Security cameras catch everything that we may have missed, which is great because a lot of interesting things often happen when we aren't paying attention. From strangers behaving creepily to shocking offenses committed in one's own neighborhood, here are some of the craziest things that were seen on captured footage:
1. Staring Contest
A neighbor was walking by, which he does every day, and he realized that cameras were being installed at my place. The next day, on his walk by, he did the most peculiar thing—he stood still and just looked at the camera. I could understand him looking for a few seconds to see how they were wired, what brand they were, and what they might be able to see, etc...
But he just stood there, looking at a single camera for about 14 minutes.
2. Tree Hugger
At around 2 am on a weekend, there was a random dude walking down the street with no shirt on, systematically going to all the trees along the road and hugging them passionately. Before a random motorist caught his attention, that is. Shirtless guy charges out onto the street in front of the car, causing the driver to slam on his brakes. Then it got so much weirder.
He then proceeded to drop to all fours and charge the vehicle. The terrified motorist throws their car into reverse, turns completely around, and speeds off. Shirtless guy continues to hug trees. At that point I called the authorities.
3. A Case Of The Ex
My ex-wife snuck up to my front door and peeked through the window...at 10 pm one night. But what made it extra creepy was that it happened right after the divorce was final. I had already established in my mind that I was no longer going to have anything to do with her, so it startled me to see her. Probably a full four minutes' worth of footage was captured.
She was definitely up to no good, so I ordered three more cameras from Amazon that night.
4. Whatever Floats Your Boat
There were two people in an elevator. The doors close and...BANG. They are all over each other on the ride down. Hands like octopus tentacles. Arms bending ways that I didn't think were possible. Clothes and hair flying. Then…BING. They quickly straightened up. Hair fixed, sweat wiped, clothes straightened. Walked out calmly and left the club.
I then spied them getting it on in the bushes on camera in the car park, while he was wearing her bra. He also had her panties on his head.
5. Step Into My Office
At work, the IT guy reviews our restaurant security videos. One day, he called me and told me to open his email with my office door closed. The first part of the video showed the restaurant manager opening up the restaurant after hours (at around 1 am) to let a woman in. Fine, nothing wrong with that. But the next clip made my jaw drop.
They were totally going at it in the manager's office while drinking straight out the bottles from the cabinet. Then, they started arguing and the manager dragged the woman down the stairs, throwing her out of the restaurant. The manager was obviously fired. The woman later claimed the manager had taken advantage of her.
IT turned over unredacted and unedited to the authorities and I don't recall if the charges against the manager were upheld.
6. Who Watches The Watchmen?
Back when I was 19, I had a night job in a gas station AND an evening job at a supermarket. I'd work from around 1 pm until 7 am, go home and sleep, repeat. One night, I was working at the gas station at around 2 in the morning. My feet were kicked up just below the counter, and I was reading a book and eating some chips.
Out of nowhere, I noticed a little red blinking light in a van across the street. I knew exactly what it was, and I hated it. The regional manager for this local gas station chain was some sort of a lunatic dragon. I knew it was her not only checking up on me, but freaking recording me, too. I decided that I was quitting in that moment.
The two paychecks were nice, but the pace of two full-time jobs was bad enough without this additional insult. So I decided it was time to put on a show. In the back room, we had a tiny broom, almost like a toy broom. I'm not sure why we had it. I guess for clean up jobs that didn't warrant a full sized broom? Anyway, I grabbed it.
It became my microphone, my guitar, my dance partner, my lover. I went out into the pump area. All of the halogen lamps in the "hood" over the pumps were blazing at 2 am. It was like a stage. The floor of the pump area was concrete, with many seams. In all of the seams were hundreds of cigarette butts. It was time to clean.
I swept those butts so hard, with wide arcs of my arms and that tiny broom, that they flew several feet in every direction. I heard the music to Footloose in my head. I heard Michael Jackson. I heard Daft Punk. I danced, I dove, I spun. I caressed the broom, I sang into the broom, I dipped the broom, I twirled the broom. I'd have made jazz hands, but my hands were full.
Up on my toes, twirling and spinning, singing silently into the broom and making a quiet show for the voyeuristic witch across the street, I worked myself into a sweat over the next two hours. Until, that is, she and my creepy store manager finally had enough and came across the street to "inform" me that they'd been taping. I took a bow. I told the witch I quit.
7. Guilt Trip
I work surveillance at a casino. Several years ago, when tokens were still used in the casinos, we received a call for a possible token theft. While one of my coworkers was reviewing the coverage we had, we overheard a radio call for a guest outside the exit. I pulled up the coverage to watch the EMTs perform CPR on him and I noticed a spilled bucket of tokens around him. It was not unusual for a guest to take tokens home and bring them back another day.
Well, my coworker completed the review for the theft and said, "Okay, we're looking for a black male wearing a red shirt and black pants." That’s when I put it all together. I took the camera I was using, put it on his monitor, and said, "You mean this guy?" It was the same person. Further review showed that he took the tokens and immediately walked to the exit.
When he was about 20 feet from the exit, one of our security officers exited right behind him, simply to walk outside. He had NO CLUE the man in front of him had just stolen over $100 in tokens. Our only assumption then was that the man thought the officer was coming toward him and had a heart attack.
Pxfuel
8. Right Place, Right Time
I work surveillance at a casino. Several years ago, when tokens were still used in the casinos, we received a call for a possible token theft. While one of my co-workers was reviewing the footage on our cameras, we overheard a radio call for a guest down outside the exit. I pulled up the camera to watch the EMTs perform CPR on him. Then I noticed a strange detail.
I saw a spilled bucket of tokens around him. Still, it's not unusual for a guest to take tokens home and bring them back another day. Well, my co-worker completed the review for the theft and said, "Okay, we're looking for a Black male wearing a red shirt and black pants." I took the camera I was using, put it on his monitor, and said, "You mean this guy?"
It was the same person. Further review showed that he took the tokens and immediately walked to the exit. When he was about 20 feet from the exit, one of our Security Officers exited right behind him, simply to walk outside—he had NO CLUE the man in front of him had just taken over $1000 in tokens. Our only assumption then was the man thought the officer was coming toward him and had a heart attack.
9. She's Into Self-Serve
A bartender was accused of getting tipsy on the job. I happened to walk into the office while a manager was watching the security footage. You could see the bartender do several shots with customers and by herself. A regular customer was watching her nervously, trying to tell her to stop. Her response was appalling—she just twirled her hair around in the most disrespectful way, then sat at the guy's table where she snuggled against him and kissed him on the neck.
He was not her boyfriend, by the way. Later on, she disappeared outside for like 10 minutes. Oddly enough, she was actually the bar manager and she did make a lot of money. She got fired.
10. A Gambling Man
A colleague of mine was just telling me about his previous workplaces when this tale came up. Their office had a covered walkway running all the way around the floor, so on a quiet shift they decided to have an office chair rally. So the four of them scoot off on their office chairs as fast as they can, down one side of the walkway, round the corner at top speed, round the block and all the way back.
As they head back, they find a security guard at their desk, arms folded, looking quite grumpy. My friend starts to apologise to the security guard for being silly, and the guard replies, "No worries, I had a fiver on the big guy."
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11. Historic Haunts
I worked in one of the oldest buildings in my college town. It was once a Wild West saloon where two people were documented to have lost their lives in a shootout when the state was still a territory. In the 20s, it served as someone’s house, where the youngest daughter was documented to have died there in childhood. When I got hired on, even the owners talked about it being haunted.
I’ve never truly “seen” a ghost or had an encounter, but something about the building, particularly the office to the back and definitely the dirt basement, did not feel right to me at all. Not malevolent, but always “off.” During my first closing shift after I get promoted to the keyholder, I was helping a new girl who had really taken the whole ghost spiel she got a few days prior to heart.
This particular store ranged from small little treasures that were almost too easy not to shoplift to a few items that cost five times the going rate for tuition at the local college. Naturally, the owners had 15 cameras installed that played on a live feed in the office and in the storefront. I was counting the drawer while she was anxiously watching the security camera, just waiting to see something crazy.
All of a sudden, she let out a bloodcurdling SCREAM. She called me over to the camera feed, and there it was—right on the top of the feed, there was what looked like a figure in a white, boxy nightgown-type dress. We were both terrified, but we couldn’t leave as there was still a bunch of stuff to get done. So we just watched it, stunned as it appeared to sway.
