My name is Gregory and this happened last December when I was home alone in my house for a whole week. My girlfriend had gone to stay with her parents for the holidays and I stayed behind because of work. I live in a quiet neighborhood in a small town in upstate New York.
The houses are pretty spaced out and most of the people on my block go away for Christmas. So, I basically had the whole street to myself. At first, I like the idea of the peace and quiet.
I thought I would get a lot of rest and maybe catch up on some shows and just enjoy the coziness of the holidays for a bit. But what happened that week [music] still lives rentree in my head. It was on my second night alone.
It was around [music] 6:30 and already completely dark outside. It had been snowing lightly all day and there was a white [music] layer on my yard and driveway. I was in the kitchen making a simple dinner, just pasta and chicken.
Usually my girlfriend is the one to [music] cook our meals. I'm not much of a chef. I turned on the TV in the background to make the house feel less empty because as happy as I was to have the place to myself for a bit, I wasn't used to it being so empty and quiet in here.
While I was eating at the table, I heard something unusual. It really took me a second to figure out what it was. It sounded like singing.
I muted the TV [music] and listened. The sound was definitely coming from outside. The singing got a little clearer and I realized the person was singing Jingle Bells.
At first, I thought maybe some neighborhood kids were playing around outside, but the voice didn't sound like a kid. It sounded like a grown man. I got up and walked toward the front door because that seemed like the direction it was coming from.
The closer I got, the louder it got. By the time I reached the door, it sounded like the singing was coming from right on my front stoop. I felt a weird feeling in my stomach, but at that moment, I still thought maybe it was just a caroler.
I opened the door and standing in the glow of my porch light was a man around 35 years old. He wore no hat and his coat looked too thin for the weather. But the strangest thing was that he was completely focused on singing jingle bells, staring down at my welcome mat like he wasn't even aware I opened the door.
[music] I remember forcing a little smile because I didn't really know what else to do. I'd never gotten Christmas carolers before. But even still, I never heard of a grown man doing it solo.
It's supposed to be a group thing from what I know. He didn't look dangerous. He actually just looked sort of confused or maybe slow.
I even wondered if he was special needs or something because he didn't react to me being there. He just kept singing. When he finished the song, I expected him to say something or at least leave.
But he just took a breath and started singing Jingle Bells all over again from the beginning in the same slow offkey tone. But now he was looking up at me, making direct eye contact. I felt my smile drop because it was just weird.
Now [music] I stood there another minute pretending to listen even though it felt uncomfortable. I kept thinking he would stop after the second run, but he didn't. He just looped the song.
I checked my phone and realized almost 4 minutes had passed while he sang Jingle Bells over and over. Finally, I decided it was enough. I told him thank you in a polite tone, and I slowly closed the door.
I thought that would send him on his way, but once the door was closed, I still heard the singing. It continued without even slowing down. I walked back to the table and sat down trying to ignore it, but the longer it went on, the harder it was to ignore.
The man didn't seem normal, and it bothered me that he was still right outside my door singing the same song. I wondered if maybe he was special needs and someone was out there with him, like by the street or something, but I didn't see anyone else out there. It made the whole house feel uncomfortable, like someone weird was standing too close to my personal space.
I kept eating, but I couldn't focus on the food. It went on for my entire dinner. Finally, after about 10 minutes straight, the singing stopped.
The sudden silence actually made me jump because I had gotten used to the singing. I got up slowly and walked back to the front door window. When I looked outside, I expected to see the man gone, but he was still there.
He had moved. Now he was standing at the end of my driveway. He was just facing my house, completely still.
He was no longer singing. At least I couldn't hear anything from here. He was just standing there in the snow, staring at the door.
Something about that felt worse than the singing. He looked like he was waiting. I opened the door a crack and told him he couldn't be here, that this was private property and he needed to leave.
He didn't move at all. The whole thing was so unnatural. I finally told him that if he didn't leave, I would call the police.
Then I shut the door again. I watched him for another minute from the window, but he didn't budge. I didn't want to actually call the cops because I thought maybe there was something mentally wrong with him, and I didn't want to make things worse.
So instead, I decided to just go upstairs, lock my bedroom door, and try to relax. I checked out the window upstairs before changing into bed clothes. The man was gone from the driveway.
