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15 people share the creepiest things that happened while they were home alone. Lock your doors.

If Kevin McCallister taught us anything, it&#39;s that being Home Alone is an activity only fitting for the brave and ready. All it takes to transform restful alone time into the makings of a horror movie plot is a disconcerting sound or a suspicious shadow through the window, and sadly, those are not as rare as we&#39;d hope they are.Still, there is something perversely comforting about reading other people&#39;s scary stories as a form of vicarious preparation. Maybe, just maybe, if we all watch enough true crime and read enough anecdotes we can innoculate ourselves against danger (or in the very least - get better about spotting red flags).In a recent Reddit thread people shared their scariest home alone stories, and these will have you double checking the padlock every single time.1. SargetheGarbageBarge&#39;s mom thought she was getting targeted by the BTK serial killer. &quot;This happened to my mom: She grew up in Wichita, Kansas while the BTK serial killer was active. The house of one of his first victims was down her block. But one day she was home with her brother, she was upstairs in her room and he was downstairs. Apparently he heard a noise in the backyard moments before the power cut out (this was one of the key things that BTK did before entering the home). She just knew the power went out then heard her brother scream and yelled for her to run away. She hopped out her window and sprinted barefoot to a Pizza Hut a couple blocks away. She called the police who went to the house but didn&rsquo;t find anything and everything turned out fine.&quot; 2. Wendysspicynuggs got a call from inside the house. &quot;I got a phone call asking how my tv was holding up, I thought it was just the company we bought it from checking up on it and doing their normal customer support stuff until I was told exactly what channel I was watching. I asked who it was on the phone and they said &ldquo;don&rsquo;t worry I can see you but you can&rsquo;t see me.&rdquo; I was 9 at the time and my parents were out of town for work so my older sister (17 at the time) got us all to hide in my parents closet with the guns and we called the police. When they arrived they called us to let us know it was them knocking on the door. They found footprints but no person. We installed security cameras not soon after and never had a problem again but it still creeps me out to this day.&quot; 3. sushi-rollin still doesn&#39;t know who made the muddy footprints. &quot;Home alone when I was 10 or 12 somewhere in between there. My parents house is located in the suburbs surrounded by woods and the golf course. It was a stormy night and my parents went out for dinner. I was watching tv in the living room with my dog on my lap when all of the sudden she jumps up and sprints to the front door barking ( she never barks, my dad trained her since she had a very loud annoying bark ). I walk over and turn on the outside light to see nobody.&quot;  &quot;As soon as i did this she sprinted to the back living room by the pool with sliding glass doors and starts barking over there like someone was inside the screened pool area. I run over and turn the pool lights on, empty. I started to get kinda freaked out, she then ran to the garage door barking like she was going to rip someones face off. I grab a knife from the kitchen and open the garage door to hear the rain and see the main garage door wide open.&quot;  &quot;I immediately shut the garage door and slammed the inside door behind me, grabbed my dog and ran into my room locking the door and going into the closet. I waited in there what felt like 3 hrs for my parents to get home. I told them everything and my dad went outside to find what looked like new muddy footprints around the garage and pool area. Nothing else ever came about from it but man I got the chills typing that out. Freaky experience&quot; 4. CastVeil&#39;s neighbor has some weird tendencies. &quot;A man was standing outside on my lawn about six years ago in the middle of the day. Freaked me the feck out. Found out he lives next to my house. Same guy, same place. He knocks on my door and asks me if I&#39;ve seen his cat. I hadn&#39;t and asked what it looked like for future reference. He then looks me in the eyes, dead serious, and says, &quot;I don&#39;t know&quot; and then stares at me in silence for 30 seconds.&quot;  &quot;Last story. After a snowstorm, I went outside and saw bare, human footprints leading from my yard to his house up a hill. This guy is freaky.&quot;  &quot;EDIT: I asked around and it turns out this guy has some sort of mental illness, which does explain his behavior. Thanks to those of you who did reply and suggest different actions and reasons for his behavior, as it is what caused me to ask neighbors questions about this. As far as anyone knows, his intentions are not malicious at all, and he is a kind-hearted man.&quot; 5. Queenofwands78&#39;s dog was a life saver. &quot;My dog was very restless. But I figured she just wanted to go outside. As we get closer to the door she begins to growl and her hackles raised. Idiot me still opened the door. Hello masked stranger. I lucked out the guy took of running.&quot; 6. bornwithatail saw a cigarette and knew something was up. &quot;I got home late one night. It was hot so the first thing I did was open the back door to let the breeze through. In my dark backyard I saw the glow of a cigarette.&quot;  &quot;Before I could react, I saw the cigarette thrown to the floor and heard someone clamber over my back fence and run away down the alley.