Then, a huge spider obscured the view of the figure...Yup, we were scared to tears by a freaking spider web that the AC blew into view of the camera.
12. A Compromising Position
I've caught people getting it on numerous times. I worked for about three years in security in a variety of different settings, but mostly office buildings. I've seen people blatantly going at it in lobbies, bushes, elevators, freight elevators, and even in their offices. I was trained that if you encountered people in this position, you were supposed to approach them and first ask them if everything was OK.
We were never to make the assumption that the act was consensual. The question would usually prompt the couple to quickly gather their stuff and exit the premises. But my strangest find was a doozy. There were two people in Halloween costumes going at it in a parking garage. Both of them were extraordinarily intoxicated.
The girl ran off while the dude struggled to stand and eventually passed out. I had to flip him onto his side in case he started puking. When the authorities arrived, he was nekkid from the waist down, drooling and groaning and dressed like a clown.
13. Fly On The Wall
I remember closing the store one night. I was alone, which was against policy. I had sent my colleague home so she could catch the train (a customer had taken ages to leave). There were two monitors in the office: one with the security feed and another one that I was closing the last programs on. Out of the corner of my eye, I sensed some movement on one of the cameras pointed at the entrance of the store.
I looked, but there was nothing there. I was super creeped out at that point. It didn't take much to put me on edge since I was alone, and it didn't help that we'd all been joking that the store is haunted. I dismissed the thought when I didn't see anything and continued what I was doing. After finishing, I looked one last time at the security feed and I just about jumped. There was a massive black shadow filling the whole screen!
It turned out to be a stupid fly. It was fine.
Wikimedia Commons, Alexey Goral
14. Breakfast Of Champions
My boss insists that any time a customer is hurt from a trip, a slip, a fall, or anything like that, that we be sure to save the file for him to review in the morning. At first, I thought this was to avoid lawsuits or something like that. The real reason is even better. He reviews the tapes, then he proceeds to laugh his butt off at them. That's how he likes to start his mornings.
15. The Chicken Lady
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 checked our camera recordings and it ended up being this lady who walked up to my car at like 3 am with a bucket. She was obviously unwell and probably on something. When the camera light turned on, she yelled, "I brought you some chicken and left the bucket on the ground!"
To this day, I wonder what was up with the chicken lady.
16. More Than What You Bargained For
I worked in a college radio station, and we had theft issues. People would just take CDs, vinyl, or whatever took their fancy. Most times they were reasonably unsupervised, so they could take it and it would be a while before anyone noticed. So we set up a camera. Real, but not connected to anything. Our engineer was a security guy in his spare time, and he gave us a fried camera to use.
The thefts drop off, but it becomes known that the camera is fake, and they go back up again. So we replaced the broken camera with a working camera, and attached it to a recording setup. That's when we made a horrific discovery. At the end of the first week we reviewed the tapes and learned that about 80% of the night-time DJs used the studio as a convenient place to get intimate.
The chair where you sat? Yea, they were on it. The floor where you sorted your music? Yep. The countertop on which you leaned, where you set your chips, where you'd occasionally rest your face a long, late-night shift? They were on it. Sterilization was too good for that place. We had a second board, and that night we bought some new sound gear.
No one wanted to touch anything ever again.
17. A Ben And Jerry's Adventure
I went with some friends to a club in a big shopping center. The club was part of the center, but the door to it was outside and you couldn't access the rest of the mall at all during the night. Well, after some table dancing, one of my mates was desperately looking for the toilet. He went through a door. Then another door. Then another one. And somehow, he ended up inside the mall.
Unsure of what to do, he walked around and found an unlocked door which he pushed through. He then found a freezer. Just when he was about to take the leak inside, he opened it and...JACKPOT. Dozens and dozens and dozens of Ben and Jerrys. He immediately attacked the chunky monkeys, brownies, and phish foods, gorging himself until he realized that he was still locked out.
Picking up a stock of ice cream, he kicked a door open and found a girl that worked at the club. Covered in ice cream after eating it all with his hands, he asks her to let him back into the nightclub. She obliged and ice creams were had by all. The whole place was covered in security cameras, and we always wondered what his little Ben and Jerry's adventure must have looked like to anyone who happened to stumble over the tape.
18. A Walk On The Wild Side
I work in a somewhat shady part of town that is notorious for its rampant substance use. One night after work, my boss pulls me into his office saying, "Man, you've got to see this!" He fast forwards around a bit on the security footage, until a fairly disheveled fellow comes on screen, sauntering down the street at around 10 pm.
He’s clearly out of it. He stops in front of a potted shrub, and I'm fairly certain he's going to puke into it, but...Nope! He dives into the shrub and pops out, banging his chest and making disturbingly accurate ape noises. He then proceeds to do this for several hours. Whenever pedestrians would pass by, he would leap out of the shrub and chase them down the street, still banging his chest and howling at them.
After the intruders were driven off his turf, he would return to his ape-lair and triumphantly cry out to his invisible jungle companions, asserting his obvious dominance. Despite harassing several bystanders, the authorities were never called. After maybe four or five hours of this monkey business, the man calmly steps out of the plant and walks off camera.
19. Just His Luck
During my senior year of high school, one of my friends saw a freshman struggling to get something out of the vending machine. Being the heroic senior that he was, he walked up, pulled the vending machine back a bit, and let it fall back. The entire front glass front shattered at this point. He reached in, picked up the bag of chips, and handed it to the freshman with an absolute poker face.
He knew there was a security camera on the vending machine, so he went straight to the Dean of Students' office and they ended up watching the video. The Dean was usually kind of a jerk, but he wasn't even mad. He just laughed out loud and said, "Haha! You actually gave him what he paid for!"
20. In The Zone
There were many security cameras at my former employer’s. One night it's empty and boring, and you sort of get numb after a while and forget about all those cameras hanging from the ceiling. I’ve seen it happen so many times. So one night, this girl who worked there is walking towards the bathroom and stops in the entryway just past the security gates.
She then picks a big, long, gooey booger out of her nose and slurps it up. The manager reviewing the tapes, instead of chuckling and keeping it to himself, chuckles and shows the store manager and whoever else was in the building at the time. So by now, who even knows how many people have seen this embarrassing thing...
A few days later, there is a bag of candy to share and the manager comments to the store manager, “She doesn't seem like the kind of girl to eat sweets,” all while the girl is standing right there! Sometimes you just zone out, you know? But here’s the real twist. That girl was me, and I don’t think I’ll ever live it down in my own mind.
21. Canine Cunning
One time, my roommates set up a webcam in the living room which was motion activated because we had four dogs in the house. Three of the dogs were pretty average in intelligence, but one of them was too smart for her own good. Upon returning to the apartment that day, we checked the carpet and there was what appeared to be a little chocolate smudge on the carpet. Of course, we checked the video, and the culprit ended up being the smart dog.
She did her business, and right as she was about to walk away, she stopped, turned her head to look directly at the camera, and after a moment of realization, she gobbled up the evidence.
22. Madwoman Or Genius?
In the middle of the summer, a large woman was walking through the frozen food section when she passed a waist level open-top freezer. She stopped, hitched up her dress, and sat her panty-less butt down on some TV dinners to cool herself off.
23. Act Of Kindness
I caught something on video that ended up being surprisingly heartwarming. I have a brick house and the mailbox is bolted to it. Somehow, one side managed to come loose, so it had been dangling for a couple of weeks. I just didn't have a chance to get to the hardware store. I got home from work one day and it was bolted back properly. I checked to see if there was a note or anything, but nope.
On one hand, I was really grateful; but on the other, I was kind of spooked, wondering if I was totally losing it and if it maybe had never come loose at all. At the time, I did think my house was haunted, so that definitely added to that feeling. A couple of days later, I remembered I have cameras around the perimeter, so I checked them to see if they caught anything.
Turns out, an older guy with a tool belt just casually walked up, fixed my mailbox, and left. He wasn't there for more than three or four minutes. Eventually, I was able to piece together that one of my neighbors was having some roofing work done and this was one of the workers. I guess he had just seen my mailbox dangling for a few days and decided since I wasn't making any moves to fix it, he would.
I hadn't been living there for that long, and it really warmed my heart to know someone would go out of their way to perform a simple good deed for a stranger.
24. Deep Undercover
I worked security at a casino on the Canadian border several years ago and was standing at an entrance checking IDs. In Washington, if a casino allows drinks on the floor then everyone must be 21 or over. So I'm standing just inside the entrance, and this homeless guy comes walking up to me and asks me, "Hey, let me speak to your manager."
