30 Things People Insist They Saw But Can’t Substantiate

The vast and mysterious realm of the internet has become a breeding ground for stories that defy explanation. Reddit, a diverse community where users share experiences and anecdotes, has recently seen a surge in tales that fall into the category of the bizarre and unverifiable.

#1

Image source: Hof354, Brixiv

When I was about 10 years old I saw my old dog catch a crow out of the air then just gently release it.

#2

I saw a bird shoplifting ring? A sea-gull walked into greggs and stole a packed of crisps (after looking through them all) and walked out, delivered it to another seagull who gave it to another one who opened it and they then all shared the crisps.

Image source: Throwaway3223444

#3

Before my sister was born, my parents found a kitten. They decided to keep it, because they could find no owner. Named her Princess. Anyway, my sister is 4 years older than I am. We both grew up with this cat. She’d sometimes follow us and watch over us. My parents used to make jokes about how she thought of us as her kittens. Now, my sister wasn’t very nice to me. It took a lot of people a lot of time to realise she wasn’t just nasty; it was full on abuse and bullying. My sister is a narcissist, but that’s not what you need to know. When I was too young to understand what was happening, I used to talk to Princess. She was like my version of a diary; I’d sit with this creature that was older than I was and tell her all my problems. One day at a store, my mum told us she’d buy us each a lolly. My sister wanted a different one to me, and grabbed my arm and clawed her nails down it so hard it drew blood. Hurt a lot and I was really upset. When we got home I went and cried to Princess about how scared I’d felt. After a while I calmed down and went and played with my toys. Princess ambled out of the room. A few minutes later I heard a shriek and she ambled back in. Turns out she’d walked up and scratched my sisters hand, then hissed at her before coming back to sit with me, and watch over me playing with my toys. My parents assume that my sister provoked her, but I know. She walked out of the room right after I’d been talking to her, and walked in right after the shriek. I can’t prove it, but I think Princess saw how scared I was and showed me that she’d protect me. I’ve never told anybody about my white and grey guardian apart from my currant cat. I haven’t thought about Princess in a while. She lived to be between 19 and 21, depending on how old she was when my parents got her (she lived with them for 19 years; was around two when they found her). I loved that cat. Funnily enough, my new cat was originally my sisters. She got him, then left him with my parents, and he slowly became mine. He likes to sit with me more than he likes her.

Image source: anon

#4

Image source: shardcommondale, Ilikefood

I’m in line at a cafeteria. The guy in front of me is holding a pudding cup. Someone walking by stumbles and falls into pudding cup guy, knocking his pudding cup out of his hand. While everyone is looking at stumbling guy, the pudding cup goes a good two feet straight up in the air. Pudding cup guy is totally focused and at the last second turns and catches the pudding cup behind his back. He looks at me, smiles and that was that. No one else saw it.

#5

In 1997, I was 17. I was driving my gf at the time home late at night and we are sitting at a stoplight on an overpass above a freeway. An 80’s dodge omni comes flying up to the light across from us and barely comes to a stop while the light is still red. I look across at the driver and he looks panicked and frazzled, and I look over at the passenger and that’s when s**t got real. There was a girl with duct tape wrapped around her face and shoulders. Her hair was all f****d up and she was crying. It took me a few seconds to even process what I was seeing. I looked at my gf and she looked at me and she burst out crying and said “WTF is going on in that car?” No sooner do I look back, the guy has already turned the wrong way onto a one-way street of the service drive of the freeway (in Michigan, it’s common for north-bound freeway traffic to have a north-bound local road along the side of the freeway, for which he’d turned south). I freaked the f**k out. I threw my car in reverse. I tried backtracking and flying down city streets to catch up with him. We did see him at one point in time hit a turn around onto 8 mile, he didn’t have a plate on his car. I hurried up and went home (I was only about a half mile from where we were when we saw him hit the turn around). I rushed in and called the cops while my gf frantically tried telling my mom what we saw. The cops came. They took our story. There was never a missing persons story that matched what we said. My mom never quite believed us. It was written off as two teens with overactive imaginations. I know wtf I saw. I’m a man in my 30’s and I’ll never forget the look on that girl’s face. The crazy in that guy’s eyes. My gf (who later became my wife, now ex) remembers it vividly, too. That was one of the most f****d up nights of both of our lives.

Image source: bigstar3

#6

I was at my mom’s side when she passed away. I swear, seconds before she departed, I heard her and my grandmother (who had died in the 80s) behind me. Mom said “I really look awful,” and Grandma said “It’s time to go.” I turned around but the sun was coming in through the window so a little bright. It was at that very moment that mom passed away.

