Speaker 1: Four years ago, I rented an airbnb to stay in
for the holidays. I was seeing my family for the
week of Christmas, so I got a place that was
just a few miles away. When I arrived on December twentieth,
everything was exactly as I thought it was. The place
was a very regular house in a very normal neighborhood. Overall,
I was satisfied. I'd gotten there around six o'clock on
that first day, though, and I didn't feel like going
out to see anyone until I'd gotten a good night's rest,
so I stayed in and relaxed for the rest of
the night, watching some TV and even getting a little
bit of work done as well. I got in bed
just before ten and fell asleep, but in the middle
of the night, I slowly woke to a noise coming
from downstairs. I was still half asleep and didn't even
check the time, but it sounded like a few small
thumps against the wall coming from somewhere in the house.
As I listened to the noises, I didn't really feel
worried or anything, but rather just thought that it was
the house making these sounds. I only stayed awake for
a minute before drifting into sleep again, and I don't
recall waking up any other times during the night. By morning,
I had forgotten and didn't even think about those noises
I was hearing again. I was pretty sure it was
just the ac unit or something. Anyway, I let my
family know i'd made it into town and we got
our plans set for dinner at their place. I relaxed
at the airbnb for the whole morning and afternoon until
I was ready to head out. I grabbed my bag
in keys, then walked up to the front door to
exit the house. But when I opened it, I was
face to face with a man standing right in front
of me on the porch. It completely caught me off guard,
and I just stood there looking at him for a
second before even saying anything. Can I help you? I asked.
The man didn't knock or ring the doorbell, which made
me start thinking of how long he could have been
standing there for and just why he was here to
begin with. He didn't respond to my question, though, and
instead just nodded then walked away. I watched him go
down to the sidewalk and just continue walking down the
street until he was gone. I can't see any situation
where this wouldn't be strange and creepy. Why was he
at the Airbnb? And for how long was he standing
there without knocking? I made sure the place was locked up,
then drove to my parents' house for dinner with the family.
I brought up the situation as an interesting story, and
everyone else seemed to think it was just as creepy
as I thought. Dinner was still nice, and we had
plenty of great conversations, catching up on life and everything.
But that whole night I couldn't stop thinking about that
man and if my things I'd left at the Airbnb
were going to be stolen or something. I ended up
leaving the dinner get together around nine and getting back
to the Airbnb fifteen minutes later. I parked in the
driveway and walked up to the front door, looking around
for any obvious signs of someone having been there while
I was gone, but I didn't see anything. I unlocked
the door and stepped in. I walked down to the
end of the hallway and into the kitchen, dropping my
keys and bag on the counter. But then there was
a sudden thump. It was just the same as the
ones I'd heard the previous night, but now that I
was downstairs. It was far louder and clearly coming from
one side of the house. I slowly stepped into the
room near where the sound was coming from, but then
the thump came again from from a door right next
to me. I jumped back, getting a surge of adrenaline,
and then, after staring at the door for a few seconds,
I could hear the faint sound of heavy breathing from
the other side. I grabbed my keys and ran for
my car. I still didn't know exactly what was going on,
but I was not going to stay to find out
on my own. I called nine one one and waited
for them to arrive. When they did, I watched them
go in and search for a few minutes. Then they
came out and told me something horrifying. The door the
person was behind was the garage door, which showed signs
of distress from the person, likely trying to break the
lock and get inside. Unknown to me, there was a
side door connected to the garage that led outside, which
had been left unlocked by whoever had stayed here before me.
I didn't ever plan to use the garage, so I
never checked it. Whether the man i'd seen on the
porch was the same person that was in the garage
is unknown, but just knowing that I was asleep while
someone was right below me trying to break into the
house is terrifying. What they were trying to achieve after
breaking in, we have no way of knowing, obviously. After that, though,
I went and stayed at a hotel for the rest
of the week, but I still find myself thinking about
that situation even four years later. A few weeks ago,
I went on a trip where I'd rented out an
Airbnb townhouse. I was staying in a small town that
was near some trails I wanted to hike. I'd never
been there before or really had any idea of the
place I was staying. I just knew it was a
relatively small town that was in a convenient area for me.
The drive took nine hours total, so by the time
I got to the airbnb it was getting late. It
was on a street that had multiple other townhouses on it,
but once I found it, I parked on the road
and got my things up to the door. The place
looked decent on the outside, definitely not very new or anything,
but nothing that I wasn't already expecting. I texted the
owner to let them know i'd made it, since I
didn't see a pass code to the door anywhere in
my emails. I waited for a couple minutes, just standing
there and looking out at the street. Then I heard
a door open nearby and a man walked around the
corner with a smile on his face. He greeted me
as the airbnb host, then let me into the place
and said he'd be right next door if I needed anything.