&quot; 7. lizerpetty&#39;s neighbor gave them a severe fright. &quot;When I was about 7, I was left home alone while my mom went on an errand. (It was a different time then) She told me to not answer the phone or the door. About an hour goes by and the phone rings. Then it stops, then it rings, then again about four times. I was determined not to answer it. Then the doorbell rings. Then knocking, then ringing and knocking. I was panicking.&quot;  &quot;So I crawl on the floor to stealthily look out the side windows to see who it is. It&rsquo;s my neighbor. I opened the door and he said I needed to come with him to play at his house. I was like, but I have to stay here. He told me my mom said I needed to go with him. So I went and watched tv at his house for a few hours until my dad came and got me. Turns out my mom got into a terrible car wreck when she was out. She got 40 staples in the back of her head and messed up her knee.&quot;  &quot;In the mid &lsquo;90s I was home alone, laying on the couch with one leg propped up on the top. Watching tv. All of a sudden I could feel my thigh shaking vigorously. Then the windows were rattling very loud. I freaked out thinking something from the near by military base was crashing or something. I went out side, I could see leaves falling I could still feel my body shaking and was still panicking and then it just stopped. It was an earthquake. 4.7, but still super creepy.&quot; 8. AlienMustBeFree heard their neighbors&#39; last screams. &quot;My neighbors were screaming on each other, and after 15 minutes of screaming and talking i heard a shot. then another shot. in that day, man killed his wife and himself. sry for my English.&quot; 9. NotANaziOrCommie has a ghost cat. &quot;We all know the &quot;cats at 3 am&quot; meme where your cat starts running around the house and making a huge ruckus in the middle of the night for no reason whatsoever. Yeah. All cats do that. No big deal.&quot;  &quot;Well, one night my cat was doing that and since it was pretty common I just ignored it. Cats do it and its normal. I was downstairs and not asleep yet, and my cat was upstairs. It kept going for a little while but I paid no attention to it until I heard glass shatter. I went upstairs to check on my cat and see what broke.&quot;  &quot;My cat was sound asleep. Nothing was broken. It literally wasn&#39;t 30 seconds after I heard something break that I stood up and went upstairs, and my cat was sleeping like a baby. When I went to go pick her up she did that stretch-and-yawn thing that cats do after waking up from a long nap, and she had obviously been asleep for quite some time. I never found any broken glass. Weird shit.&quot; 10. bool1n&#39;s &quot;friends&quot; pulled a horrifying prank. &quot;I was living with my parents, but they were out of town for a couple of nights. I was sitting at my computer with my headphones on playing video games at maybe 1-2 in the morning. Suddenly I feel my phone vibrating. I look down and see that someone new has added me on Snapchat and out of curiosity I accept.&quot;   &quot;I continue playing my game, and when it&#39;s done I look at my phone again to see if the person has messaged me, which they had. So I open up the Snapchat and to my extreme horror I see that it&#39;s a photo of me sitting at my computer, playing videogames. Taken from a good bit behind me with zoom. The photo had been taken maybe just a few minutes before while I was still in the game. There was no caption, no text, no nothing. I immediately go into panic mode and think I&#39;m going to be murdered any second.&quot;  &quot;Now, all the lights were off in the house, so I couldn&#39;t see outside of my room because it was pitch black, but the light switch for the hallway is just outside of my room. I sneak out and flick it on but don&#39;t see anyone. I slowly walk towards the kitchen to turn those lights on as well, and to grab a knife. As soon as I turn on the lights I hear someone literally stomping up the stairs from the first floor. Very slowly, but very loud.And the lights on the first floor were all off, so it was pitch black down there as well. At that point I just thought &quot;fuck it&quot; and ran outside.&quot;  &quot;Outside I see two of my mates, filming me and laughing their asses off. Turns out that when they had been at my place earlier during the day they had devised a plan to prank the shit out of me, and stolen the extra key we kept at home. So two of the guys had gone in through the door on the bottom floor, and the other two were waiting outside to film my reaction when/if I ran out. Pretty anticlimactic ending to the story. But still, it scared the everloving shit out of me.&quot; 11. sentientanus had a stalker bully. &quot;This one kid I went to school with would wait until my single mother went to work, and he would call my house over and over again and also come over and knock on the front door and then go knock on the backdoor when I didn&rsquo;t answer. He also followed me to and from school until his parents took his car away, so he just walked behind me instead. I am honestly still traumatized from these experiences.&quot;  &quot;Edit: He would also rev his engine at me when he still drove by daily. I think he was just a predator because he also grabbed my ass in the 5th grade in my own home with my parents home, and he also once offered me a ride home, and after I got in he started speeding and wouldn&rsquo;t let me out, so I jumped out at a stop sign. One time he grabbed my hand and put it on his erect boner through his pants. I was maybe in the 7th grade at this time. He also asked me why over and over again if I said no to him and would whisper insult at me in class until I asked the school counselor for help, but I didn&rsquo;t really tell them everything because I was scared to get in trouble for some reason.