Two weeks ago, this incident occurred when I was in the middle of getting ready to go out with friends. For context, I recently turned 18 and was hoping to celebrate with my friends.
I was in the middle of finishing my makeup when I got a call from my friend, telling me to hurry up because she and my other friend were leaving their houses. I told her that I’m halfway out the door (a lie), but I’m that type of friend, and hurriedly brushed through the knots in my hair.
I live in Canada, and this incident happened during the winter. However, there was no snow or wind for some odd reason. The block I live on is at the heart of my city. A few blocks down from my house is a huge grocery store, the dollar store, a few places to get haircuts, and Rexall.
So, a lot of weird people cross by. I grew up on that block, which meant encountering creeps wasn’t out of the ordinary.
It was around 7-8 PM at night. It gets dark during winter, which meant it was extremely dark by the time I made it downstairs.
I have two pets, a cat and a hamster, both the loves of my life, so I couldn’t leave without petting them and giving them love. I spent at least two minutes with them before sliding into my shoes and putting my purse on.
For even more context, we have a porch light and a camera that watches over the road in front of us and essentially people as well.
Because it’s night and I’m a girl, I always turn the porch on first before leaving and inform my family that I’m about to go.
I flick the light on from the inside, and when I do, I’m looking at the back of a hunched-over man.
He’s on his phone with his back turned to me, head leaning towards his phone. I couldn’t make out much about him other than dark hair and white skin.
I immediately turn off the light and take a step back. My heart was beating like a drum against my chest at this point.
I know a lot of weird people cross down my street, but none were as bold enough to sit on someone’s porch, go on their phones, and not say anything. He didn’t even knock, nothing.
I don’t know if this is completely relevant to the story, but when I was walking home from college, I saw two men going up to houses on my block and knocking.
One of the men stood to the side, out of view while the other knocked. I told my sister, to which she replied, “I don’t think they’re suspicious; no one would rob a house in the daytime.”
Which I guess could be true, but something just didn’t sit right with me. It happened on the same day I saw the man too.
I don’t know how to explain it other than it being a gut feeling.
The majority of people would look back when someone turns on a light, no matter if they know the person or not.
He didn’t. He didn’t even move an inch. He was just stuck to his phone, texting someone it looked like.
My mom and sister were both upstairs, so I yelled for them to call down. My sister ran when she heard me yell, standing at the top of the staircase and asked, “What?”
I tell her there’s a man outside, and she visibly goes pale in the face. I then tell her to call our mom, and she does, running into our mom’s room.
I’m left downstairs for a minute, waiting for my mom to burst downstairs.
At this point, I was scared to check back at the man, but I did. He was still there, in the same position like he was when I found him.
My mom finally comes down after what felt like years and runs to the door. She turns to me and asks, “What man are you talking about?”
I point to the door, and she flicks on the porch light. The man was gone. I was questioning what was reality and what wasn’t.
She stays downstairs with me for a bit, asking me questions to which I answered. I didn’t tell her about the men I saw in the day because I didn’t think it was important.
I forgot to add that I was on call with my friend who heard the entire thing. I only leave the house when she tells me she’s going to stay on call with me the entire time.
I bid my mom goodbye and leave, making sure to lock the door on my way out. The minute I stepped out the door, I lock eyes with a man across the road at my neighbor’s house.
I don’t know if it was the same man on the porch, but I think it was because I’m sure he heard me yell for my mom since I was close to the door and made a quick run for it, and what’s a better decoy to play other than pretending to knock on someone’s door so I wouldn’t suspect you?
I whisper into the phone that I think I see the man as I walk on the left side of the road while he’s on the right, staring at me.
The entire time I was staring over my shoulder at him to make sure he wasn’t following. I was scared out of my mind.
I made it to the bus stop and got on an incoming bus and met my friends at the back.
What made it even scarier was that we were going to watch a scary movie. I couldn’t get the incident out of my mind the entire time but managed.
My friends drop me off at the closest bus stop to my house and leave when I’m walking back to my house. I’m looking in dark corners and behind my back to make sure I’m not being followed.
Let’s timeskip a bit because the rest of the details don’t matter.
The first thing I do when arriving home was rush to my oldest sister’s room and tell her everything because she wasn’t there. She’s the same sister who I told about the men in the day.
She tells me that when she and her friend went out, they saw a man in a trench coat in a dark corner just staring at them.
They were walking down kind of a dark alley cause it was the only path back to our house, hence the only way.
She then goes onto say how when the strange man began to approach them, they ran in the opposite way. What makes it even more creepier was the fact the man didn’t say anything, just stared at them in the shadows.
I don’t know if porch man and trench coat man are working together, but it was just a weird experience.