Security cams are a blessing and a curse. They help us keep a constant eye on our property, but because they're always recording, they can also pick up some weird and creepy stuff.
How weird? Well, the r/AskReddit thread, "People with security cameras, what is the creepiest thing you've caught on video?" has some deeply spooky stories. You might want to read this one with a light on.
"My old apartment had incredibly unprofessional repair staff. I'd call them because my AC would be out, and they'd come over while I was at work (rather than at the agreed-upon time while I was home) and they'd use my bathroom, poke around through my stuff, type on my keyboard, [expletive] around with my pets, etc.
"Needless to say, I was pretty livid.
"I setup a camera and caught them, then took the footage to the front office. I got a personal call from the owner of the apartment complex to apologize, and almost the entire repair staff got fired."
"It started out being slightly creepy, but it ended up being really funny. I have external cameras with night vision all around my house. My family and I were on vacation several time zones west of our house. One night, right before I was about to go to bed, I got an alert and logged in to see what was going on. I saw a car pull into my driveway and 4 people get out, acting all sneaky and stealthy. It was well past midnight at my house, and this didn't look good. I called my wife and kids in to watch it. I was preparing to call the police in my home town. We saw them all sneak away and toilet paper a neighbor's house. They then ran back to their car in my driveway and sped off. My family and I laughed so hard."
"I was looking for a lost calf out in the woods one night and found a game camera I didn’t recognize on the property. It got a few pictures of me. It was my boss’s friend and she had forgotten to tell me. My boss had a good laugh when her friend checked his camera and nervously told her there was a guy with a shaggy beard and a handgun wandering around the woods in the middle of the night."
"Guy walked up to my front windows, put his ear against it, then walked away.
I see him around the neighborhood sometimes, not sure what his deal is but he hasn't come to my place again so far."
"So we have two cameras at back of my house. 3 people show up with horse masks on and spent probably 15 mins pretending to be horses. Then left a small bag of meat with flowers in it. My wife was so freaked she didn't sleep for a week."
"I installed some security camera's at my place after my neighbor told me they thought they've been hearing someone walking around my yard at night. I scanned through the footage the very next morning and saw a guy come into frame wearing only boxers and laced up combat boots. He stood by my bedroom window, stared in for about 45 minutes then walked back out of frame. I was able to get a pretty good look at his face, and that's when I realized that I've been sleepwalking."
"Had a Ring doorbell when I lived in South Florida. Kept getting motion notifications one afternoon but couldn’t see anything. Finally saw what it was, a 6 foot gator chilling out in the entrance way. Thankfully he left before I got home."
"I came into open the retail store one morning. Lights were on. Radio was on, and the TV was on. There were beer cans in the bathroom trash and put out smokes on the floor. I went back to watch the security tapes and the manager brought a woman in at midnight and they smoked and drank and then went into the bathroom together and came back out with less clothes on. Needless to say the manager didn't have a job by noon that day."
"My parents live just outside a town of about 400 people, so fairly remote. One morning they woke up and saw an alert from their motion activated camera that is placed to see the area outside their bedroom. I should mention that their bedroom has a sliding glass door with a screen door that they some times leave open on hot nights. The camera footage shows a cougar walk up and stop about 10 feet from that sliding glass door. And the worst part is the footage cuts off before the cougar leaves... crappy cameras."
"Kids are home doing virtual school and one said that they saw a stranger standing in front just staring at the house in the middle of afternoon.
"That night I reviewed the video. The stranger parked his car a few houses down the block then walked through the grass and just stood in front of the house looking at the main entrance for a good 3 minutes. Then he ran back to his car and left."
"Not me, but my mum. We’re renting out this barn house from this couple who are living in Canada for a few years. They have CCTV in the office. One day, she saw a creepy old man who she never met before waving at her through the CCTV. She eventually found out he knew the people we were renting the house from and didn’t realise they moved to Canada... but we were spooked for a while."
"Not creepy, but my dad has caught my mom slipping on ice while taking the garbage can up and down the driveway multiple times. He always emails the clips to me with the subject MOM FAIL."
"Ok so true story... my building doesn’t have cameras in the hallways so I decided to buy ring camera. A few hours after installing someone walks up to one of my neighbors doors. Knocks on the door, no ones answers, they then shove a piece of paper under the door and sets the piece of paper on fire then takes off running."
"Not creepy but actually funny. About a month ago at 2 AM, a hedgehog came and rolled around our yard destroying all the green grass in front of my porch."
"We have Wyze cameras with motion detection. Every now and again I'll get an activity tagged 'Motion' or 'Person' and it's just a 5 second clip of absolutely nothing. Especially weird on a still night."
"I have cameras in my house for my dogs that alert me when they bark and I can send them treats, etc. It basically functions as a security camera. Anyways, we went on a vacation and I warned our dog sitter in advance that we have cameras in common areas of the first floor of our home. One day during my trip (at 3am) I review my dog footage because I get an alert on my phone that my dogs are barking like crazy. I normally wouldn’t creep but I was concerned that maybe there was a fire or break in, or the woman fell, etc. The footage shows the dog sitter (a 70 year old lady) running around the house swearing at my dogs, in underwear only."
"I'm a Property Manager, and one of the communities I worked at had cameras installed. One night, person in all black clothes with their hood up gets let in by a resident. Black clothes goes to elevator, goes up to a specific floor, then to a specific door, and knocks. Resident opens the door, black clothes produces a pistol, and bang shoots him the face, and walks off. Back on elevator, out the same door, never looked up. Creepy AF."
"My ex wife sneaking up to the front door and peeking in the window. At 10pm one night. Right after divorce was final. Probably a full 4 minutes worth, ordered 3 more cameras from Amazon that night."
"A neighbour walking by, which he does every day, and realising the cameras were being installed (CCTV van, etc.).
"Next day, on his walk by, he stands still, and just looks at the camera. Could understand him looking for a few seconds to see how they were wired, what brand, what they might be able to see, etc. but he stood there, just looking at a single camera, for about 14 minutes."
"My stepdad woke up one morning and found a bucket of fried chicken in our driveway. For some reason he didn’t think it was odd at all. I did and checked our camera recordings. Ends up being this lady walked up to my car at like 3am with a bucket. She was obviously homeless and probably on drugs. When the camera light turned on, she yelled, 'I brought you some chicken,' and left the bucket on the ground by my car. To this day I wonder what was up with the chicken lady."