Thank God. I figured the threat worked. I got into bed, turned on a lamp, and started reading my book to wind down.
Maybe 20 minutes went by when I heard something from behind the house. I knew instantly what it was. Unfortunately, it was the same man singing Jingle Bells again, except now it was coming from my backyard.
I jumped out of bed and went to the back window. When I looked down, not only was he directly inside of my backyard, he was already looking up at my window. The man was in my backyard standing in the snow directly below my bedroom window.
He was looking straight up at me while he sang. I slid open the window and yelled at him that I was calling the police. The singing stopped instantly.
He stood there in total silence for about 3 seconds. Then he suddenly burst into a full [music] sprint toward the back door on the lower level. The second he was out of my view, I heard the most insane sound I've ever heard in my life.
He started screaming at the top of his lungs. Not like a normal scream. It sounded like a death metal singer, but even more insane and deranged.
It echoed across the yard and through the entire house. Then came the banging. The back door shook violently as he kicked it, slammed into it, and probably tried ripping the doororknob off.
I felt the vibrations from the impacts in my upstairs bedroom. I realized this guy wasn't just weird. He was trying to get inside.
I grabbed my phone and called 911 right away. I begged them to hurry, telling them a man was trying to break in. I stayed on the line while holding a baseball bat with my other hand.
I backed into my bedroom closet and shut myself in. The operator told me to stay hidden. I could still hear the screams and bangs from downstairs, and every second felt like he was going to break through.
Then, just as suddenly as they started, the bangs stopped. Everything went silent except for my breathing. I didn't know if he left or if he got inside.
I stayed completely still in the closet until the police arrived. They checked the entire outside of the house and confirmed the back door was still locked. The operator said I could come out and meet them.
When I stepped outside to greet them, I finally felt like I could breathe again. We walked around the backyard and saw deep footprints in the snow showing exactly where he had stood while singing to me through the window and where he had run up to the back door. The footprints then led off into the woods behind my property.
The cops went to follow the trail a little bit, but came back because it apparently wasn't worth going deep into the woods at night. They acted like it wasn't a big deal. They told me people act strange all the time and that as long as I kept my doors locked, I should be fine.
They didn't seem very interested in finding him, and that bothered me a lot, but I was too shaken up to argue. After they left, the house felt horribly empty and cold. I kept every door and window locked and double checked them over and over.
At that point, I was over the alone time and just wanted my girlfriend back home. I went down to my parents place for Christmas Eve and Christmas, thankfully. As far as that man, he never returned.
At least not that I know of. This story is about my Christmas experience from about 10 years ago. I was 6 years old since my birthday was in November and I had just finished celebrating.
Now, we were getting ready for the holiday. My birthday celebration happened on the [music] same day as the famous Odell Beckham Jr. catch.
I lived with Cowboys fans, but I was a Giants fan. I remember it being talked about for the rest of the night and even during my birthday celebration. It was an eventful birthday week.
And I'm surprised I remember all of this since I was only six. I didn't understand football, but I understood that the catch was crazy. So, I was just living in the moment and happy it was my birthday like any other kid.
For my birthday, I got tickets to the Mavs Wizards NBA game on December 30th. I was a Cavaliers fan, but since we lived in DFU [music] outside of Dallas, I knew a lot of Mavs fans, and I was a small fan myself, so I was grateful. It was going to be my first NBA game.
Christmas Day was 5 days before, and I got a brand new Odell Beckham Jr. jersey and a Maverick shirt and sweatshirt as I was becoming a sports fan. I had a great Christmas, but one of my Christmas gifts was another Mavs game, which was on December 27th against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
I was so excited to go to both games. The day came and we went to the game. The Mavs won a close one, something like 112 to 105.
It was crazy to see an event like that in an NBA arena for the first time. We left the game and drove home, which was [music] maybe 45 minutes away from the American Airlines Center. The next couple of days were normal, but I was excited to go back to that amazing stadium and atmosphere.
This time, we went again. I didn't know it would be the last time I went for years. At the last game, we had nice seats, like seven rows from the court and in the middle, but this time we were maybe row 20 and in a corner area, so the experience was different.
The game was going well and I was enjoying it. The Mavs were killing them by like 20 to 30 points at halftime. Since I was a child, I wanted to roam around and get food and go to the bathroom by myself, but I was with my parents and only 6 years old.