Two things immediately spring to mind: One, we're on a highway about 20 miles from the nearest town and it's the middle of the winter, so how did a homeless guy get here? Two, my manager was a busy man and would not want to be bothered by this. So the ensuing exchange goes something like this: Me: "Hey buddy, what can I do for you?"
HG: "I need to speak to your manager." Me: "Uh, he's busy at the moment, sorry. Anything he can do I can help you with, though." HG: (He's getting angry I can tell) "Listen, I need to speak to your manager and I need to speak to your manager now." Me: ... (Just as I hesitate, the plot twist hits) HG: sigh "I am a federal agent" pulls out an FBI badge "I need to speak to your manager.”
Me: (oh my god) "Ok sir one second." I immediately call my manager, of course. Turns out they had a huge drug bust going on in our parking lot with some Canadian Asian gang but had not "sprung" the trap yet. Since it was tribal land, they had to get permission or something like that. About 5 minutes later shift, rotation happened and I lucked out and got to go to the camera room.
Another federal agent came inside with us and told us exactly who in the parking lot were the good/bad guys so we could follow them. I got to see all the action, it was like watching some bad 80s cop movie. As soon as the trade was made, mounties/feds appeared everywhere out of all these vehicles they had set up before the bust.
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25. From The Top
Bit of backstory—I rent the upper floor of my best friend's house so we see each other quite often. I also use the kitchen and washer and stuff like that. One day, while we were in class, someone broke into the place. Nothing was stolen, but the house was a disaster. So I checked the footage of the camera we had out front...and what I saw chilled me to the bone.
We could see the guy go in, but we didn't see him come out. We called 9-1-1 and the officers checked the entire house. He was nowhere to be found. To add to the strangeness of the situation, we didn't have neighbors, so there was no one we could ask who may have seen what that guy was up to. But eventually, we discovered the dark truth.
Well, it turned out that the guy was hiding...ON THE FREAKING ROOF. He was up there a good week before we realized anything. He is now facing trial.
26. Pop A Squat
A man walked in the store and went directly to the towel section. Once he got there, he looked around to make sure no one else was nearby. He immediately pulled down his pants and took a dump right on the floor. Of course, it was part of his plan to be in the towel section. Once he finished his business, he went and smeared his doo doo butter all over the floor. But this was actually part of a much more devious plot.
We soon found out that the poop was a diversion for some petty DVD shoplifting. The guy got chased out of the store and apprehended by security.
27. Those Teenagers
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 four people get out, acting all sneaky and stealthy.
It was well past midnight at my house, and it didn't look good. I called my wife and kids in to watch it. I was preparing to call the authorities in my hometown. We saw them all sneak away and teepee another neighbor's house with toilet paper. They then ran back to their car in my driveway and sped off. My family and I laughed so hard. It was a highlight of that vacation.
28. The Lost Unicorn
I monitor about 70 different banks and over 200 ATM cameras. I get a lot of the generic crazy stuff, but I remember one night I was watching an overhead vestibule camera in one of our banks. It's a 24-hour vestibule, so members can come in and use the ATM. Around 5 am, a guy shows up and gets down on his hands and knees on the tile floor.
At first I couldn't tell what he was doing, but I knew it was suspicious so I called our Patrol Officer and told him to head out that way. As I watched, I could slowly see he was drawing. I thought it was going to be something naughty, but it turned out he was actually drawing a unicorn. I couldn't believe it. Our patrol driver showed up when he was halfway through and the guy took off running.
We don't know what he was using to draw on the tile but it was some kind of chalky stuff. We were able to get a janitor out there to clean it up before the bank opened. I had to explain the story to my boss about four times before he believed what I was telling him. I had pictures and videos recorded, of course, and I begged him to let me have them so I could submit them to a show or something.
However, he gave me the whole "It’s bank property, you can't show anyone the pictures," etc. Now all I have is a story of a random graffiti artist who loves unicorns. I never saw him again.
29. Digging For Gold
There were many security cameras at my former workplaces, and turns out, a lot of them were actually recording! One night, things were really slow, and after a while, you get numb and forget about all those cameras hanging from the ceiling...So this girl who worked there was walking towards the bathroom, and she stopped in the entryway just past the security gates.
She proceeded to pick a big, long, gooey booger out of her nose and slurp it up. The manager was reviewing the tapes, and instead of chuckling and keeping it to himself, he showed the store manager and whoever else was in the building at the time. So now, who knows how many people have seen her embarrassing moment...
A few days later, there was a bag of candy to share, and the manager commented to the store manager, "She doesn't seem like the kind of girl to eat sweets," all while the girl was standing right there! Sometimes you just zone out, you know? By the way, that girl was me.
30. Major Major
I had many part-time security guard assignments over several years when I was in school, and by far the weirdest people I ever encountered were my fellow security guards. I always worked night shifts at industrial sites where no one else was around and there was not much to do. There was this one ex WWII Marine (as he would constantly remind you) who still referred to himself as Sergeant.
If you did anything to set him off, like maybe show up five minutes late, he would go on an epic rant and get stuck in kind of a feedback loop of ever-escalating screaming. I remember once I just had to leave him, and as I was driving off I watched him in the rear view mirror, pacing back in forth in the parking lot, spinning around and waving his arms, ranting to himself.
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31. Nomadland
There was a guy living inside of one of the broken-down cars out by the barn at my parents' house during the winter. We lived about 10 miles out from the closest town, so he was likely a drifter or homeless. We honestly didn’t do anything about it. We just kept in mind that he was there during the nights in case something shady ever went down. I think he really just needed somewhere to sleep that wasn’t outside.
He left and never returned after winter passed. When it had been a few weeks since we saw him on the cameras at night, we went and looked inside of the car—so many empty cans of Beanie Weenies...I hope he managed to find his way onto another area that didn’t turn him away or was able to get himself into a job and a real home.
It was definitely really jarring the first time we came across him. We did some investigating after our dogs went wild in that area a few nights in a row. We thought it was some kind of animal at first, but it ended up being him. We watched for a few nights to make sure he wasn’t trying to come into the house, but he literally would just get in the car, stay through the night, and leave early in the morning.
It became pretty obvious what was happening and we just took the chance that he wasn’t some awful person; simply because he was looking for some means of shelter. Once winter was on its way out, we would play some footage of the night before and that morning, before the sun came up, we didn’t see him. In fact, he didn't end up on the footage for a good few weeks after sporadic checks.
We didn’t want to make him feel bad by looking into the car in case he was anywhere nearby during daylight hours, so we just waited until it was nearly confirmed he had moved on. I think about him a lot, actually—I wish we could have talked with him and listened to some stories he may have had or maybe find out what put him in the position he was in. Maybe get him some warm food in his stomach too.
32. What We Do In The Shadows
My husband used to work at a hotel, and things started going missing in his office. In response, the general manager set up a camera facing the desk. It wasn’t actually hidden; if you looked up you'd see it. Anyhow, they run the camera for the first time and in the morning, the GM checks it. What they find was utterly shocking.
The night auditor sets up his laptop on my husband's desk, props his foot up on a garbage can, turns on his favorite "video" and begins...um...doing stuff. As this boy is going at it, a guest comes to the desk, he stops and tucks it away, and helps the guest. Guest leaves and he gets back to it. Finishes twice during the night and starts up a third time, but there's just too many guests interrupting him.
He was fired the next day, and my husband sterilized his desk and work area for nearly the entire day. Every nook and cranny.
33. Come And Go
Well, today I caught two random adult men in my backyard measuring the fence or something while I was home alone. As a girl, you could imagine all the scary scenarios that were going through my head. Luckily, they left right when I saw them on the security cameras (I guess they were done measuring the fence) and I told my dad. Turns out, it was just the neighborhood gardeners and they called my dad to let him know they were there.
But no one thought to let me know...Way to give me a heart attack. Then, a few days later, another incident—I caught some random woman also in my backyard, but this time, a creep was trying to look into the windows. I felt like my soul left my body when I saw her. She looked mad and she wasn’t alone. Some guy was waiting in a pick-up truck for her. She left and I never saw her again.
34. Tragedy On Film
I worked for eight years in a casino. I saw a lot of the everyday stuff like nose picking, etc. But one day was the most gruesome thing I’ll ever see. We watched a guy who had blown his whole family fortune in the casino douse himself in gasoline, climb into his car, and light up. Happened way too fast for us to do anything.