I wasn't expecting that, but he least left quickly and
didn't make anything too weird. I set up my things
in the bedroom and had a look around the house,
and I went to bed soon after the Next day,
I ate a quick breakfast, then drove out to a
trail and hiked it for a good four hours. I
got back to the townhouse at seven, but when I
entered something felt different. Some of the things in my
room were off, like they'd been moved slightly. Nothing that
I know of was missing, but I don't know. I
just had a feeling it had been tampered with. Aside
from my unevidenced suspicions, though there really weren't any other
things to actually prove someone had been inside while I
was gone. After looking around for thirty minutes, I was
more sure that this was me just being nervous about
staying in an unfamiliar area. I forgot about it and
heated up a frozen meal, then ate dinner on the
caw ouch while watching YouTube on my phone. At eleven PM,
I went to bed. This was a single story townhouse,
so the bedroom was at the end of the main hallway,
opposite of the front door. I was always used to
sleeping upstairs, so it was a little hard to get
comfortable As I laid in bed and tried to sleep.
I kept falling asleep for a few minutes, then waking
up and repeating this process. But then, maybe an hour
into the night, I was laying there awake, waiting to
go back to sleep, when I heard something from outside
the room, a door softly creaking open from across the house.
It sounded intentional, like they were trying to open it
as quietly as possible. I sat up in my bed
and looked at the door as I listened, but I
didn't hear anything else. After a minute, I got and
went to the bedroom door, cracking it open just enough
to see through down the hallway. I could see the
dim glow of the porch light lighting up the area
where the front door was, indicating that the front door
was partially open. I carefully and quietly closed my door
and locked it, then moved to the back of the
room and quietly called the police. In the middle of
the phone call, I heard a creak right outside the
bedroom door, and when I looked at the bottom, I
could see the outline shadow of someone standing there. I
immediately stopped talking, waiting for them to walk away, before
continuing to report to the operator. Thankfully, nothing else seemed
to happen as I waited for the officer to get there.
They were gone by then, but everything showed that someone
had been inside, including shoe prints all over the place,
so there was no doubt even to the cops. But
while I for some reason had my mind set on
it being the airbnb host, they didn't find anything to
support that other than the front door being open without
any struggle. There's also not much to say on whether
they had been inside the house while I was gone
during the day. With nothing missing though, and them coming
back only once I was there, I think their intentions
had to do with me. It still haunts my thoughts
wondering what could have happened and if they are out
there still trying. Last New Year's me and my two
best friends decided it would be fun to get together
and rent out a house for the night. We weren't
big on going to huge parties, but just enjoyed hanging
out among our small group. Also, all of us lived
in dorm rooms, so having a house to ourselves for
once sounded like a great time, even without partying. My
friend Jason rented out in airbnb on the outskirts of
the town we were in. I carpooled with my other friend, Christian,
and we met Jason there on New Year's Eve around noon.
This place was more of a cabin than a normal house,
being all wood and having the typical cabin features. There
were other similar looking cabin houses around, but they all
had a decent spacing between them, so it kind of
felt like we were out there alone. The inside wasn't
as great, but this was one of the cheaper places available,
so none of us were expecting luxury. We spent the
day just hanging out in the living room and talking,
and around six Christian went out to the store to
grab some snacks and drinks. During this time, Jason and
I were still sitting in the living room when there
was a knock at the door. We looked at each
other in surprise, knowing it was really weird for anyone
to be out here and knocking on the door to
an Airbnb. I got up and looked out the people.
Seeing some guy standing on the doorstep, I noticed the
door had one of those metal latches on it, so
I flipped it over and opened the door just enough
to see them. I wouldn't usually enter the door to
a random guy, but being in someone else's house, I
wasn't sure if maybe it was the host or something.
The guy looked at me, and I was instantly aware
of his displeased look. He seemed angry about something, and
it became more blunt when he opened his mouth. He
told me, in a disrespectful and stubborn tone, that we
needed to be quiet tonight and not disturb the entire neighborhood.
The way he said it was almost threatening, and as
if we'd already been making noise. But we hadn't even
done anything loud, nor were we planning to, and all
the houses were so far apart. Even if he was
a neighbor. There's no possible way he'd hear anything unless
we were lighting up fireworks or something. I really wasn't
in the mood to argue, so I just said sure
and closed the door in his face. But not even
a second later, he banged on the door again. I ignored him,
that time, making a face at Jason like this guy
was crazy. We heard him leave after a moment, and
when Christian got back, we told him about the encounter,
and he almost didn't even believe us. The next three
hours went by quick as we watched a movie and
played some games on Jason's switch. Then, come almost midnight,
we heard something outside. It sounded like someone dropping something
on the ground, and a few seconds later, the piercing
sound of glass shattering came from right outside the door.
All of us stood up and ran to look out
the window, seeing that same guy from earlier standing by
Christian's car, which now had glass covering it from his
shattered windshield. The guy was holding a metal baseball bat
and looked like he was in some psychotic state, pacing
around and just going crazy. Christian was pissed, going to
the door and storming outside to confront him. Both Jason
and I went to stop him, but before we even
got to the doorway, a gunshot echoed through the cabin.
I stopped in place, knowing what had likely happened, but
it almost felt like a miracle when I saw Christian
sprint back inside and lock the door behind him. A
few more shots went off, hitting the side of the cabin,
and followed by the man swinging the bat against the
front door. Then, just as suddenly as it all started,
the man just ran away. After an investigation, it was
found that he wasn't even one of the neighbors of
the airbnb. Nobody seems to know who he was, or
where he lived, or even why he went absolutely insane.
It was just an incredibly dangerous, unpredictable encounter that almost
took our lives.