Image source: discogeek

#7

Image source: anon, Nate Grigg

I slipped on icy stairs last winter and swear I saw my own butt crack as I fell. No one believes me.

#8

When I was 5 I woke up from my sleep and saw a man sitting on the stairs watching me. I wasn’t scared though. There was something tranquil about it. I just watched him and he watched me for what seemed like 10 minutes. Then all of a sudden he was gone. A few days later I found out my dad was killed in Europe. I live in Canada and my parents were seperated. There’s pictures of me with him when I was just born but he left shortly after that. To this day, that is the only memory that I have of my dad. A ghost watching over me. I don’t believe in ghosts but I know what I saw. I’ve never told anyone before except my mom.

Image source: anon

#9

I was at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I walked up to the cuttlefish tank, and for some reason all 20 or so of the cuttlefish rushed over to me. It was a big tank, maybe 10 feet long. I walked the length of it, and they followed me. I walked back, and they followed. A few other people saw and tried it themselves. But alas, the cuttlefish only had eyes for me. My best guess as to the cause was that the guy who feeds them is my doppelganger.

Image source: anon

#10

Image source: Novacryy, Doğan Alpaslan Demir

As a child I touched some weird pest plant in our garden, I think it stung me. Then I saw everything in inverted colors for a short time. And then back to normal. I was in such a shock, I couldn’t explain it to my mom. I just went to her crying.

#11

Image source: klitchell, Amanda Dalbjörn

I’ve had glasses since the third grade. I was playing tackle football with friends after school (I wasn’t wearing glasses), tackled one of my friends, really big collision, for a second I regained full eyesight…then I blinked and it was gone again.

#12

Image source: nocsha, Sabel Blanco

A kangaroo, and we don’t live in Australia, there was something stuck in my grandmother’s garage crashing all over the place. I opened the door saw it and went to tell them it came through the door and ran/jumped across the field.   Everyone thinks I was making it up but nobody else was there to see it.

I live in a wicked rural town in Maine.

#13

Image source: RabidRoosters, Roman Akhmerov

I saw my neighbor walking down the road in a red party dress around 3am. I wasn’t f****d up or on anything. He denies it and the rest of the neighborhood thinks I’m making it up. I saw you Tim. You and I both know.

#14

Image source: TheWilsonJeffrey, Mark Timberlake

A fat squirrel in a tree threw a piece of fried chicken at me.

#15

Image source: poopellar, Freddie Ramm

I saw a bunch of crows, around 20+, gather around in a circle. I was like wtf and took a closer look to see 3 other crows in the middle of the circle, all on their backs. And some crows from the circle would hop in and try to peck at the 3 crows, while they cawed and tried to defend themselves with their feet. I know crows are smart and all but didn’t expect this level of social behavior. It went on for a while before a kid ran in and scattered them all.

#16

Image source: WildxYak, Victor Freitas

I was at the airport and saw a businessman with a carry on wheely bag get off the escalator.
He turned the corner, broke into a sprint carrying the bag by it’s small strap handle on top.
He swung the bag forward and let go of the strap handle. While it was in mid-air he grabbed the currently unextended extending handle, pressed the button and on the back swing extended the handle and landed it on its wheels and continued sprinting, all without breaking stride.

#17

I know this will get buried, but I HAVE TO post this. I went outside early one morning and saw this woman kneeled in my mothers flower garden. I was a little sketched out. I was like, 10 and a person I didn’t know was just sitting in the middle of our garden. Not knowing what to do, I just said hello to her. She turned around and immediately apologized for being in our yard, and said that we had such nice flowers she couldn’t help it. Then she walked away. I thought it was cute, didn’t think any more of it, and went about my day. My mom and dad left to do errands and my brother and I were home alone. We were both watching TV. Without any warning, someone taps my shoulder behind me. I freak out, turn around, and SHE IS STANDING RIGHT BEHIND MY BROTHER AND I. She apologized immensely and then asks where my mom and dad were, and I told her they would be back anytime, but that she really shouldn’t be coming into people’s houses. She agreed, and asked for a pen and a piece of paper, saying she wanted to write them a note. I complied and told her to do it out in the dining room. I peered from behind a corner in my hallway and never let her out of my sight. I was beyond afraid. She calmly sets the pen down, shouts thank you from the dining room, and then walks out the front door. I bolt to the window and make sure she’s gone, then I bolt to the door and lock it. Then I nervously and very slowly approached the note she left on the table. I read it and was dumbfounded. She said that she believed god spoke to her in the garden, and told her to build an alter to her grandmother. The note was her scheduling an appointment with my mother to discuss placing a tombstone and a prayer table or something in the garden. My parents got home and I freaked out, I told them my mom had to talk to this woman. She left her phone number on the note. My mom took the day off work, sat out on the porch at the time the woman said, and waited for her to arrive. She never showed up. My mom called the number on the note, only to get a disconnected message. The only proof I had of any of these things happening was the note she left. My mom and dad don’t believe most of the story, and it seems even my brother forgot about it, but I know it happened.