35. Cat Called
My parents live just outside a town of about 400 people. One morning, they woke up and saw an alert from their motion-activated camera that covers the area outside their bedroom. I should mention that their bedroom has a sliding glass door with a screen that they sometimes leave open on hot nights. When they replayed the camera footage, their jaws dropped.
A cougar walked up and stopped about 10 feet from the sliding glass door. And the worst part is the footage cuts off before the cougar leaves...
36. I Scream, You Scream
Me and some friends went to a club in a big shopping centre. The way this is set up is that the club is part of the centre, but the door to it is outside and you can't access the rest of the mall at all during the night. Well, after some table dancing, one of my friends was desperately looking for the toilet. He went through a door. Then another door.
Then another one. And ended up inside the mall somehow. Unsure of what to do and not in his right mind, he walked around and found an unlocked door. He pushed through it and found a freezer. Deciding that it was go time, he was going to take the leak inside. He opened it and…JACKPOT. Dozens and dozens and dozens of Ben & Jerry’s.
He immediately attacks them, gorging himself until he realised that—shoot. He now has to find his way back to the club. Picking up a load of ice cream, he kicks a door open and finds a girl who works at the club. He’s now covered in ice cream after eating it all with his hands, and he asks her to let him in back into the nightclub.
She obliges and ice cream was had by all. He eventually found another bathroom. The whole place was covered in security cameras. We always wondered what his little Ben & Jerry’s adventure must have looked like to anyone who happened to stumble over the tape.
37. Office Game
A colleague of mine was just telling me about his previous workplaces when this tale came up. Anyway, their office had a covered walkway running all the way around the floor, so on a quiet shift, they decided to have an office chair rally. The four of them scooted off on their office chairs as fast as they could, down one side of the walkway, around the corner at top speed, then all the way back.
As they headed back, they found a security guard at their desk, arms folded, looking quite grumpy. He started to apologize to the security guard for being silly, and the guard replied: "No worries, I had a fiver on the fat guy."
38. Looking For This?
In my senior year of high school, one of my friends saw a freshman struggling to get something out of the vending machine. Being the heroic senior that he was, he walked up, pulled the vending machine back a bit, and let it fall back. This was a huge mistake. At this point, the entire glass front shattered. But my friend didn’t even bat an eye.
He reached in, picked up the bag of chips, and handed it to the freshman with an absolute poker face. However, he knew there was a security camera on the vending machine, so he went straight to the Dean of Students' office and they ended up watching the video. The Dean was usually kind of a jerk, but he wasn't even mad. He just laughed out loud and said, "Ha! You actually gave him what he paid for!"
39. Ambien Daze
One night, at about 3 am, the dogs went crazy. I checked the cameras and there was this guy just sitting on a windowsill beside the front door. He wasn't threatening or trying to break in; he was just sitting and looking around. I called the non-emergency line. They came and determined he was a neighbor. He thought our house was his job site and he was just waiting for the plumbers to finish.
I am not sure if it was a weird Ambien sleepwalk or one of the odd stories about UTIs or CO causing delusions. He got taken for medical evaluation and it appears got the treatment he needed. He ended up moving out a few months later after being in and out of the hospital.
40. Office Romance
I work at a rather large government complex and there are quite a few stories. The best one we have video evidence of is the couple that works at our site who seem to like to go "park" from time to time. We've caught them a handful of times. You've never seen a car rock back and forth so violently as it can when this woman gets on top.
Last time we confronted them, all they wanted to know was whether or not we were going to tell her husband or his wife.
41. Joker Imitation
My friend saw his brother's ex-best friend set his 30,000-Euro Peugeot classic on fire because his brother took the friend's girl...The creepy thing was that the dude had makeup like the Joker, and he looked directly into the camera before lighting the fire. He was caught the same night and was put behind bars.
42. Cool Customer
I worked at a grocery store and found a huge poop laying on the floor about 10 feet away from the restrooms. I go upstairs to check the camera, and I couldn’t believe what I saw. Some middle-aged woman is walking, stops, shakes her leg, the poop falls out, and she resumes shopping. She was in the store for another 20 minutes or so.
Didn't even faze her. And she continued to be a regular customer.
43. Creepy Co-Worker
I installed a Ring camera and lock on my gate as couriers and postmen kept leaving it open and my dogs would run down the street. Nothing too out of the ordinary for the first year. I just bought a solar panel for it as I always would forget to charge it, installed it, and let the solar panel charge up the camera from flat to see how much charge it would give the camera.
It worked like a charm and in low amounts of sunlight during the winter mornings, it was more than enough to keep the camera going nonstop. Literally, two days later, I got home from work and my camera was missing. It was ripped off the post and the solar panel was destroyed. I checked the footage and someone had come up and ripped it from the post to put it in their pocket before walking off with it.
However, here's the odd part. The person who took it was an ex-work colleague who looked directly into the camera. Previous footage showed his car driving past the house and parking down the road. I hadn't worked with the guy for over two years and I never told him where I lived. Anyway, now that guy has a charge against him and I've got cameras and floodlights absolutely everywhere around my house.
44. Don’t Sleep On This
I saw a guy shoplifting at my office workplace. When he was confronted with the video, he said in an extremely earnest way that he was sleep walking. He should have quit while he was ahead. When the video went on to him making out with his (married), female co-worker just minutes after he took the item, that story fell apart.
45. The Glimmer
Our outdoor kitty had cancer and we didn’t have the money to get her help. She wasn’t in pain; just quickly deteriorating. We made up a bed for her outside, gave her food and water, played with her favorite toys, and said our goodbyes. We went off to bed and hoped she would go peacefully. The next morning, we woke up and got her out of bed.
Frantically, we looked for her, until we found her curled up underneath a shelf, cozy and tucked away; but she had passed. My dad had a security camera in the garage, so he looked at her last few moments of living. She got up from her bed, walked around, sat at the door, and mewed for a bit (that part tore me up), then slowly slinked under the shelf. But that’s not the most surprising part.
About two minutes later, we saw a brief glimmer, and what looked like a sheer silk window curtain flowing in front of the camera. Now, I know that it wasn’t an actual spirit or ghost, and it was just vapor and dust, but the fact that I had never seen that before, and how it was timed to coincide with her passing...
46. Losing Focus
I’m a former advertising guy. We used to run "focus groups" of consumers led by a moderator in a room with big one-way mirrors, with agency people (me) and clients on the other side, sitting comfortably drinking and whatever. On two separate occasions a (different) young woman came into the room first as an early arrival, looked around, walked up to the mirror, checked out her hair and teeth, and popped a zit right into my face.
47. Peeping Tom
Back when we didn't have gates on the driveways, I set up a game camera. I have a whole file called "Weirdos In My Yard." It's mostly random people who look lost. One guy drove into my side yard, sat there in his car for 20 minutes, backed out of the yard, waited, then drove back in...before eventually leaving. That was pretty tame, until the next time when I caught the same guy peeping through the windows.
We decided to upgrade after that. The massive gates across all of our driveways stopped the weirdo creepers, but our new camera system now tells me when anyone so much as slows down on the road by my house.
48. Putting The “Prat” In Pratfall
A few years ago I was a security officer at the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago. My supervisor once showed me a video of this naked guy running around outside of the building, only to have it end with him running straight into the glass window and falling backwards. We were all busting a gut laughing; honestly, it was pure physical comedy.
49. Invasion Of Privacy
In my town, there was a fairly popular restaurant that everyone went to all the time. Everyone loved the place. The owner was this short, adorable, loveable guy that everyone liked. A few years ago, someone noticed something off in the bathroom. Upon investigation, they made a disturbing discovery. They found a camera set up in there.
Apparently, the owner had been videoing people doing their business for years and was even found to be a part of a child trafficking ring on the deep web. Needless to say, our small town was shocked. Everyone used that bathroom at one point or another.
50. Poetic Justice
Last year, I was working at a shop that is known for having a lot of cameras in it. We were about to close up after having to deal with one last rude customer. I believe that it was me and someone else in the back room tidying up. I turned around at the exact wrong moment, and suddenly my boss busted out laughing "DID YOU SEE THAT?!"
Apparently this woman who had just laid into my other co-worker for not having something in stock had walked out the door, rolled on her heel, and fallen flat on her butt. Needless to say, we watched this over and over for a good 20 minutes before getting back to work.
