no one is believing you?”
1. Mangy surprise
I’ve shared this on Reddit before, but once I was driving through Utah on a two-lane highway, all alone, in the middle of the day, and I passed by what I thought was a wolf. I wanted to snap a picture to send to my father, as that was his favorite animal. I was looking at it through my rearview mirror, and it looked really mangy and diseased, but was looking right back at me. I watched it lift its front paw off the ground, and it waved at me with a five-fingered, human f***ing hand before placing it back on the ground, once again a paw. I have never, ever gone as far over the speed limit as I did when I sped tf off.
2. Bathroom visit
Not something I saw, something I felt and heard. I was struggling to sleep one night, lying in bed feeling wired and irritable when I felt pressure lift from the bed on my partner’s side. I assumed he’d got up to go to the bathroom (I was facing the opposite way so I didn’t see him do this). A few minutes go by and I hear him come back into the room and feel him get back in bed, nothing strange about that.
Lying there still frustrated, the same thing happens again: a lift of pressure, some rustling sounds like a person trying to navigate a dark room, an absence of sound for a few moments, and then the sensation of weight on the bed again. Still not thinking much of it, because it wasn’t an obvious cause for concern, I continue trying to fall asleep. Then it happens again. And again. And again.
I wasn’t too into the idea of asking him if he was okay as we had a ridiculous argument that night and I was pretty pissed off with him, so I just ignored it. But then…then it sounded like he had got up and was simply pacing around the room clumsily. I could hear things on the shelves being touched and slightly moved and hands gently brushing against walls, and then I felt the bed suddenly dip in a concentrated spot of the mattress as though he had stood on it. This carries on for I don’t know how long: rustling, pressure on the bed and so on until I snap. I sit bolt upright, turn around and say, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” to see my partner waking up from a very deep sleep and looking confused.
I told him what had happened and he said he’d been asleep next to me the whole time, which was pretty obvious to see him in his very sleepy state, plus he would have had mere seconds to jump into bed without me noticing in the time it took me to sit up and turn around. I somehow fell asleep that night feeling confused and as though eyes were on me.
And in a typical cheesy haunted house fashion, I get a call from my mum the next morning telling me my uncle had died the night before.
3. Magic fish
My Betta fish disappeared out of a covered tank. And then reappeared in front of my eyes.
If you can imagine: This tank is clear plastic on all sides, including the bottom. There’s nowhere to hide when it’s empty. The only thing not transparent is the metal lid. Betta fish are known to hide, so I didn’t worry about not seeing him for a couple days, but on day 3 I got worried, so I took the heater and filter out. Checked the inside of the filter. Took the plants out. Took the hides out. No fish.
Nothing in the tank but water and glass rocks now, so I started scooping the rocks out, thinking he may have gotten trapped under there and died. Pretty soon I’m staring at a tank with nothing but water in it. No fish.
I figure there’s no way he’s still alive so I start scooping the water out. It’s about 3/4 full when suddenly my fish does one of those fishy slow-turns in the dead center of the tank. There he was. It wasn’t, like, I turned away and then back and my fish was there. No, I was staring at the tank, and I quite literally saw him swim back into existence. One second he wasn’t there, the next he was.
I moved him to a smaller bowl for a few days to keep an eye on him. Covered the top with perforated plastic wrap to ensure no jumping. He disappeared from the bowl a couple days later and never came back. Have owned several Betta fish, and I can honestly say no other fish has ever dimension hopped out of a tank since.
4. Phantom fire
I saw my uncle fall from the roof as he was escaping a house fire. He was able to get inside the car and take off but not before the house toppled over on top of the car. After a few minutes, he appeared out of the smoke, limping away. I distinctly remember running back to my house (right next door) to tell my mom about what had just happened.
We go outside and nothing. No fire, no smashed car, no house falling over.
I dunno wtf 5-year-old me was smoking but I had the hardest time processing what had just happened or not happened. My mom was so angry with me for coming up with such a awful lie about her little brother.
‘Til this day (27 years old now), I can’t explain what, why, or how I saw what I saw but I very much remember that terrifying feeling I felt during and afterwards.
Mom thinks I must’ve fallen asleep playing outside and woke up from a nightmare and panicked but whatever it was, it feel too real.
5. Lightning strike
I have never mentioned this before to anyone.
Scene: EPCOT in Orlando, on the brick walkway between a walk-thru part with stores and such on either side and the part leading up to The Land.
Date: June 2008. I was with my pregnant wife. Huge storm rolls in, black clouds, about to pour, when there was this unearthly deafening sound and bright light exploded. I opened my eyes and I was standing 30 feet or more away back under the covered walkway, unharmed. My wife said I had been standing right beside her, then I wasn’t. It was too far to have run in the brief second of the explosion (I assume a lightning strike). Swear this happened as well as I could tell it.
6. Hide & seek
When we were ten years old, all of my cousins and siblings were playing hide and seek in the dark in the middle of a park. When someone gets found, you join the seeker to look for people, but you can’t tell them where they are. I was the seeker and I had just found one of my cousins, so we were walking around and looking for the rest. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone that looked exactly like my brother run past us at inhuman speed. I turned to look at my cousin and he had admitted that he saw the same thing. We found my brother later in the round, but he was at the other side of the park. Nobody believes either of us but both of us still remember it.