So, my parents and I walked to get some food. We waited in line for maybe 20 minutes. My dad went to another restaurant inside the arena to get different food, and I stayed with my brother who was waiting in line to pay.
As we talked to the worker, I walked away to throw out some of the candy they bought me before the game. I walked to a trash can maybe 30 ft away. As I got there, this tall white man came up to me and asked, "Hey, are you lost?
" I shook my head and didn't say anything. He said he didn't see my parents around and told me, "Let's go look. " As he grabbed my hand and walked with me, I was just a kid, so I walked with him.
He took me toward the nosebleleeds and said we were going to the intercom so they could announce my name and find my parents. I said okay and kept walking. We got to the top and we waited for about 10 minutes.
He waited until the coast was clear and then tried pushing me towards the emergency stairs or elevator. I don't remember exactly but I do remember there was no one around. Then I remembered stranger danger and the guilt and fear started sinking [music] in.
I realized I shouldn't go with this man. He didn't have any credentials. When he let go of my hand to go check his phone, I ran all the way back to the stands.
As I ran, I saw him standing there with a small grin on his face. I couldn't find my parents, but I didn't care. I just wanted to be somewhere safe.
I found my brother, who hadn't told my parents he lost me because he didn't want to get in trouble. He asked if I was okay, and I said yes, choosing not to say anything. The game ended, and the Mavs won, but I didn't care.
I just wanted to go home. As we exited, I was quiet. When we got in the car, I was also quiet.
My parents seemed confused that I didn't seem energetic, but I told them I was tired. As we drove home, I almost fell asleep, but then a loud honk screech behind us. It was so loud I almost screamed.
I turned around and there he was, the same man driving a truck with maybe three other men inside. I couldn't tell who they were, just silhouettes. My parents yelled at them from our car when they pulled up next to us, but the men just stared.
I wanted to say something so badly, but for some reason, I didn't. When we got home, I went right to sleep and passed out fast. In the middle of the night, I woke up with chills.
I noticed a light flashing at my window. I looked out, expecting something innocent, Santa Claus or something, but instead saw that man standing out there shining a flashlight into my bedroom window. I screamed and ran to my parents' room, telling them someone was at my window as if it were a first story window.
They rushed outside and searched for maybe 20 minutes. They didn't find anything, and since I was a kid, they didn't believe me. They said it must have been a shadow from a car, but I know what I saw.
On New Year's Eve, a couple days later, we were staying up until midnight to watch the ball drop. We were about 5 or 6 minutes away from midnight when the doorbell rang. My parents answered it.
I didn't pay attention until I heard the man's voice, and I was 100% sure it was him. I told my parents, but they didn't believe me. I told them at the game he brought me to the high level, and I ran away and escaped, but they still didn't believe me.
They said it was just a man handing out lost dog flyers for his cousin's dog. The night went on and I was fine. But then a year later on New Year's Eve, there was a knock at my bedroom window.
Keep in mind, I had forgotten about the situation. I got up and looked and there was a piece of paper on the window that said, "This new year, you'll meet me again. " I gave my parents the note and they filed a report, but they never heard anything back.
Every couple of years, I get terrified of New Year's Eve, thinking that man will come back. I told my parents I never want to go back to [music] an NBA game, saying it wasn't my thing. But now I'm 16, and it scares me that the man knows where I live.
I'm considering going to the Cavs vers Mavs game on January 2nd or 3rd, which would be my first game since then, but I'm not sure. This experience scared me away from basketball and made me always close my curtains. I remember this night way too clearly.
And even now, I think about how close my family [music] came to something really terrible. It was early December, and we decided to drive up north into the mountains [music] to cut down a real Christmas tree. It was something my wife Maryanne and I always wanted to do.
[music] And our seven-year-old son Andrew was excited about it, too. The weather was cold and cloudy, and the sky had that heavy look where it feels like snow is always about to fall again. To us, that added to the Christmas vibe.
The whole ride up the winding roads made me feel like a kid again. It was a while since I'd done something this unique and in the Christmas spirit, and having Andrew so excited about it just brought me back to my youth. [music] When we finally reached the remote area Maryanne found online, there were no other cars around in the parking area.