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51. Dance When No One's Looking
When we first installed a video security camera, I knew my husband was anxiously awaiting for the motion sensor to trip and start recording, which would then send him an instant notification on his phone. He went out for a drink, so I quickly put together an outrageous costume with a crazy headdress and did an eclectic dance past the camera, complete with a kazoo marching band song.
If only I’d had a camera to view him at the bar as he spewed his drink with laughter!
52. The Animal Kingdom
There was a cat in our parking lot trotting along and zipping around, but the frame rate on our camera matched perfectly with its legs, so we never saw the legs move. It looked liked the cat was on an invisible skateboard, and it was the funniest thing I've seen in my life. There was also a skunk that got his head stuck in a yogurt cup.
We noticed him when we came into work. He was walking in tight circles nonstop. We looked at the overnight feed and the poor thing was doing small circles nonstop for six hours. We drew straws to see who would try to knock it off its head. In the end, we all decided to help the poor little guy. We got him free eventually!
53. Party For Two
I came into the retail store one morning to open it and the lights were already on, along with the radio and the TV. There were empty cans in the bathroom trash and put-out smokes on the floor. I went back to watch the security tapes and I couldn't believe my eyes—the manager had brought a woman in at midnight and they had a party for two in the bathroom.
When they came back out, they had fewer clothes on. Needless to say, the manager didn't have a job by noon that day.
54. Look Away!
I was once at a friend’s house. Since he lived in quite a rough area, his parents had installed some CCTV cameras. Well, we were sitting in his dad's study watching the world around the house, and in one of the cameras it looked like there was a couple going at it like rabbits. Well, after a zoom and an enhance, we realized the disturbing reality.
The sight before us was indeed a woman involved in an intimate act…but with a dog. It was insane. I don't think I've been so freaked out by something before or since.
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55. Shady Operation
I live alone and I have had some truly weird stuff happen. At my last place, which was a townhouse, I had security cameras set up in my backyard after I noticed the screen pulled off my back window. I also put a padlock on the gate (which I usually didn't do so the landscapers could come in and mow.) One night, I got a notification that there was a motion in the backyard.
I looked at the camera and didn't see anything. Then, I noticed the gate was shaking. I saw a hat appear over the top of the gate and some guy peeking over it. As luck would strangely have it, my boyfriend at the time was on the SWAT team in my city and he had just gotten to my place to spend the night after a SWAT hit. He ran in the back, half-dressed in all his gear, tackled the guy and I called the authorities.
It was my neighbor's boyfriend, who also had a pistol on him. He was high as a kite. They ended up arresting my neighbor, as well as a bunch of people in the house because apparently, the pistol he had was stolen. There were a ton of other stolen dangerous goods and illicit substances in the house.
56. Somebody’s Watching You
When I was 17, I was working security in a 12-story building in Dallas. It was a full security building and my job was to take the elevator to the top and then walk down over and over, randomly going into offices and checking them. It was a big building. Multi-use with dozens of companies inside. One night around 3:00 am, I was pretty much the only person in the building.
I was wandering around in an office I hadn't been in much, and went into a corner room just to look around. Mostly I was intending to look out the windows and check the parking lot. I rarely bothered turning on lights. Just randomly lit things up with my flashlight. I watched the parking lot for a moment, then turned to wander out.
The office closet had no doorknob, and looking right at me through the hole was an eye. After half my hair fell out, and my heart started to slow down, I realized the jerk that owned that office had put a poster on the other side of that door with an eye lined up with that hole. I'm still mad at him, and it’s been like over a decade now.
57. Running Scared
At around 2 am, a woman ran across our front yard and into the little cove that is our porch. She ran right next to the house, past our front window, past the door, and then hugged the wall before running past our garage. It was like she was sticking as close to the building as possible. She looked possibly scared in the video—hard to tell, but her mouth was open a bit.
This was very abnormal since the front door is about 40 to 50 feet away from a sidewalk or road. There was absolutely no reason for anyone to be that close. The only thing we could think of was that a vehicle was following her and she cut across our yard and into the porch area to try and keep out of view. Perhaps she kept on running because our motion-detecting lights had lit up and she didn't want to be seen.
58. Best Friends Forever
I worked at a large retail establishment, and the "highlight reel" of the security team was awesome. Here's the weirdest thing I ever saw, and honestly will ever see. It was two bros shopping in electronics together, not looking particularly suspicious. I mean these were your typical frat-type dudes; khaki cargo shorts, backwards hats, Abercrombie shirts—this was 2008ish.
One perched down to look at something on the bottom shelf and the other one came up, put his hand on the crouching guy’s shoulder, and fully puts his hand down the back of the guy’s pants. Bro #1 is unfazed. Bro #2 steps back and inhales deeply of the backdoor essence of Bro #1. They don't buy anything and then leave nonchalantly.
59. Fatal Crossing
We have cameras installed inside our business because we've had problems with people coming in and stealing. Most of the cameras are only filming inside, but because we have pretty big windows, you can sometimes get a glimpse of the outside. We're located on a pretty busy downtown street in a large city. One day, I finally got to work after painstakingly circling around in my car because many roads surrounding our business were cordoned off by the authorities.
From inside my business, I saw clothes just scattered all over the street, but didn't think much of it. The next day, officers came in and asked if we had cameras that overlooked the streets. Apparently, there had been a very bad accident involving a pedestrian and a car in the early hours the night prior, and there were no witnesses.
The driver of the car was hospitalized due to shock, and the pedestrian had died on the way to the hospital. Our cameras have limited storage space and will overwrite themselves, so we hurriedly removed the cards and started going through them one by one to see if the accident might have been caught on tape. We didn't expect to find anything as the accident happened a bit further down the street.
Plus, it happened at like 3 am while it was still pretty dark out, so we didn't have a very lit-up view of the street. Wrong. We saw, in HD video, a skinny older man get hit right in front of our business and dragged several meters down the street. Prior to the discovery of the footage, many people believed that the driver of the vehicle was probably speeding as is usually the case down this street.
But the pedestrian had actually crossed the street on a red light with his back turned to traffic and he was struck like a brick. Probably the most horrifying thing I ever saw. Apparently, the man was a newcomer that had just gotten a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant and was returning home after his shift.
60. The Conniption Will Be Televised
I worked a graveyard shift in security at the psych ward of a hospital last summer. The most memorable thing I can think of was when a patient threw the television across the room after pacing in front of it for over half an hour. When I rewound the tape to find out more information, I noticed that he had been watching a Magic Bullet infomercial.
61. See But Don't Speak
I’m an I.T. Director at a private school. This was so gruesome, I’ll never forget it. Many years ago, there was an issue where someone late at night was going into the computer lab at the school and looking at sensitive videos on a specific computer. We assumed it was a maintenance worker, so they asked me to place a hidden camera to see who it was. I placed the camera and about a week later, the culprit did it again.
Unfortunately, I had to watch the guy do his business. Let me tell you, as a network guy, this is actually the lesser of what I have had to deal with before. I have witnessed worse things like spouses cheating, bosses doing the deed in the office with co-workers, underaged kids with adults, and the list goes on. I feel like a soldier when they are sent overseas. They see crazy things but don’t talk about them.
62. The Circle Of Life
I was guarding a wind farm construction site in a place called Coldham in England. My site was in the middle of a bunch of fields, and I liked to sit in my car during my night shifts as the awful excuse for a cabin they gave us smelled of urine and the heating would often cut out the power. So I was in my car with my laptop watching something or other.
Suddenly, I see a quick dash to my left. Without getting out, I look out the window. Because it was night, I couldn't see anything. I flick on my main beams and what did I see? Two of the biggest hares going at it right in front of my car. Not so spectacular, I hear you say? Well, ever heard the expression "You look like a rabbit caught in the headlights"?
It refers to rabbits, hares, deer, and other woodland critters being frozen in place when hit with a sudden beam of light. Were the two hares frozen in place? Yes...yes they were, and this made it much easier for the fox hiding just behind the cabin to run out and snatch the one on top. That's right people, not only did I stop a hare mid-hump, but I also got the little guy killed.
63. The Godfather Squirrel
One year, we grew giant sunflowers in our backyard. I opened the front door one morning to find a decapitated sunflower head missing its seeds on our front step. The security footage showed a squirrel hopping across our driveway carrying the sunflower head, dragging it up 10 stairs, and then eating every last sunflower seed while sitting in front of our main door. He left it there like some squirrel Godfather parody.
