To ask what is the strangest/creepiest thing that has ever happened to you?

[JudgeyHotPants]

I have two strange/creepy unexplained events that stick in my head.

The first happened when I was teenager, my DF ran his business from our family home and we had a phone/fax machine in the living room. Whenever we picked up the phone we could always hear a radio station playing very distantly on the other end. I'll never forget the time I picked up the phone to ring a friend and could hear Penny Lane playing!

The other is slightly more sinister. My DM and I were at home alone one evening, it was summer and still warm and I had the bedroom window open. I can remember hearing a loud crash in the garden, thought maybe the cat had knocked something over and thought little of it. Then my mum suddenly popped her head around the door told me that she was going to bed and that she'd "locked all of the doors". Thought it was an odd thing to say, but thought little of it. That night I was kept awake by the next door neighbours security light going on and off, and when I got up the next morning my DM pointed out that the garden ornaments and solar lights from next to the fence had been smashed.

That's when she told me that she to and heard the crashing sound the night before, and got up to investigate and when she looked through the kitchen window she was convinced she could see a person peering through the window, as as if they were standing next to it with their back against the wall and peeing in from the side, but wasn't sure if she was seeing things or not! She was scared enough to lock all of the doors, but not to ring he police it seems! Still freaks me out now! I'm sure someone was in our garden for whatever reason!

Ops... First post ever and ran out of space
there was no one there.
I always slowed down at that spot after that and always thought of it.
10 years later I crashed my car at that spot. Car flipped and it was awful but I walked out of it without a graze.
A few weeks later a medium told me (I'd ended a relationship and went seeking peace of mind)
She told me I'd had a crash, described it in detail and told me I walked away and I was very lucky. ..I wasn't supposed to.
It's odd I never rush in a car anymore and I'm very grateful.
Oh when my dfil died it was very sudden and my son had a fit, projectile vomited and moaned at the exact time of his accident. ..
He was fine afterwards but screamed every time i tried to take him to the grave and remembers the exact car dfil drove. .. He mentioned it out of blue the other day. He was only a year old when it happened. .. and we never brought that car home.
He talks about fil regularly. ..

This is my ghost story.

So we lived in a large house built around 1900, every other house in the street had been modernised except ours, so it was kind of old fashioned, a bit spooky. Our parents pooh-poohed any talk of ghosts so we kept our stories to ourselves. In the night if we needed the loo, we would run fast down the landing, under the scary Beethoven print my parents had thoughtfully hung up, whizz round the corner, past my parents' freezing black room, to the loo. Or, if there was a howling storm outside, we would pee in the bedroom sink.

One sunny morning in spring, I felt compelled to go into the garden before school. Once out there I wasn't sure what to do with myself so pottered about. Suddenly in front of me was a man. He was tall, very handsome , and he smiled at me. He seemed happy; he was tapping his foot, and he was doing up the top button of his shirt. I watched him for maybe 10 seconds, then swung around to check behind me. When I looked back, he was gone.

Then I went to school. I told no-one about my ghost.

Later, at bedtime, my older sister asked if she could sit with me on my bunk. She told me she had just seen the ghost of a man in my parent's room. I asked her what he was doing. 'Nothing' she said. 'He was just doing up his shirt buttons.'

Oh, and my parent's 'there are no ghosts in this house' line was bollocks. My mother had awoken one night (when dad was 200 miles way with work) to see a man standing at the foot of her bed. My dad, so totally un-woo, also met the spook but can't remember that story just now.

Not me but this happened to my mum and her friend. They were travelling home from London on the train after a shopping a trip and a woman in the same carriage was loudly talking on her mobile phone, telling someone that a well know public figure had died. Both my mum and her friend heard this and when they got back to the station where my dad picked them up they mentioned about to him about this person dying, and my dad was surprised because he'd just watched the 6pm news before leaving to collect them and nothing about this persons death mentioned!

When my mum got home she scoured the news channels and internet and there was nothing at all about it, and indeed this person is still alive now. It was bizarre, and both she and her friend heard it.

I (like a PP) am just addicted to this thread and too am a bit gutted when there are no new stories to read.

I am going to ask my mum if she has any woo stories I can share

I do have one about my gf but need to go and check the story with my dad as I only sketchily remember it...

When my husband was about to deploy to Iraq he joked " don't worry it won't be 6mths I'll be back in 3 I'll end up getting shot"
He was back in 3mths after getting shot.