There were a bunch of light posts scattered around, so we weren't in pitch black darkness if you were wondering. [music] That's why we picked the place. Still, we did bring flashlights.
We parked by a small unmarked path that [music] led deeper into the trees. There was a lot of snow on the ground still from the snowfall we got a few days earlier. And up this high, the snow took even longer to melt.
Andrew jumped out of the car right away and started throwing snowballs at us. [music] So, I started throwing them back. We were here to have fun, so of course I was going to try to make it as memorable as possible for Andrew.
I grabbed our flashlights and the axe that I planned to use to chop down a tree. We walked up the narrow path with snow crunching under our boots. Andrew kept running ahead, stopping to point at trees he thought might be perfect.
The deeper we went, the more the road behind us disappeared, and the only light came from the faint moon glowing behind the thick clouds. It was so quiet that I even asked Marianne and Andrew to stop for a second just to really take it in. There was not a single sound, maybe a light breeze, that was it.
To be honest, if I had been there alone, I'd have been slightly creeped out just off the silence and darkness alone. As we walked deeper onto the trail, we had to utilize the flashlights we brought, all three of us. Andrew was having a lot of fun with the flashlight until the light from the parking lot was no longer visible and it was now basically total darkness outside of the flashlights.
He started to get a little nervous evidently because he asked how far we were going to go and he made a comment on the darkness. I kept feeling like someone was watching us or like something was walking behind us. But every time I turned around, there was nothing but the empty snow path.
About 10 minutes in, we finally found a spot where the trees were tall and full. Andrew ran around them in circles, looking for the best one. Maryanne stayed closer to me and whispered that she wanted to pick a tree fast because she had a weird feeling, too.
I got exactly what she meant. This was a lot creepier than I had imagined. Right then, I heard soft crunching behind us.
It wasn't any of us, nor was it an animal. It sounded like boots crunching the snow, but very slowly sneaking like. When I turned around, I saw a man in dark clothes standing about 20 ft back on the path.
He wasn't dressed for the weather. His hands were bare and red from the cold. His jacket looked more like a windbreaker.
His face looked pale and stiff, like he'd been out in the cold for way too long. Maryanne grabbed Andrew's arm to pull him closer. When the man noticed we were looking at him, he suddenly smiled in an off-putting way and stepped closer.
He asked if we were looking for a Christmas tree. His voice, breaking the already unsettling silence, was uncomfortable. His voice was deep and kind of soft.
Before I could say anything, Andrew answered yes, excited again. and I felt a jolt of panic because I didn't want this man knowing anything about us. Maryanne quickly told him no, that we were just walking.
The man stepped closer again and the way he moved made every hair on my arm stand up. He told us not to worry because he wasn't a park ranger. He said it like he could tell exactly why we lied because admittedly what we were doing was super illegal.
I didn't want to talk to him at all. Something was wrong with him. He looked hungry or desperate or like he hadn't slept in days.
I guess for lack of a better word, he looked homeless. I told Maryanne we should head back to the car and she nodded, gripping Andrew's jacket. When we started walking past the man, he stood by smiling and watching, giving slight nods as if to say goodbye as we walked.
Andrew kept turning around asking if the man was following, and we told him to stay facing forward. Every time I looked back, the man was a little bit closer than before, even though I didn't hear him speed up. I whispered to Maryanne that when we reached the main road, we had to run to the car.
She held Andrew's hand tighter and nodded without looking back. The man's step stayed behind us the whole time, dragging a little like his boots were too big or too heavy. Once we got close enough to see the gap in the trees where the car was parked, I told them to go.
Maryanne lifted Andrew and ran as fast as she could. The only reason I felt even remotely safe was because of the axe in my hand, but I'm not a violent person, and I've never had to resort to violence in my entire life. I turned around to block the path behind us for even just a second.
The man had stopped walking and was just staring at me, and he put his hands up halfway, still smiling. And then he said, "I mean no harm. Why don't you get back to your truck now?
" I felt my heart skip a beat as he said this. He said truck like he knew we came in a pickup truck. I replied back simply that we don't want any trouble.
Then I turned and started hurrying back down to the lot. But halfway there, Maryanne screamed my name, sounding panicked. "Oh no," I thought.
When I got to the truck, she showed me that both right side tires were punctured. I didn't have time to examine it for long to realize it was him. I told Maryanne to call 911 immediately, but she struggled to find service at first.