64. Little Girl Lost
I currently work third shift security at a fairly quiet data center. Super easy, and I don't really see many people. There are usually about four or five employees around who also work in the building. Before working third shift, I used to pull 12-12 on the weekends, talk about boring. Pretty much just sit at a desk, monitor cameras, and every now and then check on the data centers.
Anyway, while I was working one night, I'm just kind of hanging out at the desk. Seemed like a typical night, nothing going on, here I am sitting here every now and then looking at the cameras. Suddenly, something managed to catch my eye on one of the monitors. I look over, and I could not believe what I saw. It’s a frozen image of a little girl in one of the dark hallways near the back of the building.
I literally say out loud, "OH HECK NO!" No way I'm going back there to check it out. Then I remember I can just do a playback to see if I was just missing something. Rewind to find out I missed one of the employees leading his daughter by the camera, due to the fact that the computer the cameras are tied to is a piece of junk. It had skipped those frames. Could not have been more relieved.
65. Wasting Water
There is a mentally ill homeless woman living around my neighborhood and she frequently goes into people's yards if their gates are unlocked. She often turns on their outside hoses and leaves them spewing water all over the yard. My family heard about this through a neighborhood website, so we hid our hose in our backyard as a precaution since we had no lock on our gate.
We got up one morning and the back patio and garden were pretty much flooded. We were obviously confused and annoyed, so we checked our security camera footage—we saw that around 2:30 am, the woman had come into our backyard, looking for our hose. She couldn't find it at first, so she started looking under chairs and peering into our windows, getting more intense in her search with each minute that she didn't find it.
It was just strange to see this grown woman so intent and feverish on finding our garden hose in the middle of the night. As a side note, none of us have reported her for fear of her being taken in for trespassing or taken to a hospital, but we do sometimes leave food outside for her, which is rarely eaten.
66. You Think You Know Someone
I worked as a manager at a convenience store about 10 years ago. One customer was a semi-homeless man who'd come in and buy a couple packs of cigs. It was winter, and I had a small table and chairs set up. He was a pretty chill guy, but after a week or so of his patronage, he was sitting and having a smoke when another customer came in.
I can't remember the specifics, but he began to insult and belittle the customer, so I had to eventually kick him out of the store. He was clearly upset but I really didn't think much of it at the time. About two weeks later, he comes in and doesn't say a word. I'm behind the counter, and he's just standing a few feet away. For me, that gets my attention.
After a long minute and a "can I help you?", he finally buys a single pack of Reds, says nothing, and walks out. I was suspicious, so I reviewed the CCTV. I didn't think it would show anything wild, but wow, was I wrong. And in the worst way possible. The camera shows the counters from the side, and in the hand I couldn't see, the guy was holding a revolver. Officers came and took the tape and a statement, but I doubt anything came of it. I quit shortly after—the pay sucked.
67. The Beige Tahoe
I had security cameras installed a few years ago after someone attempted to break in through my back door. The door itself is steel, and the doorknob is one of those that has a keypad with an actual keyhole above it in case the keypad quits working. The installers messed up the keyhole and even pulled out the pins, but the door somehow stayed locked.
The cameras were put up for a couple of years. Nothing of interest aside from a fat opossum who liked to hang out by the carport. Then, at about 3 in the morning one night, the camera captured me outside. I was doing my usual nightly things (I'm a total night-owl and will go outside periodically throughout the night to walk around the property).
I headed inside and not even 10 minutes afterward, a beige Tahoe towing an empty trailer showed up. It approached not from the road, but from a field behind the property. The Tahoe stopped right at the back door and two men came out. The driver hid out of sight from the camera. But that’s not the scariest part. The passenger was wielding a big hunting knife, hiding it behind his back, and he knocked at the door.
To make matters worse, they were hiding in the field behind the house. They had to have seen me. They were also probably hiding with their lights and engine off for quite some time as I was outside for almost a full hour. I would've easily noticed the lights or the sounds of a car engine. There was no telling exactly how close they were to me in that field because, at the time, there were no lights near the area.
I also did hear the knocking. No one else in the house did as I was the only one awake at the time. The knocking was quite loud, frantic-sounding, and lasted for at least a couple of minutes. I didn't answer it as I just never answer the door after dark unless I am specifically expecting somebody.. To watch the exact situation unfold on the security cameras the next day was honestly scary, and it really put into perspective exactly how close I was to losing my life.
68. Smile, You’re On Camera
I've seen a psych patient knock a nurse out cold. I've seen, more than once, couples trying to get a little slap and tickle on. I've seen elderly people lost in places they shouldn't have been able to get to. I've seen people blatantly drinking in the building. I had a boss who was a creepy perv and liked to zoom in on the cute female pharmacy techs—with no shame, he did this during meetings and in front of everyone.
He got fired for misconduct over something else, no surprise there. Most of our cameras aren't "hidden," they are just sitting in cases that protect them. Because they aren't obviously cameras, just a white box with a tinted glass panel, people don't seem to register that they're on camera and do all kinds of embarrassing stuff in front of them.
69. Paranormal Activity
During the first six months of a newly-constructed building, the cameras caught a couple of different things. On one occasion, we'd heard a huge crash; like a bowl of bolts falling. Sometimes, we'd find them sitting thread sides up. The printer tray would also be left open. When we checked the cameras, we didn't find anything suspicious. We were convinced the building was built on some sort of sacred ground or something—there were definitely some paranormal forces at work that were causing those things to happen.
70. The Happiest Place On Earth
While working grad nights at Disneyland, I always loved working on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. About an hour before the kids headed back to the buses (3am-ish) things got really quiet and very few people came through the rides. The ones that did were always couples looking for someplace to make out.
Being in the dispatch booth was always great at that point, because you had full view of all of the cameras throughout the ride. Depending on who was working at unload, I would let them know when it was happening and he would give them a wink or shake his finger at them to let them know...we know.
71. Donut Danger
Back when I managed a donut shop, I saw a guy staring at me and another young girl. He was dressed in dark clothes and a dark hat. When he realized we could see him, he ran off. I locked all the doors and the drive-thru window. Thankfully, it was closing time anyway. My co-worker called her best friend, who was a very large young man on the wrestling team, and he walked us to our cars.
The spot he was standing in was a point of poor visibility from the inside after the sun went down. Our store had a deep porch, and along the window that he was staring through, there was a wall-mounted bar counter. At night, we turned the stools over and put them on the bar, so the chairs were blocking the view of the window. If he hadn't moved suddenly, I might never have noticed him.
Before we left, I decided to review the cameras to see if I could catch him getting into a car. I went back to the moment I noticed him and kept rewinding. That's when I realized a startling truth—he'd been staring at us from the dark of night for three hours.
72. After Hours
I worked at a Community College A/V department for a while. The security office hired me to make (and then run) a bunch of hidden camera setups. There was a rash of theft on campus, and security suspected their own people, so they went to another department for help. I threw together a couple simple setups, cams in VHS cases, clocks, speakers, etc.
One of the first places they had me set things up was in the office of the president of the college. They were complaining about things being moved. There were other places that needed the gear more, but the president gets what she wants. First day after having the rig setup, I'm reviewing the tape from the night before.
Around midnight, the light in the office comes on. I know it's not cleaning, because they were there hours earlier. It ended up being several of the president’s office staff...not wearing any clothing...and doing very intimate things. I knew what I had do to. When it came time to report the first week’s results, I gave security a video file of static, citing technical difficulties.
Then I left a note on the desk of one of the office employees—leaving it anonymous of course—suggesting that they stop. I included a still frame shot of their escapades. A week later, several of the staff quit, which was NOT my intention. I felt kind of bad about the whole thing, and handed over the task to someone else.
73. A Street Situation
It wasn’t MY camera, but my friend's. The camera feed was recording at maybe 2 am. It was dark, but it was a night vision feed or something, so we could clearly see what was happening. Also, my buddy lived on a hill that was right next to a very busy road connecting two different towns. That day, while his family was asleep, a car was speeding down that road really fast.
I, who lived three blocks away, was awake, so I could hear the screeching. I decided to ignore it considering it wasn’t my problem. Then, the next day, there was a giant hole in his fence and the place looked really messed up from what I saw. I visited my friend and he was very shaken up about the incident. He proceeded to show me the weirdest and most insane feed I ever saw...
The cropped clip showed a small backyard and it was facing the once normal fence. Soon, out of NOWHERE, there was the sound of loud screeching of tires, and seconds later, a car came bouncing in as the bus does in The Magic School Bus. It was so weird and frightening because out of nowhere...BOOM. There’s a car in your backyard.