I am not sure this qualifies as spooky or just sad. When my dad was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer he decided he wanted to come home to die. My mother and I took care of him. He deteriorated pretty quickly and we knew he didnt have long. While he was in the hospital, before we knew he was terminal my niece (who was 5 at the time), made him a picture, the day he came home, because he wasnt too poorly my brother bought my niece to see him and she put the picture she had made on the wall near his bed. A few days before he died he would sit up and start talking to his mum who died many years before I was born. The day before he took the picture down that my niece made him and wrapped it in his blanket. He told us that he and his mum were going on a trip, she was coming back for him soon and he wanted to take it with him. When he had gone back to sleep, my mum was tidying and she put it back on the wall. The next morning he was up and very lucid, if we didnt know otherwise you would swear he was on the mend. I had just started a return to work and was doing a short day. When I left the house he was chatting to his mum again, this was about 09.30. At 10.20 he died.
My mum said that she had gone upstairs to put some laundry away and he was talking to his mum about their trip. While she was upstairs she heard some fidgeting and then quiet, so she went downstairs to see if everything was ok and he had died, but before he did he took the picture down off the wall that my niece made and wrapped it up in the blanket. There was also a clock in a cabinet that my mum and dad had as a wedding gift. It stopped at 10.20.

My father died just over 11 years ago. He never met my husband or obv my 3 yo ds. one day in December 2013 dh was upstairs getting ready for work. I was getting ds ready (well, trying to...). He had one of those v tech toot toot garages with the musical cars. The fire engine was across the other side of the living room and it went off (you have to press the front to set them off). It made me jump. DS said that Grandad was playing. I said "Grandad x (dhs dad), is at home with nanny x". DS said "No. Other Grandad". I said dont be silly if someone was playing with it it would still be going off" and then it went off again. When it had finished DS said "bye grandad, love you", then he looked at me "Grandad gone now" and it didnt go off again.

A few months ago, was putting DS to bed. He has a shelf with his teddy bears on and he chosses one every night to go in his bed. One of these teddies, is a 'Lady' from lady and the tramp, he chose this teddy and got into bed, before I started with his story he held the teddy up and said "the lady give this to me mummy". He has had it since before he was born, it belonged to my grandma, we used to watch that film when she babysat me when I was little, it was her favourite film, I bought it for her when she was in hospital when she was older and when she developed dementia she took it everywhere with her. My mum gave it to me my grandma died, just over a year before DS was born.

Another (sorry I should have put them all in one post), when I was on maternity leave, one night I was struggling to sleep. DH was ill and I had ended up on the couch with DS (he wanted cuddling and it was more comfortable to do it there). When he was asleep I lay him in his moses basket and lay on the couch, struggling to get comfortable again, I then saw what looked like a shadow on the wall and felt one of the sofa cushions move ever so slightly, and suddenly felt much more comfortable and went to sleep. It was almost like being "tucked in".
My last, thats not so much spooky (as its a dream), but so vivid that it stayed with me, clear as day since. It almost felt too real, like the people in it were actually trying to find a way to let me know they are all ok. When I was a child, my mum and dad used to take my brother and I to a christmas party that the landlady of the local pub threw for the children. My uncles and aunties used to take my cousins, and we would all go to the party in an upstairs room while the mums and dads sat and had a drink/gossip/game of cards downstairs. Then we would all get a selection pack of some sort from Santa and go and sit and have a can of pop and a bag of crisps with the grown ups.
As it was a typical pub in the West Midlands, all smoky and blasting out wizzard and slade from a ginormous jukebox in the bar. The pub is now demolished.
Anyway, in this dream, I had bought my son down to visit and take him to this chrtistmas party, but beforehand, we had visited my grandmother (she died before DS was even conceived) and chatted with her for a bit and then explained we had to go as we didn't want to miss the party, she was sad as she said "she never gets to see DS" , but understood, so off we went. We were a little bit late and so the party was about to start, we ran upstairs to the party and I stayed there in the party with DS and my, SIL and nephew. After the party we all went downstairs and my dad and uncles (all died between 11.5 and 5 years ago) were all playing cards, my mum and aunties were all chatting away and my brother and husband were propping up the bar.
The atmosphere was heavy with smoke, and slades 'So here it is Merry Christmas' was blaring out. It was starting to get dark so DH suggested we hit the road. I went over and said goodbye to everyone, lots of hugs and kisses and all my aunties/uncles made a right fuss of DS, and then we left. I woke up then, and it all felt so real, I swear I could even smell the smoke briefly. Its still so real to this day.
I went downstairs and put the radio on and 'So here it is Merry Christmas' came on, I cried like a baby. I still well up when I hear it now.