7. Smiling man
I saw a dude standing next to my truck with an unnaturally wide smile. I was on highway 49 east, right outside Greenwood, MS. I heard hail hit my truck a few times so I pulled over expecting a tornado. I was grabbing my backpack, getting ready to bail out for the ditch. I turn back to the driver-side window to check my mirror and this guy was just standing there. Smiling. It scared me so bad I just slammed the truck in drive and got out of there.
8. Teenage baby
I stayed over a church friend’s house when I was 8ish. He said he had a little sister but my parents and I never saw her at church or anything. My mom said it was probably imaginary.
At night I walked in the wrong room and saw a teenage girl in a crib, dressed like a baby.
I told my mom, I told my friends, I told whomever I could but no one believed me.
9. Door open
A few months ago, I was at work. I worked opening shift (4:30am) that morning and one of my co-workers was late. I heard the door open and I saw a shadow walk towards the door to the back. It stays locked to keep customers out so I opened it, but no one was there. I figured he just went to the bathroom.
Like 20 minutes later, I go to my manager.
Me: Hey, I think [employee] took off. I saw them earlier but they never came in.
Manager: [Employee] is in North Carolina taking care of his family.
Me: …
10. Saw myself
Myself from several feet away. I was very very tired and I was walking up the steps at my house. I remember watching myself from an angle that wouldn’t have been possible. But I remember it clear as day.
11. Couldn’t see it
When I was a kid, between the ages of 4 and 8, I would see a guy in my house. He would stand in the same spot in the same room, looking at me, and my family couldn’t see him. I’d cry and scream and would refuse to go near him, but nobody else ever saw him.
I’m someone who believes in logic and the laws of the universe so this really throws me off, I struggle to believe it myself but I vividly remember this person, this ghost if you wish. Even now, I remember his face. I explained this to someone the other day and I felt so silly, I sounded like I was making it up!
12. Baby memory
I have clear and distinct memories from when I was still in diapers and a crib. No one in my family believed me until I described the EXACT layout of my room at the time, bed and dressers included. We don’t have any photos of this room, so this isn’t a false memory situation like my brother said. I even described a time my mom gave me cough medicine in a Mickey mouse spoon from before I could even talk.
13. Haunted toaster
I was at my boyfriend’s house. We woke up and I made us bagels and cream cheese. I put mine in the toaster and walked his over to him. When I came back, the toaster was propped up on its side, stacked on something else. I certainly didn’t do it nor did I bump it as I walked away. When I left, it was sitting flat on the counter toasting my bagel. I have no explanation for how it happened as he was in the backyard.
14. Wolf watcher
I’m (31F) from Northern Ireland and this happened about ten years ago. As I walked my dog, I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I looked around and quickly noticed a grey wolf slowly walking through the field I was beside, staring right at me with a mangled rabbit in its mouth.
We were both walking in the same general direction. It looked huge, around five feet or so. It stared in such a predatory way I was terrified that it was going to come for us. It was about fiteen meters away with a pretty pathetic fence between us, and we both just stood there frozen for about ten seconds staring at each other.
Eventually, I picked up my (small) dog and backed away while watching it, I didn’t know what the hell to do. When it was nearly out of sight and still hadn’t moved, I turned and ran. I told my dad, who didn’t seem to believe me but said I should call animal welfare.
They didn’t take it seriously at all, I never heard back from them. We don’t have wolves here so I have no idea what the heck happened. I Google it every few years and did read something about people managing to get wolves as pets and then releasing them when they got too big to keep or something, so I wonder if that’s what happened. But I always see a look of worried disbelief when I tell someone!
15. Zebra mystery solved
I live in a rural community in Canada. My sister came to see me once and swore up and down that she saw a zebra grazing in the fields. I made fun of her for a couple of years about how the zebra roam the North Pole and how Santa has zebra instead of reindeer. She was really starting to doubt herself but stuck to her guns.
Well, I was driving one day and lo and behold, a f***ing zebra grazing in the field. Turns out a zoo sometimes lets them roam around there.
When I told my sister, she felt vindicated.
Since this has come up a lot: this was near between Orangeville and Arthur. And was about ten years ago.
16. Surgery while awake
Six years ago, I went through ten surgeries for a badly broken leg. During one of the surgeries early on, I have distinct memories of waking up and hearing, seeing and smelling several minutes of the surgery. I also remember a nurse looking me in the eye and then telling someone I was awake. I then passed back out, presumably due to more anesthesia. No one believes me that this happened. I’m now terribly afraid of surgery and hope I never have to enter another operating room.
17. Air Bud
When I was living with my parents, our small dog jumped straight up onto the kitchen counter. It was super high, but he made it. He only did it once and I witnessed it, but my family calls BS every time I say it really happened.
18. Surprise capybara
A few years back, I saw a capybara in my front yard (in Alabama). NO ONE believed me because by the time I came back with my phone, he was gone.
The best I got was a, “I guess it might have been a capybara,” after a local man was found to have his own exotic animal collection less than three miles away.
Other animals I saw in that yard: an emu and two bison.
I must have lived pretty close to that dude’s land.
19. Covert convoy
Leaving a friend’s house in rural Iowa and taking a back road to my house, a paved road that is called “Old 71” because it used to be the main highway. Nobody drives on Old 71 unless they live in Old 71. Three identical black SUVs with pitch dark-tinted windows, including windshield, pass by me in the oncoming lane. They weren’t speeding. They all had bright yellow license plates that said “Covert.” Nothing in the news the next couple weeks. Still don’t know who they were or what they were up to.
20. Santa in summer
On the bike path a man riding a beach cruiser one-handed, no shirt but wearing a huge sombrero, carrying a fawn cradled in his other arm.