74. Rear Ended
A guy picked a wedgie out of his butt for 22.5 minutes (no lie). It was like his undies were being eaten by his butt, because his hand was almost all the way in his pants. After that, he went right back to work. And yes, his job involved touching food.
75. Night Intruders
When I was 16, my family's house phone rang at 3 am. I'm a night owl, so I was the only one up and I answered. A lady rang from a security firm saying that the alarm in our business was going off and that the authorities were notified. I went out of the house to look around the corner so I could see up the street. I didn't get too close; maybe a hundred and fifty yards. I thought of getting closer, but I thought it wasn't worth it.
A day or two later, I saw the CCTV footage and I almost choked. There were four absolutely gigantic dudes with a few crowbars. I'm glad I didn't go up because they would have beat me into next week. And that was a long while ago. That's a lot of beating. On the bright side, I got a hundred euros for my heroics...
76. Queen Of The Karens
We had a building in Boulder, CO, which housed many upper-class snobs with way too much money. Condos ranging from 500K-6Million. One day while sitting there watching the cameras, I came across a woman having nothing but trouble trying to leave her parking garage. She was trying to stick her ticket in the garage, but didn't park close enough to the machine.
She attempted to open the door and reach with all her might! Next thing you know, she is out of the car, her arm stuck in the seatbelt, and the car starts rolling away from her. The best part is when she finally freed her arm, she attempted to hold the Jeep by the opening the door and stop it from rolling.
She FAILED, the car dragged her through the gate and crashed into a wall in front of her. We called everyone over for the next few weeks to watch the video. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Unfortunately, when the property management found out that we were laughing at the misfortune of one of their residents, they had the videos removed. But I'll never forget the look on Karen's face as her car rolls away...
77. Standing Up To Evil
I used to work in a public building that included a library. It was in the middle of the city center next to the railway and bus station. One time, there was some boy, maybe around 15 years old, acting strangely in the library for several weeks. The people working there didn't know what was going on with him, but he seemed afraid and unsure of what to do. Then, one day, he mustered up the courage to talk to one of the librarians.
He told him a shocking secret—there was an older guy harassing him in the men's room of the library in one of the toilet cabins. The older dude was also blackmailing him, putting pressure on him not to say anything. Needless to say, the authorities got involved and they happened to catch that guy who was still in another section of the three-story library.
They ended up arresting him, and we went to check the bathroom afterward. It was a grisly scene that I wish I could remove from my mind. The next day, I was sitting in my office and I got a call from my boss. The authorities wanted to have the recordings of the camera that is sitting on a pole outside of the building, filming the front side and entrances.
Apparently, the dude claimed that none of what the boy said was true. So, I checked the footage, and lo and behold—there was the guy entering the library together with the boy. Well, I saved it, put it on a USB stick, and handed it to the officers who later arrived and also watched the footage. I have no idea what happened after, but there was enough evidence.
It's terrifying that stuff like that happens. I applaud that boy for speaking up and ending his nightmare. Not the best days at work, let me tell you.
78. So Close, Yet So Far
I worked for security when I was in college, and the girl I had been seeing came and visited me at my office, since I was working the graveyard shift. She was swinging by to say goodbye because it was the end of the semester and she was moving back home for the summer. We kissed, said our goodbyes, etc, and she left me. That’s when my nightmare began.
Not two minutes after leaving, she shows up at the entrance to one of the dorms that my office security equipment covers. Guy comes to the door, they make out briefly, then disappear inside. She didn't leave before the end of my shift. Felt bad man.
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79. In Plain Sight
While working in a hotel on a popular nightlife street, I saw plenty of weird shenanigans. One night, I went home at around 11 pm, walking alone as usual. I woke up the next day to reports of murder on the same street I was walking home on. It's a few hundred meters long, so it was unclear how close the incident happened to my work, but it was concerning nonetheless. Well, as I got to work, that's when I realized just how close it was.
The authorities were right outside, stretching 10 meters on either side. The hotel bar windows look out directly onto the street below, so that's where the investigators were doing their sweeps. I heard through the grapevine that the night porter heard a commotion and went down to see what was going on. That's when he heard the lads dying screams.
I knew we were going to be getting a visit from some officers, so I thought I'd get details of the time to be able to pass that information on. Lo and behold, the officers turned up looking for CCTV, and I was the only person who actually knew how to work it. So me and two detectives went through the CCTV feed of the areas of importance running on a large screen, and there it was.
Two lads were having a back and forth, and one of them beat the other on the main street, just when people were heading home from bars. The guy who lost the fight was just left on the floor, bleeding out. He was eventually found by other drinkers who had just headed home from a night out. It's horrifying how it just happened in plain sight.
80. Rolling In Dough
We had a camera hidden in the cash counting room. The cash supervisor was taking bills…and hiding the money in her fat rolls. We got it on camera and had her come to the office. She had to lift up her shirt and pull all the money out of her rolls.
81. Warehouse Wraith
I worked security at a warehouse and installed a small camera near an item that was being stolen regularly. Rather than watch days of video of people working, I would jump 5 to 10 minutes at a time to see if there was a change in that area, or jump an hour at a time to when no one was working, just to cover my bases. If someone bumped into the boxes, even the slight change in position of the box or items would be noticeable.
Now, these boxes were on angled roller racks, so once the front was empty and removed, the one behind would slide down into place. I was skipping along and saw the motion of a different item on the top shelf during a time when no one was working in that area. There was one thing left in the box; I don't remember what it was but think something about the size of a Rubik's cube.
It slid sideways, from one side of the box to the other. To this day, I can't explain how that was possible, because gravity was pulling it down and forward into the front edge of the box, and it was too heavy to be simply blown around. I showed it to my boss and my coworkers—we never came up with a good answer for how it moved.
82. The Invisible Man
I work security for a relatively large bank with a lot of offices in Europe. I can log on and look at any camera we have on any of our branches, ATMs, or deposit boxes. One time, we had an alarm at one of our branch offices. There is nothing to be seen on camera at the site, however I dispatch a security guard to check this and reset the alarm or find out if it’s a malfunction etc.
The guard arrives, finds nothing unusual on the site, and resets the alarm. Then the guard leaves, and 10 minutes after that we get another alarm, this time from one of the safes at the place. I check the video again and notice a light on in the saferoom, and see there are bits of plaster on the floor...So we contact the authorities and they go there with the security guard.
I then check the video and see that there has been a burglar. He’s gone in through the roof, using a ski mask and equipment like that. He had set off the first alarm, and then he sat on the roof and waited for the security guard to reset the alarm. His mistake, though, was to touch the safes. As soon as he tripped that alarm, he scurried away.
83. Haunting On The 4th
This was so creepy, I still can’t explain it. It happened when I was seven years old. It was the 4th of July and we had fireworks and stuff. When it got late, my aunt said she was staying over. A little side note: my dad had a “bad” problem checking the security cameras in the morning and I was overly fascinated with the paranormal. When I walked into the living room, my dad was already checking the security cameras.
He wanted me to look at the footage as well and when I did, there was this sound of a kid screaming—not like he was about to be killed, but more like a playful scream. It sounded a lot like my little cousin, who we'll call Luke for privacy purposes. We did have a lot of family members over, so we thought that he just snuck off with some of the other kids and was playing.
We didn't think much of it until my aunt was leaving and said she was going without Luke. We asked her, "Where's Luke?" She looked confused and said, " Luke wasn't feeling well, so I left him at home with his dad." Our faces went pale. We showed her the video and she was shocked as well.
When I got older, I did some research on the house and it turns out that a woman had drowned her kid, a four-year-old boy, in the bath on the 4th of July after finding out her husband had passed.
84. Handle With Care
The funniest thing I've ever seen is an 18-Wheeler dumping $175,000 worth of product down a private road right near the client site, all while the driver didn't notice a thing. By the time we got a hold of the trucker, we had 90 percent of it cleaned up, and the truck was three states away. Sadly for that driver and that company, nothing was able to be salvaged as the product was in glass vials.
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85. Spiritual Stalker
I used to work in a fairly upscale resort and the whole place was covered with CCTV, so in the security control room, you had a pretty good overview of everything. We had guards assigned to patrol the hotel at all times of the night. One guy did his rounds by the pool while the supervisor was watching on the screens. He saw that there was a lady following him, so he radioed the guard and asked who was behind him. The guard’s response was so chilling, it’s unforgettable.