The "haunted" black and white film is Return to Babylon.
I haven't watched the film, but have seen several websites showing evidence of hauntings, but IMO it's a load of bollocks!
One scene shows a half naked bald man in a garden, whose nose goes long and pointy, but if you watch, there is a tiny patch of light on the screen which the man ends up at, making his nose look pointy. Pure coincidence, nothing spooky.

Some of the others, stretched features, dark eyes, point towards lack of skill with old fashioned equipment rather than anything other worldly, and visions of Christ is simply because of the dramatic contrast you get when filming in black and white, and if you look at stills from action shots, you see strange things anyway which you won't expect to see.

Some really creepy one on here, AngryBeaver's in particular scared the poo out of me, probably because we've just emigrated and are living in an extremely remote area (nearest house several miles away).

I was in two minds about posting this as it scares me to think of now, but here it is. WARNING second story contains mention of rape, possible trigger.
According to my parents I was pretty woo as a small child, I used to frequently ask to visit paces or go for walls and then purposefully lead my parents straight to weird/creepy stuff as if I'd known where it was, things like forest walks to spots off the beaten track where a partially burnt Ouija board was, or weird stuff carved into tree trunks/written on the ground. I don't remember any of this but it used to spook my parents apparently.
Anyway, when I was fifteen my parents lived in a 1950s bungalow in a clearing about 2 acres in size in a forest, I had never like the house much but at the time I was a devoted believer in science and rational explanations for everything, so dismissed the feelings as nonsense.
One evening I was alone in the house as everyone else had gone to visit friends of the family, I had lots of homework so wanted to stay and finish it. I was working through some chemistry problems, completely absorbed in what I was going when a feeling of absolute terror came over me, I had been holding a mug of tea but dropped it and it smashed on the floor. I really did feel my blood run cold, I could feel some sort of presence slowly skirting around the edge of the clearing, trying to get closer. I was frozen in fear, I had the strong feeling that if I kept absolutely still I might go unseen. All of a sudden I felt warmth envelop me and I heard me grandmother's voice (she had died a year previously but she was like a second mum to me) she said "quickly, they're coming, there's no time - go and get the white candles from your mum's dressing table draw and light them in a circle, sit in it and whatever happens do not move until I come back." I didn't even know we had any candles in the house but I ran through to my parent's bedroom and they were in the draw. I got them, then arranged them in a circle on the stone kitchen floor, lit them and sat in it. As soon as I had moved to go and get the candles I felt as if I'd caught something's attention and I felt as if something was trying to get to me, I was sobbing with fear, it was the most horrible feeling. As I was sat in the circle I felt the presence getting closer and closer until it was just outside the house. I heard my grandmother's voice again saying "close your eyes Stars, do NOT open them". The horrible feeling of evil got suddenly much stronger and I had the almost overwhelming temptation to open my eyes, but I resisted and I just sobbed curled into a ball. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that but it felt like an eternity. At last the presence started to recede and after a while I felt warm again and heard my grandmother telling me that it was safe now. At that minute the telephone rang (and make me scream in fear again!) I cautiously crept over and answered it, it was my Aunt calling from France. She worked in a mental hospital (which was in the old Victorian asylum building still) and she was calling from work as she said that one of her patients had started screaming and when she went to see what was wrong the lady told her to " help stars, they're coming for her!". My Aunt was extremely shaken up as she never mentioned anything about family at work and this patient had called me by the very silly and extremely unusual nickname that my cousin (Aunt's daughter used to call me when we were very young. I don't even like thinking about it to this day, I've only ever told my Aunt and DH about it.
Two years later, the same patient started screaming again and told my Aunt that "Stars mustn't walk back tonight, they'll get her". My aunt telephoned the house but my parents were on holiday and I was staying at a friends whose parents were also away so she couldn't get through. We went out for a night of underage drinking but got separated, so I decided to walk back to hers. I got lost on the way though. That was the night I was raped and left for dead.
OK, that's enough, I have more from both myself and DH but need to calm again for a bit. Both stories completely true, and I'm not dismissive of the supernatural anymore

Sorry about types/lack of paragraphs, I was a upset recounting it and didn't think.

Oh Stars, that all sounds dreadful beyond words. Thanks for sharing. I hope it wasn't too upsetting for you ??

These stories are incredible!

On the morning that my Nana died I woke up suddenly with a start at 6am, with a sense of dread. The hospital phoned our home a few minutes later to tell us that she'd died, at exactly 6am. My DB awoke at exactly the same time as I did with exactly the same feeling of dread, but he also said he felt like there was someone in the room with him.

