When something truly strange happens, it tends to stick with you for years. These unusual experiences leave such a lasting impression that they often become stories you share over and over again. In this article, we’ve gathered accounts from people who just couldn’t shake these moments from their minds, long after they happened.

• My son came home with a boy I’d never seen before. They slipped upstairs quickly. I called out to ask who it was, but my son just yelled back, “A friend!” As I approached the room, I overheard the boy say, “Your mom shouldn’t know about this.” Alarmed, I opened the door to find them huddled on the bed with a cardboard box. Inside was a tiny, squirming puppy. They admitted they’d found the puppy abandoned at the park and didn’t know what to do with it. While I was upset they didn’t come to me first, I couldn’t stay mad. Together, we took the puppy to a nearest shelter, and I promised them we’d volunteer there to help.

• When my husband fell seriously ill, life became a nightmare. I was juggling two jobs, caring for him, and looking after our 5-year-old son. With no family of my own, I swallowed my pride and called my mother-in-law for help. She said she’d help out, and I finally felt a flicker of hope. But the next day, she showed up with a van, announcing she was taking my son and all his things to her house. “You’re too busy to take care of him properly,” she said, like it was a done deal. I was stunned. I shut the door in her face, furious that she thought “helping” meant separating me from my child.

• One summer when I was around 13, my mom and I were sitting in the living room talking late at night. For some reason, we looked out the window and saw two people walking past our house. They were about 7 feet tall and wearing silver parkas. It was hot and humid outside. As they passed our house, the pipes in the chimney started shaking violently and didn’t stop until the people were out of sight. There weren’t any pipes in our chimney. It was eerie.
  © rowdymark / Reddit

• I woke up in the middle of the night to someone standing next to my bed. I thought I knew who it was (a friend and this person shared the same physique), but then I remembered that they don’t drive, and I had never given them my address.
  I talked to my parents in the morning, but they had never woken up. Besides, this person was rail thin—definitely neither my mom nor dad.
  I still don’t know 100% of what happened. The night was a blur, and I remember only bits and pieces. © BoringNameBoringLife / Reddit

• Many years ago, when I was about 14, it was my first night alone in the house while my parents were out. I was lying on the living room floor reading, with my cat sleeping next to me. Suddenly, the cat woke up, stared intently into the dark corner of the room behind me, hair on end, growled, and then bolted out of the room and upstairs. I looked behind me and saw nothing, but I followed the cat upstairs and hid under the covers. It freaked me out.
  © LairdofWingHaven / Reddit

• My 5 y.o. son died in 2020. My good friend kept telling me, “You need to move on,” and eventually, I coped. 2 months later, she moved to another state for a new job, it was very sudden. One day, I decided to make a surprise visit. When she saw me, she turned pale. I went in and I almost fainted when I saw my son’s photos covering all her walls. Some of them, I couldn’t even recall sharing with her. Then, to my shock, I found some of his clothes on her sofa, alongside a box containing his shoes and socks. The whole scene felt disturbingly eerie.

  When I asked how she had gotten there, she told me that my husband had given them to her. It’s true my husband and I had decided to pack away my son’s belongings as part of moving forward, but I never imagined he had given them to her. I started shaking.

  I knew she had loved him deeply—she had always longed for a child of her own—but this felt like an unhealthy obsession. Without another word, I grabbed the box and left. That was the last time I ever saw her.

• I bought an electric bike a few days ago. I had the battery plugged into the charger in my room. After leaving my house for a few hours, I returned to find it unplugged and in a completely different spot. I still don’t know how to explain this. © Throwaway17810 / Reddit

• My sister and I were home alone when we heard someone big running up the stairs. The stairs make lots of noise with slight pressure, so when there’s someone big on them, you can tell. I went out of my room to check but saw no one anywhere. My sister also came out of her room and asked if that was me. I said no, and we both looked around to see if there was anyone, but we found no one in the whole house. We were confused, so we called our parents and just waited until they got back, and that was that. © Unknown author / Reddit

• On the morning of my mother’s funeral, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to socialize or thank people for coming. As I lay there, I felt the bed compress as if someone had sat on it. I swear she was telling me one last time to get the fuck up before I was late.
  © s***altyrranasaurus / Reddit

• My dad is one of those completely serious types. I have hardly ever heard him laugh or crack a joke, so you pretty much take what he says seriously. Anyway, we were watching some random TV show, UFO Files or Ancient Aliens, and I asked him if he believed in UFOs or aliens. He proceeded to tell me a story I had never heard him tell before.
  Apparently, when he was a teenager, he and my great-grandmother were on their back porch one evening (in very rural southern Mississippi in the ’70s) and noticed a huge object hovering over the woodline a few hundred yards from the house. Then suddenly, it ascended vertically at an impossible speed. He said he couldn’t explain what it was and hasn’t seen anything like that since.
  © osc43s / Reddit

• Back in high school, my best friend Steve and I were riding our bicycles in the evening. It was dark except for the lamp posts on the street. We had been talking about weird and unexplained experiences when I suddenly said out loud something to the effect of, “…if really weird and unexplained things happen, then one of those lamp posts right there”—while pointing with my finger in a specific direction—”will go out now.” Incredibly, one of the lamp posts did go out, and my friend Steve and I were really scared, so we rode our bicycles as fast as we could back home.
  © dino123 / Reddit

• My family was gone visiting other relatives, and I was holding down the house, feeding the pets, and such while they were away.
  While listening to music on my headset and singing along loudly, I heard someone shout, “Shut up!” I shouted back, “RUDE!”
  It took me about three seconds to realize something was wrong. © rocknin / Reddit

• This happened when I was a kid. I used to sleep with my door closed, and I had no idea what time it was, but I heard my door creak open. When I opened my eyes, I could only make out the figure of a strange tall man with a hat and a coat. He just sat on my bed and stared at my door. This went on for a few minutes before he got up and left. I don’t have many memories of my childhood, but this one I can relive very well. © Yuk1yuk11 / Reddit

• In grade 9, my best friend and I were having a sleepover at my house. My parents and younger brother were visiting family, so we were home alone. After it got dark outside, we started watching a movie while lying on separate couches, facing a TV situated next to a door frame that led to the kitchen, bedrooms, and basement. In a matter of seconds, I saw a feminine figure standing in the doorway, facing me, and for some reason, I instinctively said, “Don’t leave me!” My friend, lying on the other couch, also saw the figure and said to me, “Don’t worry, he’ll go away in a second,” thinking it was my younger brother.

  The figure just faded away, kind of like mist, into the other room. We looked at each other and realized what had just happened, then quickly turned on all the lights and sat on the same couch. We’re 28 now and still have no idea who or what that was or why I said that, but I still think about it often. © raviolidotca / Reddit

Uncovering unsettling truths or hidden secrets can leave a lasting impact, especially when they involve the people we hold closest. The shocking revelations shared in this article have left those who experienced them feeling bewildered and struggling to process the reality of what they’ve learned.