A few months ago, my mom was home alone and heard someone try to open our front door. Like she heard the footsteps on the porch, the screen door open, and the door handle jiggle.

At first she thought it was my dad and waited to hear for his keys but she didn't. She freaked out and kind of froze for a few minutes. When she looked out later, no one was there.

I just get freaked out that someone is going to try that when i'm home by myself. The worst part is, we live out in the country...there are houses nearby (like a regular neighborhood) but it's a really safe area so it's extremely odd that something like that would happen.

I don't like it when someone knocks on my door in the middle of the day, let alone at night! I always look to see if I recognize a car, and there have been times that I've just ignored it. If I see someone I don't know and I'm not expecting anyone, I'm not going to be too receptive to whatever they want, so I'm probably doing them a favor.

Originally Posted by katrines

I have a really creepy story. Last summer, right after I graduated from college, I took a teaching job (just for a few weeks) in my college town. I subletted a basement room from a girl who lived in a house with a bunch of guys. I had a separate entrance and luckily, the little bedroom door locked. But, the guys who lived in the actual house could come down to my area if they wanted to (there was no barrier), but they never did. They seemed like totally nice guys, even though I only bumped into one of them once when he was doing his laundry. However, I was constantly scared because during the time I was living there, there was a rapist on the loose -- he had broken into an apartment and beaten/raped a girl who lived a few blocks away from me. Because of that, I refused to leave my little basement room past dark and always kept the door locked to my bedroom (even during the afternoons!). One night, I kid you not, I woke up to someone JIGGLING MY BEDROOM DOOR HANDLE. I almost passed out, and curled up in a ball in the corner with my cell phone at the ready in case I had to call someone for help (I didn't want to make any noise). Eventually, the jiggling went away. Now, I'm not sure if it was the rapist or just my imagination (I actually KNOW it wasn't my imagination!), but when the rapist was caught, the news stories I read said that he had never forced his way into a building to attack someone, he used to just try door handles until he found an unlocked one! Also -- he ended up living TWO DOORS AWAY FROM ME! I found all of that out a few months after I had moved away for good, when he was caught, and I got chills all up and down my spine. Terrifying!

OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > I live in the south a small Rich Town Where nothing EVERY HAPPENS so am the kind of person who never locks there doors or car CRAZY i know .. my So always says that i have to be careful Rapist and other .. always target college towns - CRAZY OMG ^^^

Several years ago my husband and I had just returned from Asia and were very jetlagged and still awake at 3 AM. I was lounging on the sofa with the cat curled up asleep when the cat suddenly jumped to attention and stared unblinking at the patio door. After five minutes of watching him stare like that I got up and peeked through the closed curtains and saw a man standing at the door trying to open it! We turned off all the lights and tv and called the police while my husband went out the front door to walk around to the back to confront the guy. My husband is highly trained in martial arts, self defense fighting and was completely ready for a fight. I would have preferred him joining me in the closet with the cat whimpering like a baby.
The guy eventually ran off, before DH got there and when the police arrived they did a search through the neighborhood but never found anyone.

Originally Posted by Toto too

I don't like it when someone knocks on my door in the middle of the day, let alone at night! I always look to see if I recognize a car, and there have been times that I've just ignored it. If I see someone I don't know and I'm not expecting anyone, I'm not going to be too receptive to whatever they want, so I'm probably doing them a favor.

I do this too. I am home sick today and there were people walking around ringing bells and knocking on doors which I ignored when they came to my house. I developed the talent to ignore ringing phones and doors in college while studying for exams. I say it's a good one to have, but it drives DH crazy.

My brother and a friend rented my parents house in Philly I was staying with them while in college. My sister was visiting and it was just the two of us in the finished basement. My room was near the front of the house with a window under the enclosed porch. I was asleep and noise woke me up. I thought it was a cat or something but as I listened it almost sounded like someone was upstairs. So in the dark I went upstairs to the porch and saw that the side window was up a little. I closed it and secured it. I turned on the outside light and I saw someone crouched down beside the step. I wish I had some sort of BB gun b/c when he was crouched down he was also at the basement bathroom window. I called the cops, they eventually did a drive by but the person had left. I am just so thankful I was at the house with my sister b/c she could have been there alone.

We live in a rural area quite a ways off the road. It was dark outside. Someone knocked on the side glass door. I told my mom to get the shotgun. I always like to be prepared. They wanted to use the phone. I locked the door, got the phone for them and relocked the door. When he was done, he knocked and handed it back to me. It was a dark walk for him back to the road. I could not even see him walking.

two scary stories:

1. I was about 20 or so and had just moved into my own apartment- ground floor- by myself. Prior to that I had room mates.
I had just gotten home from work at about 3 AM (I worked at a bar) and was getting into bed. It was a cool night so I opened the windows. A few minutes after I had gotten into bed and turned out the lights I heard someone say "You sure are a beautiful f&&k" right ourside my bedroom window. I freaked out and immediatly called the cops, who came right way.. they searched and did not find him but told me that there was a peeper in the nieghborghood who had been doing this for years.

I never slept with the windows open again and bought blackout shades for all of my windows the next day.

2. I was about 24, and living alone in New Orleans, in another ground floor apartment, but this building had a 10 foot high security fence around it (common for NO). It was around five in the afternoon and I was in my apartment watching tv and I kind of nodded off when this huge guy (about 6 feet, 240, maybe) just walked into my apartment- the front door was not locked. (for perspective, I'm about 5'6" and was about 125 at the time) He seemd really dazed... I think he was on something, or maybe really drunk. I jumped out my chair and ran at him pushing as hard as I could. I was able to push him back out the front door (which is why I think he was on something... he showed no resistance at all, and could have easily overpowered me) I locked the door and called the police. They searched, but did not find him.