A few hours later I was sitting in the living room alone, feeling sad and I felt a static tingling sensation coming all over me, it was bizarre. I glanced up and briefly saw a glimpse of my Nana looking at me through the window, it was very brief, but I saw enough to realise it was her. She looked much younger though, like she did when I was little. Her hair was darker as it was then, and she was wearing the navy blue coat that she used to wear all the time and had for years. Before she was housebound she used to quite often pop in and visit us, and would always look through the same window first to make sure we were in.

Very rarely post but have spent the last few hours reading these. So I thought I'd add mine.
I was on a school trip in France about 10 years ago with a group of 12-13 year olds (I'm a teacher) we visited a large chateux and in one room were chains and handcuffs where prisoners had been kept. One of the other teachers was taking pictures of the kids with their hands in the cuffs pretending to be prisoners. All good fun until he showed us one of the photos of a boy lets call him Paul. Paul appeared to be see through, in fact you could see the bars on the windows through his body. We joked that he must be a ghost. This was a digital camera and he showed me the photo just after he took it, so hadn't added effects etc. it became a bit of a talking point between staff and students in the trip but was forgotten about.
The trip was in June, that summer holiday the boy Paul was killed in a car accident. Some of the kids in my form mentioned the photo when we returned after the summer, they were quite freaked out - very odd!

Thank you inneeeofsomeclarity it was a long time ago and I'm at peace with that part of my past now, it broke my poor Aunt though, she had an complete nervous breakdown and passed away a couple of years later, it was so so sad.

Okay ... I have one. It's a bit long.

I lived in Norwich for a year as a postgrad student back in the late 90s. My boyfriend and mates still lived in London at the time, so I used to get the National Express to the capital on a regular basis and return to Norwich on the last bus, which usually arrived in Norwich at about 11pm and then walk home -- about a 25 minute walk.

Part of this walk meant that I went up a street that ran behind the back of the old Norwich hospital. On the other side of the road was a very long, high wall and I seem to remember it was the wall for a playground for a old Victorian primary school.

One dark Sunday night, I was doing this walk home at about 11.15pm and got to the corner where I was going to turn up this street. Now I never liked walking up the side of the street where the back of the hospital was because it was very dark and there were lots of shadowy nooks and crannys, so I looked across the road at the high wall, saw there was no-one on that side of the street and I crossed over.

Almost as soon as I got to the other side of the street, I realised there was someone immediately behind me, right by my shoulder. He said something. I was really startled, and turned round. I had my walkman in at the time, so I pulled out my earphones and went: "What?! What?!"

This man was directly behind my back. He was middle-aged with kinda tufty hair, a quite soft-looking face, and he wore a long black wool coat. He seemed flustered and he said: "I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else." I said something like: "Oh, oh right." I put my ear phones back in and stormed up the street. I was really shaken.

When I got back home, I couldn't figure out where the bloke had come from at all. That side of the street was empty when I crossed over, and it was a long, high, solid wall from the bottom of the street to the top.

I moved back to London about six months later, but the incident really bothered me. In fact, about a year later, I actually called Norwich police to report it, but the woman on the other end of the phone probably thought I was a crank.

Then, years later, I saw a picture in the newspaper, and my blood ran cold. I recognised the man in the picture immediately.

I am, to this day, about 98 percent sure that the man behind me on the street that night was Steve Wright, now known as the Suffolk Strangler. It just was.

Though he wasn't supposed to be in the region at the time, he had history there and was eventually imprisoned for the murder of five prostitutes in Ipswich in the mid noughties. He is also thought to be responsible for other disappearances that may date back to the 80s.

I suspect he mistakenly thought I was a sex worker that night. I was walking on a street when it was late and dark, and I was wearing heeled-boots, thick black tights, a short skirt and a big padded jacket. It probably wasn't until he got very close, and I pulled out my earphones and spoke to him that he realised I wasn't. I was also so shaken that I probably sounded very aggressive as well.

Over the last six years, I have wondered about contacting someone about the incident because if it was Wright (and I am virtually certain it was), it means that he was in areas and places at times that the police don't think he was. And I also know there are outstanding disappearances in that area around that time.

Some of these are really creepy! Brrrrr.

Works I would say you have more chance of being taken seriously now than five/ten years ago. Worth calling and having a chat with someone, I think? Even if it is difficult for you, you may end up helping another family put uncertainty behind them.

Works another one that thinks you should log it with police, they may even have a record of you're initial report.

Star glad you've found peace in your life. You're experiences are fascinating and hope you come back to tell us more.

I also have another story, though this is a "ghostly" one.

My aunt owns an old farmhouse in our area. It has been extended over the centuries, but the oldest part of the house dates back to the 16th century.