&quot;  &quot;I grew up in a small town where I was seen as an outcast and I thought I though that it was normal at the time and that I deserved it for some reason. I never told the police or anyone about all of it, but I really wish I had. He was a few years older than me but in the same classes in school because he was held back. My parents were too busy dealing with their divorce at the time to notice, and I was too ashamed to tell them. He was also manipulative as hell, so I was afraid he would lie and say it never happened for something. Last fall I started a job and discovered I work with his wife who he married just after she got pregnant. Life is fucking shitty and weird.&quot; 12. shieldtoadinquisitor got sleep paralysis at the worst possible time. &quot;I was staying at my parents&rsquo; place, sleeping in their bed while they were away, when suddenly I wake up paralyzed while I first heard then saw someone sneaking around (the bedroom door was open). The person&mdash;wearing dark clothes, face obscured&mdash;eventually came into the room, sat on the bed, and leaned closer, closer, closer.&quot;  &quot;When I was finally able to break the sleep paralysis the first thing I did was make sure the front door was locked. It was not.&quot; 13. rarestereocats had a terrifying bonding moment with their pets. &quot;My family went out grocery shopping once when I was a teenager, so I thought it&#39;d be the perfect time to get some dishes cleaned in peace. After a few minutes, I heard what sounded like somebody trying to talk to me, but I didn&#39;t think much of it. I lived in the city so my neighbors were close by and always being loud as shit, so I figured it was them. But then I hear what sounds like somebody&#39;s death rattle right by my ear. I don&#39;t know how to describe the sound all that well, but it was really disgusting and strangled, like somebody was choking to death.&quot;  &quot;I freak out, immediately turn around, and there&#39;s nothing in the kitchen with me. Somehow that wasn&#39;t the strangest part because right after, my cats all rush into the basement. They definitely looked scared and it wasn&#39;t often they ran from anything unless people were over. That leaves me and my dog to patrol the house, so I grabbed a knife and looked the place over top to bottom. Even checked the creepy ass attic attached to my mom&#39;s bedroom. There wasn&#39;t anybody else there. Not even a sign of somebody messing around inside or outside.&quot;  &quot;So I did the most reasonable thing and scurried into the basement with my pets and cried because I was scared. :&#39;)&quot; 14. LarsThorwald saved their maintenance man&#39;s life. &quot;I lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a modern building on the 5th floor. The layout is this: You come in, and there is a very small foyer/hallway area. To the left is the kitchen, to the right a bathroom and bedroom, straight ahead is the living room area.&quot;  &quot;I came home from work one night after picking up some Burger King. Got the mail downstairs, went to my apartment, opened my door, and walked to the living room area while sort of looking at the mail in my right hand. Plopped down on the couch, turned on the television, spread out the Burger King and started chowing while watching some show.&quot;  &quot;When if finished dinner I watched TV a bit more and then went to throw out the wrappers and bag in the kitchen trash. When I stood up to go to the kitchen, there were two feet sticking out of my kitchen doorway into the hall/foyer. As if the rest of the person it was attached to was laying on its back on my kitchen floor. Human legs.&quot;  &quot;I froze. I can&rsquo;t explain the feeling of that kind of terror, but I absolutely froze. I didn&rsquo;t move at all and only when I realized I wasn&rsquo;t breathing did I have to force myself to do it. I stood there for a couple of minutes, frozen, staring at those feet. Black shoes, black socks, and a little ankle showing beneath green pants. There was a dead body in my kitchen, and it&rsquo;s legs were sticking out a little bit into my hall.&quot;  &quot;Who knows how long it took me to inch toward the kitchen. At some point I yelled, &ldquo;Hey!&rdquo; And the legs did not move. Closer and closer, inch by inch. When I got close enough I leaned over to look in my kitchen. It was maintenance worker from the apartment complex. I yelled &ldquo;Hey!&rdquo; again, but then went to the kitchen to check him. He was alive. I called the front desk and they called 911.&quot;  &quot;The EMTs got there and took him. I was told later that he had diabetes and had &ldquo;diabetic shock&rdquo; and was borderline comatose when they took him to the hospital. (I don&rsquo;t know anything, really, about diabetes, so there&rsquo;s probably a different medical term for it). I was also told he was going to be fine. He apparently came back to work but I never saw him again.&quot; 15. Cieben was lucky the cops got there in time. &quot;Home alone at about 12 years old. Watching a movie on my laptop when suddenly the back door slammed shut. I had locked it so I knew something wasn&#39;t right. I got up with a metal baseball bat. Then the front door, which I had locked, slammed shut as well. Locked the back door and went to check out the front door. Locked the front door and heard a knocking at the back door. I ran into my room, called the police and hid until they arrived. The knocking was continuous for about 3 minutes, non stop, until I heard sirens. They had a look at our surveillance video. It showed the doors opening on their own and no one at the back door when I heard knocking. Now there&#39;s two deadbolts on both doors.&quot; 

If Kevin McCallister taught us anything, it's that being Home Alone is an activity only fitting for the brave and ready.