She walked around the snowy lot for a bit until there was reception. She never strayed too far away. I had Andrew wait in the truck who was now clearly concerned as he watched Maryanne and I freaking out.
He was old enough to know something bad was happening. Maryanne seemed to be having a hard time on the phone, so I took it and explained our location and that we felt threatened by a random man in the woods who may have potentially been responsible for the tires. Given the potentially unstable individual in the vicinity and the fact that we had a child with us, police were taking this very seriously and told me to keep my family locked in the truck until police arrive and that a tow truck will be sent as well.
I was instructed to keep the operator on the line while we waited, but eventually the line started getting choppy, cutting out at moments because of the poor reception. Then Maryanne suddenly screamed in my ear to look and pointed towards the tree line by the path we were on. There were multiple people standing just beyond the treeine.
I counted at least three. They looked like shadows from where we were, which made the site even more terrifying. It was like we were being stalked and hunted.
Then two of the people started walking closer. I told the operator and she said something that really made me uncomfortable. She asked if I had any kinds of weapons.
And when I said I had the axe, she implied that if it came down to it to use it to defend my family. By this point, Andrew was crying and Maryanne tried to calm him down. I told the operator that two of the figures were still walking toward the truck.
They weren't running or yelling or anything. They just walked very slowly like they knew we weren't going anywhere. The third figure strangely disappeared, likely back deeper into the woods away from the light.
The operator told me the police were close, but I had no idea if that meant 2 minutes or 10. I kept looking back and forth between the treeine and the road in the distance, praying to see flashing lights. I tried to talk to the operator again, but the call dropped.
The second it cut off, everything felt a hundred times worse. I locked the doors again, even though they were already locked. I kept my hand on the axe, gripping it so hard my knuckles hurt.
As the two people were now within range of hearing them speak, we could hear them saying, "We're here to help. " as they waved their hands in the air. We didn't recognize either of them to be that guy from earlier.
"Do you think they're park rangers? " Maryanne asked, and I said firmly, "Not a chance. " But perhaps I said it too loud because [music] Andrew just started crying even more, which Maryanne had to try extra hard to console him.
These two people approaching were dressed similarly to that first guy, aka way underdressed, and their clothes looked worn out, almost dirty, and they didn't seem bothered by the cold at all. But then, seemingly randomly, the two of them turned around and started running back in the direction they had come from. We didn't know why just yet, but it was soon clear.
Never have we been so ecstatic to hear the sound of police sirens. It was getting louder fast and eventually we saw the flashing lights coming from down the road. Coming pretty fast, actually.
The police SUV entered the lot with its spotlight on [music] and it instantly shined in our direction. I flashed my lights to try to get the cop in the car to see the men running back into the woods. At this point though, they were already nearly gone, but their footprints weren't.
Once the SUV was next to us, two officers jumped out immediately with flashlights drawn and I got out to basically get on my knees thanking them. I pointed in the direction the men ran. I said they disappeared into the trees like they had rehearsed where to go.
The police told [music] us to stay inside the truck while they searched and more units showed up within minutes. One officer stayed with us. Andrew was no longer scared, but rather once again excited at the commotion and the sight of police officers.
After a long search, the police came back and told us what I already knew they were going to say. They didn't find anyone, just tracks in the snow that went deep into the woods and eventually spread out in different directions. They didn't know if the people lived somewhere out there or if they were part of some kind of camp deeper in the mountains.
They said sometimes drifters or squatters stay hidden in remote areas during the winter. The tow truck eventually arrived and the police stayed around us the entire time until our truck was loaded up. We had to sit in the back of a patrol car to stay warm while they finished everything.
No one really said much. Maryanne held Andrew in her lap and I just stared out the window, watching the dark tree lines, half expecting to see someone standing there again. On the ride back home, none of us talked.
It was like all of us were afraid that saying anything out loud would make it real again. We didn't try to cut down a Christmas tree ever again. We didn't even go back to that mountain area.
Even now, 10 years later, I refuse to go anywhere near it. To this day, what scares me the most is the thought that they had been watching us long before we even noticed them. They saw us arrive in that parking lot because they knew to strand us by slashing my tires, and they were waiting for us to go deep enough into the trees so we wouldn't make it back to the truck.