Moral of these stories? Close your blinds if you sleep with the windows open, don't rent ground floor apartments, and always lock your doors.

I was very lucky both times, nothing happened to me, but it sure could have.

^^ Scary!

OMG some of these are crazy!

I have a couple "windows" stories. One when I was young but I'll relay from my parents' POV cuz I just witnessed it, the other is my parents' story before they had kids.

We used to live in an old style apartment, and our place was on the 3rd floor and had a wraparound balcony. One night my dad was hanging out laundry. He noticed a leg dangling down and ran over to grab it, thinking it was a burglar. There was a muffled scream and sobbing. The person struggled to get away and my dad wouldn't let go and kept pulling. It turns out it was a girl maybe 16-18 y/o living upstairs, her uncle raped her and locked her in the bedroom, and her only chance of escaping was out the window. My parents took her in, called the police, and the uncle was arrested.

The story before my parents had kids, they lived on the 9th floor with a window next to the bed. My mom woke to noises just on the other side of the curtain and the window was open cuz they had no a/c. She freaked and woke my dad. They didn't live in the best part of town, and there was definitely scraping sounds and a big moving shadow through the curtain, so my dad figured the best chance was to not wait for the intruder. He punched through the curtain, and the next thing they heard was a loud "MEOOOWWWWWW" which fell down into the distant. They looked for the cat but couldn't find it.

My parents and I used to live on a ground floor apartment and thank god the doors were always locked and deadbolted. One night my mom and I were home alone and we hear something by the front door. When we went to look we see the door handle jiggling. She went to the kitchen to grab a knife, but the jiggling stopped a bit after. Pretty soon we heard from others that lived in the building that there were a few robberies that night.

This actually happened to my SO's mom but it's pretty freaky so I thought I would share. They live in a house that's at the end of a long wooded driveway with dense forest on both sides. One day they wake up and they find a chicken with it's head cut off in their driveway. The next night, same thing. This went on a few more times but it stopped and they never figured out who it was.

Thankfully no, but when I first bought my townhouse I was a little freaked out about it. I'm in a tri level with the garage on the ground floor, main level with kitchen and living/dining on the next floor, then 3 bedrooms up top. Prior to that I had been in an apartment where the only way in and out of my place was through the front door.

Now, all of a sudden I had a front door, a back slider to the backyard, plus the inside door from my garage which has stairs up to the kitchen. Even though I changed the locks right away when I moved in, I was freaked out that someone, somehow would try to break in and I wouldn't know it right away because I was up on the 3rd floor. I'm used to it now, and thankfully there have been no problems.

ETA: I also always use a wooden dowling in the lower tray of my back slider to the yard plus my front balcony slider. I suppose someone could break the glass if they REALLY wanted to break in, but the dowling would deter someone trying to jack open the door.

One saturday I went out with my girlfriends,dh was home and he heard someone knocking on our window (it was like 2am he was playing WOW).
So he went to get his gun and open the curtains a bit with the gun showing, he said a guy and a girl said "oh **** he has a gun!" and they ran.

Originally Posted by nycgr1

One saturday I went out with my girlfriends,dh was home and he heard someone knocking on our window (it was like 2am he was playing WOW). So he went to get his gun and open the curtains a bit with the gun showing, he said a guy and a girl said "oh **** he has a gun!" and they ran.

What a couple of creeps!

I have a couple of stories, none of which happened to me, but I'll share anyway.

Not scary, but more annoying/funny: My uncle and his family live in a house out in the country. He's a gun collector. Anyhow, one night around midnight he and my aunt hear gun shots going off on their land, as if somebody is hunting on it late at night and trespassing (idiots, apparently). Rather than call the police, my uncle took one of the guns out of the storage cabinet and went and shot a round into the air. I don't know anything about guns, but apparently it was some kind of special high-powered gun that you don't want to mess with. Within seconds of shooting off the round, a jeep literally speeds out of the woods and off their property and hauls butt down the road. I guess they knew he wasn't messing around. I just want to know what kind of people go out into the woods to hunt at night on private property. Stupid...

Scary story: A female friend of my boyfriend lived in a townhouse in decent part of town. She worked as a nurse, so she would get home at odd hours of the night. On this particular weekend both her roommate and the guys next door in the adjacent townhome were out of town, so it was just her. She got in late that night and came through the garage, per usual, but as the garage door was closing a guy in a hood/mask slipped under the door as it was closing and followed her into the house. She sensed something weird as she got into the actual house (no longer in the garage) and turned around to see this masked person reach out and try to grab her. She put up her arms and somehow blocked him from getting a hold of her--quick reflexes and a VERY smart move on her behalf. I forget if she kicked him or what, but she bought herself enough time to run out the back door and down the street. HE CHASED HER AS SHE RAN! That's what I find the most disturbing about the whole thing. She ended up making it to a neighbor's house and when they looked out afterward, he was gone. Later, when the police showed up, they told her that the fact that she initially blocked him saved her life. They said he probably wasn't expecting it. Also, they thought that it was likely that he'd been planning the attack for awhile and had been watching her (the fact that she was all alone, the male neighbors were gone, getting home late from work, etc). And the fact that he chased her meant that it wasn't just some random attack...this crazy guy was after her. They never found him and she moved home to live with her parents in another state after the incident. I would have, too.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, this happened in a fairly safe and decent-sized college town in Nebraska. I'm not about to get paranoid or anything, but it just proves that you're not really safe anywhere.

jeez some of these stories are scary!

i got scared while i was trying to go to sleep last night, i kept expecting to hear someone knock on the front door

this thread just spooked me... i am going to see The Strangers tonight...lol Should I be afraid??