Image source: Chief_Ping

#18

When I was about 10 or 11 we were having a get together at gma’s house for the holidays. All of us cousins played all day, and when night fell we played hide and seek. While the adults smoked and drank up by the house, we stayed on the back of the property just having a good time. I was hiding in between a bush and the property fence when I heard the strangest sound. It was almost a scream, both happy and miserable at the same time. I jumped up and kinda shouted. All my cousins heard it, and we all saw it, too. It was an animal on two legs, and it ran off with really jerky motions. Being the oldest by about three years, I calmed down the crying little ones and explained as best I could that it was just someone trying to scare us. I’ve had nightmares about that sound; in my mind it seems a grotesque mimicry of our joyous screams and laughter as we played. None of my cousins today will admit to even remembering the incident, although the adults remembered the commotion it caused. .

Image source: texasshorthorn

#19

Image source: _Flake_

I swear that one day, in the middle of a pretty bad snow fall in Montreal, I was driving to meet a friend and saw a guy on a unicycle carrying a trombone. He was wearing ski goggles and just going down the street, heading somewhere. The tire on his unicycle was pretty thiçk, so I’m guessing this was his weather beater unicycle. When I got to my friend’s place and explained it, they thought I was just trying to be funny. I swear it happened.

#20

Image source: vrosej10, Andres Ayrton

In the 1990s, I was such an exercise freak. At least 4 hours a day walking and hillclimbing. I was getting cut off from current events, tv news etc. One day I’m on my way home, around 3pm.I’m crossing the street in front of our local grocery store and there’s this guy on the other side of the street. His hair is a mess, standing on end. His clothes are all over the place, not ripped, but disarranged. Like he walked out of a bomb blast but he cleaner. He’s looking around, silently, clearly confused. Homeless people were really uncommon in my area then and tended to be couchsurfers rather than streetsleepers. He looked too well to be a street sleeper plus he didn’t seem to have a clue where he was but he turned left and wander off the my left before I crossed the road. That night, local news comes on. That afternoon a school teacher a couple of towns away had drowned. They flashed his picture up. It was the dude I saw. I’d swear to it.

Edit: detail I forgot. They never found the dude’s body. Edit: well this blew up more than I expected. I’ll try to answer most of the comments, those that I can. I didn’t go to the cops. It didn’t occur to me at the time. my gut instinct of seeing him on the news was that he was a ghost. The street was very crowded. No one was reacting to him at all. The whole thing had a funny feeling to it. Also this isn’t a region where that is always a helpful move. I was actually pretty gun shy at the time because I’d been a witness in an assault case and it had resulted in severe life consequences for me with little outcome for the victim. He wasn’t wet. Just really shocked and confused looking. I’d be surprised if he faked his death. By all accounts he was a decent dude from what I heard and had nothing to run from. I’m sorry I don’t have more answers. This story haunted me precisely because there are none.

#21

Ball lightning. It was right after a thunderstorm passed by. I could see floating orbs in the sky. There were a couple of cars parked by an open field and people were watching this happen, so I parked and got out to join them.

We all sorta just looked on in silence until they winked out one by one. There was at least ten of them and they seemed to fly together in patterns. Sometimes they were fast, other times they slowed down or reversed direction. They seemed small, but I could tell this wasn’t because they were far up in the sky. If I were to guess, they’d be about the size of a basketball, maybe a little larger.

The whole ordeal only lasted thirty minutes. We then all got in our cars and left. I tried taking pictures but it was dark and the lights were too faint to make out. I should recorded a video instead. I noticed someone was recording them at the scene so I had kinda hoped I’d see it online at some point. But it’s been two years now so I guess not.

Image source: Vadavim

#22

Image source: willstuh, Pixabay

I was snorkeling in Hawaii once, and I swear I saw something that looked like a clear chameleon, but as soon as I got close it buried itself in the sand. I still vividly remember discovering a new species.

#23

I work for the Department of Corrections in my state in one of the oldest cell blocks in the country. There’s a spirit in the 1940’s guard uniform that strolls throughout the cell block. Dozens of us have seen him. He had even shown up on camera from time to time (live speed, when we rewind it, he’s not there). We all know what we saw, but we decide it’s best not to tell many other people because it’s pretty unbelievable.