We were lucky we trusted our instincts enough and decided to leave for the truck almost right away. We were also lucky I was holding an axe, which may have dissuaded them from doing something crazy. I don't like thinking about how close we came to potentially never going home.
I still think about this one night [music] from when I was 9 years old. It was a few days before Christmas. My parents both had things to do that night, and since I was almost 9, they felt okay leaving me home for a little bit.
My mom had to run to the grocery store to get some stuff for Christmas dinner, and my dad was working late like he usually did in December. I was sitting on the couch watching a Christmas movie probably and eating cookies by the fireplace and tree. Outside, it was already dark, even though it was still relatively early.
And I remember the Christmas lights flashing on the houses across the street. It was normal until the doorbell rang. [music] The only reason this made me stop and look was because it was rather late and random for someone to ring the bell.
And my mom always told me never to answer the door when I was alone. My parents never ring the bell, obviously, since they have keys. I got up and walked to the door anyway because I wanted to look through the peepphole.
When I put my eye up to it, I saw there was a man standing on the porch wearing a Santa Claus suit. It was the full thing, too. the red coat, the hat, the beard, everything.
[music] But he didn't look like a normal friendly Santa. He wasn't holding anything besides what looked like a clipboard. [music] And he was standing way too close to the door like he was waiting for me to unlock it.
I didn't know what to say at first, so I just kind of whispered, "Who is it? " The man moved his head a little closer to the door, like he was trying to see through the peepphole or hear me better. And in that moment, he figured out right away that I was a kid.
He did, I guess, what was his best Santa impression as he said he was Santa and that he had gifts for me and that I should open the door. At 9 years old, I wasn't stupid and I didn't believe in Santa anymore. My parents taught me about strangers.
I told him to go away and that I didn't need anything and I tried to sound brave, but my voice cracked. The man went silent for a second and then he asked me if I was home alone. As soon as he said that, I knew to walk away.
I instantly felt stupid for even letting him know I was home. I didn't answer him. I stepped back from the door and walked fast to the living room because I suddenly felt too scared to stand near it.
I sat on the couch and grabbed a pillow and stared at the TV like acting normal would make the fear go away. But then I heard the door knob twist. He was testing if the door was locked.
I wanted to scream for help, but nobody was home. I waited and hoped he would leave. But a moment later, I heard another sound from the back of the house.
It was the back door not twisting. It happened so fast after the front door that I bet he ran around the house to the back. That door was even weaker than the front one, and we almost never used it.
I felt frozen in place, and all I could think about was that my house only had two doors, and this man was trying both. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the phone and dialed my mom's number. When she answered, I started talking really fast, trying not to cry.
I told her someone was trying to get into the house and he was dressed like Santa. My mom got serious right away and told me she was coming home right now and that I should not open any doors no matter what. She told me to stay in the living room and keep the curtains closed.
I sat on the floor behind the couch where I couldn't be seen from any windows, and I stayed completely still. I kept hearing small noises outside like footsteps or light taps, just some forms of sounds indicating that someone was still there. Eventually, they stopped and not long after I heard a car pulling into our driveway, and I knew it was my mom because I recognized her squeaking brakes.
I stayed where I was until I heard the front door unlock and slam open. My mom came in breathing hard and holding two grocery bags. She locked the door behind her and yelled out for me and I ran to her right away.
She hugged me and then told me she had just seen a man dressed as Santa walking down our street. She said she slowed her car down when she saw him and she yelled at him out the window asking what he was doing. The man told her he was going door to door asking for donations, but she didn't believe him for a second.
She said he looked nervous and that he walked away fast when she started yelling. My mom told me she was proud of me for not opening the door and for calling her right away. She called the police and reported the man, and I'm sure police at the very least surveyed the area.
We never found out if he was arrested or if he just disappeared into the neighborhood. Two neighbors did say though that the man knocked on their doors asking for donations, though they said it seemed like a scam. Regardless, that doesn't change the fact that he tried to get into our house where he knew a little boy was home alone.
I still think about that night every year around Christmas when I see Santa decorations. [music] I just remember being 9 years old and knowing that man on our porch was not Santa and that [music] he wanted something else. I guess I was lucky the doors were locked and my mom got home when she did.
What would have happened if that door was unlocked is terrifying to think about.