He turned around and on the screen, he appeared to be looking directly at her, but he called back saying, "What lady? It's just me here." The supervisor thought he was just joking around and said, "OK, sure man." About an hour later, the guard reported to the control room and the supervisor asked him again who that lady was.
It soon became obvious that he really had no idea who he was talking about, so they pulled up the footage. It was undeniable that he would have seen the woman. After their radio exchange, he kept walking and the woman followed him. Then, she went a separate way, but she still never showed up on another screen.
I was the front office manager at the time and was asked to investigate which hotel guest that was; however, we couldn't find anyone matching the lady in the video. She just walked into the frame at the pool and walked out of the frame again, seemingly out of thin air and never saw her again. The security guard put in a transfer request the next day.
86. Shadowplay
I work in a restaurant and we have cameras. A few weeks ago, my boss and I are cleaning up the kitchen before we head home. When we were done, she and I went into her office to sit, finish some paperwork, and talk before I headed out. She has the video feed from the cameras up in her office and I’m staring at the screen mindlessly.
Suddenly, this black shape just emerges from the corner. I cut her off and made her look too, and we just sat there getting pale and waiting for the shape to move. After something like a mere 15 seconds, the thing just receded and was gone. We waited a few minutes and both left together. It was creepy.
87. Putting On A Show
One time, I woke up at 3 am to the closing of car doors next to my house. I keep my cameras going on my PC screen, and when I glanced up, I saw someone run past my front camera. I pulled my pants on quickly and heard a slight tap tap tap at my door. I looked at the camera and there was a guy darting out of my camera view again. This happened twice and I was terrified.
I kept thinking I was hearing rustling around my house as well, but am partially deaf, so I wasn't sure. I decided I was going to arm myself and see what was going on. This thing just kept darting past my cameras. I turned to grab my weapon and I heard the tap tap tap again. I opened the front door and stepped out to someone at the corner of my garage. I yelled something along the lines of, "What the heck is your problem?"
Then, I hit the ground. There was lots of screaming, and the marshals came running out from behind every bush, tree, corner of my house. They had a federal warrant to serve on a prior tenant. Everything ended up being fine and they eventually left. My attorney said they were setting up to kick my door, and that no-knock warrants had been getting cases thrown out so they put on a show of knocking for the cameras before they made entry.
Between waking up at 3 am to someone methodically running around my house attempting to avoid cameras, to watching the replay of me stepping out of my door and two marshals launching themselves from behind an overgrown bush onto my back, it was all pretty creepy. I got extremely lucky in many ways that night, but I am really glad I woke up.
I'm not sure what would have happened to my dogs if they had kicked that door. Also, I'm glad I put my weapon in my waistband...Had I yelled at that officer thinking he was a would-be intruder with a weapon in my hand, it wouldn't have ended well for me.
88. Start Your Engines
I was an assistant manager at a small casino. Some Darwin award recipient tried to drive his Harley through the casino. It wasn't a very big place, so he thought he could make it from the back door to the front before anyone caught him. Well, he didn't make the tight turn between the slots and ended up on his side. Oh, but it got better.
All the male security guards froze and the lone female basically jumped on top of the guy and sat on him until everyone came to help.
89. Cheaters Never Prosper
My sister's boyfriend installed a camera in her apartment bedroom because he suspected she was cheating on him. Turns out, she really was and he saw it on his phone at work. His reaction was incredibly disturbing. He busted out, got his pistol, and went charging through town to her place. She fled with Boy #2 and hid in a parking lot nearby. Her boyfriend entered her apartment, turned on the oven burners, and waited with his pistol.
Her sister called the officers, who later arrived and escorted the guy out. SOMEHOW, they don't arrest him (he was a security guard still in uniform, so maybe they had a "bro" moment). It's my theory that he was probably going to push her face into the stove before blowing the place up. The officers did make him give them her key. It's literally the third time she's cheated on someone.
90. Blinded By The Light
I've seen one strange thing on camera that I haven't been able to explain. The camera at one of the sites where I worked nights was situated in the high right corner of the lobby, so it looked over the entrance. The entire wall of the building facing the street was glass; it was a skyscraper. One night around 3 am, I notice a light on the security monitor.
It was a white cone of light that kept moving around in no discernible pattern. Being in the lobby, I was maybe 20 feet from the door and when I looked up, I couldn't see any light. It was only on the monitor. This went on for maybe an hour. I tried to figure it out but couldn't understand what was going on. I looked outside and everything looked normal.
There was no extra light coming from anywhere. The only thing that wasn't business as usual was a building across the street had contractors working in their lobby, but they were too far away to be causing the light. They didn't even have any extra light on in their building. I worked in that building for three years and that was the only time that ever happened.
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91. Mischief Managed
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. They'd use my bathroom, poke around through my stuff, type on my keyboard, mess around with my pets, etc. Needless to say, I was pretty livid, so I made it my mission to serve them some sweet justice.
I set up 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.
92. Thank You, Arigato
When I worked in a casino, my boyfriend at the time (who worked in security at the same casino) informed me that everyone in security and surveillance could, in fact, watch me dance the robot in the elevators.
93. The Lady IS The Tramp
I have cameras in my house for my dogs. They're miniature robots that alert me when they bark and I can send them treats remotely, so they basically function as a security camera. Anyway, we went on a vacation one time 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 3 am) I reviewed the camera recordings because I got an alert on my phone that my dogs were 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 shook me to my core. The dog sitter (a 70-year-old lady) was running around the house, terrorizing my dogs, in underwear only.
I turned the video off right away because I didn’t want to invade her privacy, but I got on a flight the next day and went home. I never asked her to dog sit again.
94. Woman Down
There was a security video at my office that was passed around of a girl during a rainstorm falling (fully submerged) into a manhole hidden in a puddle. She was fine by the way.
95. What Did He Say?
I've got cameras downstairs that cover my living room, kitchen, and front door, as well as one in my second closet where I have two large pistol safes. Maintenance came in to clean and test the smoke detectors. One of them opened the closet and started poking around at the keyboards on my safes. He gave the other guy a startling promise: "I'm gonna figure out this code one day."
The other guy was by my nightstand commenting on the intimate goods I had in my drawer. I simply called the authorities and met them there. The guy by my nightstand was wearing one of my watches. They both went to prison.
96. Get Your Kicks
I’m a security guard in a large mall with lots of Plexiglas. I lock the doors at 11 pm, and there is nothing funnier than watching people run into the automatic doors.
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97. Villain Origin Story
This happened about three years ago. I was living on this pretty short street, about 25 houses I’d say. We had recently set up cameras because we were having some really bad issues with this one neighbor. Most people on the street knew each other—we’d all barbecue and party together—and we all collectively hated this family. Their son, whose name I will keep secret, was one nasty guy.
One time, he pulled a knife out and pointed it at me from 20 feet away or so. He's also tried to get his dogs (two big pit bulls) to attack me, and we're pretty sure he was the one who took our quad. So we set up the cameras solely because of him. So one night, he snuck out of his house and came over to ours. We had no clue why he was coming to our house, but whatever.
He got about halfway up our lawn, then stopped, noticed the cameras, and did some weird, creepy smile thing where he tilted his head a bit. He ended up leaving and we decided not to do anything because we were moving very shortly anyway. Supposedly, he has also moved, but out of state. I hope to never see that delinquent again.
98. The Lone Ranger
When I was a regular security officer, I would work the night shift. My job was to basically walk the building's interior and exterior and watch the CCTVs. At night, the cameras sometimes don't show perfect images. After I am done with an external round at 3 am, I go inside and look at one of the cameras that cover one especially dark corner of the building.
Standing there, doing absolutely nothing but staring at the camera, is a lone man. I cannot distinguish his features because of the camera's low quality. This man is just standing there staring at the camera, not moving an inch. He wasn't doing anything mischievous, so I couldn't call the authorities just yet. So instead, I wasted some time and reviewed the recorded footage to see when he got there.
Turns out, he popped out of the bushes right after I'm seen walking by from my recent external round. He seems to follow me a little bit, but when I cut out of view he stops and stares at the camera until I come back in to the control room. When I stop the DVR, I look back at the camera and he is gone. I did NOT go back outside until sunrise.
99. Plot Twist
I installed some security cameras at my place after my neighbor told me they thought they heard 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 a bone-chilling truth. It was me. I'd been freaking sleepwalking. I have no idea how long it had been going on or where else I'd been that night, and that freaking terrified me. I honestly think I might've preferred seeing an actual intruder.
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