Image source: DeliverinSigma

#24

Image source: yourboyvlado, Miftah Rafli Hidayat

I don’t know how many people I have told this but nobody believes me but honestly I understand why. When I was around 8 years old I was on vacation in Europe and I was at the zoo with my cousin and she got my some helium shark balloon. When we were getting into the car i let go of the balloon for some reason and watched it float away into the sky. Devastated I tried to forget all about it. About two weeks later I continued my vacation and went to my moms village about 700km away. The first day in my moms family home we go for a walk around the property and in the corner of the field I see it. My shark balloon floated into my very own backyard to find me again.

#25

Image source: enslavedbyvegetables, laura parenti

A chameleon escaped from a bag when my friend was giving it to me and it leapt into a big pile of snow. I looked around for it for a while but couldn’t find it so I gave up. Several weeks later the snow all melted and I was out there and found the lizard partially frozen to the ground. I peeled him off and put it in one of those little plastic tanks and sat it by the radiator in my house. Within an hour or two the lizard was hopping around the cage like nothing ever happened. It lived for several years after that, and was known to my friend and I as Jesus the resurrection lizard.

#26

Image source: crm115, Jimmy Chan

One day I was looking out the window of my office and four semi trucks drove past one after each other. They were in order Costco, Cosco, Cisco, Sysco. Half the people I mention it to don’t care and the other half don’t believe me.

#27

Image source: Totally_Not_Anna, Shashank Kumawat

When I was about 6, my entire family was helping to build my grandparents a new house. I was helping my dad move some really long 2x4s from the lumber pile when a mouse ran out from under the board I had moved (out in the middle of the woods, mice were no big deal to any of us.) I did a double take though because THE MOUSE WAS FREAKING BLUE. I don’t mean the sun reflected off its fur and it had a blue sheen to it, I mean a brilliant, royal blue. He was running fast but I got my dad to notice it too and he agreed that the mouse *really was royal freaking blue*. We’ve told multiple people, my mom included, and no one believes us. But we know what we saw.

#28

In 1994, on a farm in the southern Midwest US, five year old me had this huge yellow lab, sweetest dog in the world, who one day suddenly lost her s**t barking and ran outside. Being 5, I followed her and watched her run out into the cow pasture (where the cows were suspiciously nowhere in sight) and went toe to toe with a f*****g grey wolf.

That area at that time was definitely not wolf country. Coyote sure, but there is no way it was a coyote. Thing towered over my lab, and I’d seen plenty enough coyotes before to know that this thing was not that. My lab barked her damn head off right in his face, and after about a minute he tilted his head and then just turned around and disappeared into the woods. Found all the cows at the opposite end of the pasture circled around the two calves we had. They were never that terrified of coyotes, and they had no fear of domestic dogs (my lab literally climbed over them when they laid down and would tug on their tails – cows gave no f***s).

I will go to my damn grave saying it was a wolf I saw, but nobody believes me of course. I’ve spent years researching wolves and wolf hybrids but every picture I’ve seen of both the animal and the paw prints he left behind says it was very very very much more wolf than coyote or dog or even a mix.

Image source: WolfGirl94

#29

Image source: hablocomogringo, Andrea Piacquadio

Once when I was a teenager I was watching a movie by myself. The tv room then had two chairs separated by a couch. I was on the chair to the right, and at one point I laughed really hard at the movie. I heard someone else laugh and saw what seemed to be a girl my age double over in laughter in the other chair. The weird thing is it didn’t startle me; it just felt nice to share laughter. Then I realized that I was alone in the whole house and the chair was empty. So I turned off the tv and went outside lol.

#30

Image source: steelear, Vishnu R Nair

Sometime in the early 2000s my wife and I went to an Eminem concert at the House of Blues on Sunset in LA (yes I know they are tearing it down and it sucks, I saw a lot of great shows there, including his royal purple badness). Anyway the entire show, maybe 90 minutes, there was a guy dancing on stage in a full mummy suit and he is doing really awkward and funny dances that you wouldn’t expect from a background dancer at a rap concert but hey he’s in a mummy suit so whatever. The show ends and Eminem screams into the mic “Do y’all wanna know who the m***a f****n mummy is?” and the crowd cheers and he screams “Dustin m***a f****n Hoffman!” He pulls a zipper in the back of the costume and out comes an extremely sweaty 60something year old Dustin Hoffman and the crowd goes into a stunned silence for a few seconds and then erupts in cheers. My wife and I just kinda looked at each other in disbelief and when I tell people they always say something like oh it must have just been someone found that looked like him but that guy was Dustin m***a f****n Hoffman and no I have no proof.