It's a very odd property. Up until the "incident", we used to go there sometimes for birthdays and Christmasses and I never felt comfortable. The place was cold and imposing, and people's voices always seemed muted in the rooms, which is strange considering that the type and age of the house means that the rooms are fairly small.

Nevertheless, one night, my DPs had a falling out and my DM went up to my aunts to stay. My aunt was staying elsewhere at the time (she was moving out), so the house was empty. I went up to sit with my DM one evening to make sure she was alright.

When I got there, I made coffee and we started talking. But almost from the start, I had a very uncanny feeling. I kept looking over my shoulder because I could kinda feel something behind me, watching.

Of course, after a couple of hours, I needed the loo. There was some reason why I couldn't use the downstairs one, so I had to use the upstairs bathroom. I'd never actually been upstairs in the house before, and as soon as I got to the top of the stairs, all the hairs on my neck stood up.

The sense of an overwhelming presence was potent up there. I nearly bombed back down the stairs, but then I thought "don't be so silly, don't freak your mum out and, besides, you need the loo." So I carried on down the hallway to the bathroom. I switched the light on, and went to the loo, and noticed a pile of papers on the floor. After washing my hands, I went to look at them and on top was a family tree of a family that wasn't ours. I thought that was a bit odd, but went to go downstairs.

I put my hand on the doorknob to turn it and it just came off in my hand, the whole thing -- and the sense of a presence in that bathroom dialled up to a million. I actually started to panic, it was that bad. I tried to put the knob back on to open the door, but the central spindle just wouldn't turn. I took the knob off again and tried to turn the spindle with my fingers; it just wouldn't budge. And the sensation of something in that room was intense and it seemed to be coming closer and closer. I started banging furiously on the door for my mum to come and let me out.

When she did, the presence just disappeared. With the door open, I put the knob back on and the door spindle turned just fine. I told her I had felt very strange in that bathroom and she said that the door had opened just fine for her that day.

A few days later, I carefully asked my cousin about the house and she told me she had never liked living there. She said it was strange and some funny things had happened. She also told me that when they first moved in, a local historian had called my aunt and told her some odd things about the house, that there had been a strange death there back in the 1800s, and to never hold a seance there because something bad had happened at one during WWII. Even more weird was that a relative of an old owner of the house had sent my aunt a family tree of his family -- and I realised it was that I had seen in the bathroom that night.

Being an academic-type, I became rather intrigued and did a bit of research. I discovered it was likely that the house was on a very ancient site indeed and had probably been a farm since the Iron Age due to it lying on a springline on the hill.

Though my aunt still owns the house, no-one lives there. She has tried to rent it out a few times, but it hasn't worked out for various reasons.

I have never been back since, but I swear ... I am not a "woo" person but there is something not right with that house.

Phase and Frizzcat, I nearly emailed a criminology academic that specialises in Wright's cases about it a few years ago, but stopped when I read an article by him about how he gets loads of emails from people who think they have had encounters with serial killers.

In the article, he went on about how most of them couldn't have met the killer because the killer wasn't in the area at the time (he would have filed my experience as being so), and he then went on to suggest that these "near miss" people probably had personality disorders!

I was on holiday with dh in Portugal, and stayed in a hotel. The first night I had the strangest feeling someone was standing by my side of the bed watching me. I opened one eye very slightly and saw a dark shadow.

I sat up and opened my eyes fully and the shadow was gone. I was completely freaked out

Luckily there were no more visitations during that holiday!

My dad just told me of one. When he worked at a stables, they would be sitting in the mess room drinking tea and generally relaxing when suddenly they would hear some one in boots walk up the concrete, walk into the tack room and kick one of the old tin boxes which they kept the brushes in.
It happened all the time. Apparently the first times it was freaky, but once they got used to it, they used to say it was a bit of a chore checking because it interfered with their tea break!
The manor house that the stables were attached to was supposed to be haunted. The lady of the manor used to chain her doors up at night and they would rattle!

Star I am so terribly sorry that happened to you and you are such a strong person to, as u say, have made peace with that part of your life.

I find your stories amazing.

My friend once told me a story about when she was younger and walking home after her night out, she turned to take a shortcut through the cemetery in our village when she said she saw her grandmother appear at the cemetery gates, she didn't say a word just slowly shook her head as if to say no and then disappeared. My friend decided to take the long route home and miss the cemetery. A few days later there were reports of a young woman being attacked in the cemetery that night.

Another time, same friend was washing up, just her and her toddler ds in the house when someone poked her hard in the back, she turned around to see her ds about to jump off a large sideboard unit he had somehow climbed up onto, she caught him just as he jumped. She said it was like something was warning her/making her turn around to save him from a nasty accident.