Note: This post contains mention of suicide and distressing situations.
There’s something about working into the late hours of the night that makes even the most mundane job a little more terrifying. Recently, redditor Lopsided-Warthog-854 asked the r/AskReddit community to share their creepy night shift experiences that will forever haunt them. Here are their first-hand accounts from working the “graveyard shift.”
1.“I used to work the late shift as classroom IT support for a college. Since night classes rarely had urgent issues, we spent most of our time handling repairs and maintenance that couldn’t be done during the day. I’m fine with the dark, so I usually didn’t bother turning on the lights if I just needed to do something quick on a computer. One night, around 10 p.m., I had a ticket to install software on the instructor’s PC in a classroom I hadn’t been to before. I headed in, and the room was dimly lit by the faint glow of hallway light spilling through the door. About halfway across the room, I stopped dead in my tracks.”
“The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and this overwhelming feeling hit me: I was being watched. No, not just watched. I felt surrounded.
My eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, and that’s when I saw them. Hospital beds. Dozens of them line the walls. And in each bed, there was a figure sitting up, staring straight at me.
HOLY SHIT.
“OH, I’M SORRY!” I blurted out instinctively, heart pounding in my chest.
Then, it freaking hit me that they weren’t real. They were all just plastic dummies. I had wandered into a nursing classroom.”
—Melbel53
2.“I used to work night shifts as a janitor at a small office building. One night, around 2 a.m., I was mopping the hallway when I heard someone typing on a keyboard. It was weird because I was the only one there. I checked the office where the sound was coming from, and all the lights were off. I walked in, and it stopped. But the chair at the desk was slowly spinning, like someone had just been sitting there. I left my mop and didn’t go back in. I finished my shift in the lobby.”
3.“I was working the third shift as an EMT and was called to do a welfare check with the police department. We could see the guy’s legs hanging over his bed through the bedroom window. We knocked, and there was no movement at all, so it was obviously a dead body. We forced the garage door into the kitchen open, and as soon as we did, we were hit with the ‘death’ smell. All of a sudden, we heard hysterical laughing, which chilled me to the bone. Who could be in this house with a body that smells that bad? Police drew their guns and started clearing the house, giving commands while the laughing continued. It turns out it was the guy’s pet bird.”
—Freshnow48
4.“I was closing up a restaurant at midnight. I was mopping the dining area, turned around to rinse the mop, and looked out the window to see a 9 to 10-foot moose looking in the window back at me. I swear my heart stopped for a few seconds. Then it just walked off across the road.”
5.“I used to work alone late at night at a warehouse near a port (for safety, that shit wouldn’t fly these days). There was this one cold, very foggy night I was on the forklift. It was like 1 a.m. or something. I looked out, and there was this silhouette of a person just standing there under the streetlight, shrouded by fog. It scared the shit out of me, as I was so used to being the only person in that area after 7 p.m. The outline of the person got larger and larger through the dense fog, and finally, a guy emerged, yelling, ‘Hey!’ I got off the forklift and went over to him, not knowing if he was a threat. The dude coped a huge toothless smile as he just asked, ‘Where are the lot lizards at!?’ I sent him on the way to the truck stop a few blocks down. I hope he found true love that night.”
—loztriforce
6.“As a night shift nurse, I’ve seen lots of spooky things, but the one that always creeped me out was at the nursing home I used to work at. It had been an old mansion before being turned into a facility, so it already had creepy Addams Family vibes. But it was just a thing where residents would see a little boy playing in their room before they died. I’d be giving meds or whatnot, and they would look past me and point to nothing (‘Is that little boy yours?’ ‘Why is that boy up so late?’). All of them would die within days of seeing him. Also, it’s pretty neat in a way.”
7.“Driving an 18-wheeler at night, I’ve had a couple of things happen. One night around midnight, after driving most of the day in heavy traffic near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, I saw a lady in between lanes with a lacy white dress just blowing in the wind. I slammed on the brakes and missed a broken bag of concrete with the dust all in the air. I immediately found a place to park and went to bed.”
—George_Parr
8.“Woman’s prison guard here. I had just watched Smile, and the next night, while I was in the mental health pod, an inmate was standing in a weird ballerina position with her right hand holding a water cup out from her body perfectly straight and with her head tilted, all while she had the biggest, creepiest smile on her face. She was standing in the exact center of her cell, staring out. In 15 minutes, when I walked by her again, she was just standing still, smiling at the door. In 15 more minutes, she was asleep in her bed, 15 more minutes and she was standing and saying over and over again that she wanted to hurt me and that I should let her out. I had a blank, serious face for every encounter with her, but inside, I was screaming and trying to not be a bitch. She has never done anything like that before or after with me.”
9.“I worked the night shift as a civil engineer on the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Deterrent Net. One night, after I finished an inspection in the south span around 1 a.m., I was driving my cart back on the sidewalk on the main span when I drove past one of the usual white inspector pickup trucks in the closure area. I stopped my cart after passing the truck and looked back, realizing it wasn’t one of our official trucks. It was a red civilian SUV with lights on, an engine running, and nobody inside. I went up to the car, and immediately, my stomach sank.”
“Keys were in the ignition, their phone was on the dashboard, and a note was on their seat. I called the bridge patrol immediately, but we had to harness up and search the inside of the bridge to make sure they hadn’t climbed down there.
We dropped a flare in the ocean so the Coast Guard could read the tides to search for the body. Not sure if they ever found them.
I think about that person who was so wracked with pain that they pulled over on the bridge, left their engine running, got out, and jumped over the edge.”
—PM_ME_YUR_BUBBLEBUTT
10.“I used to work in Vegas as a diver for the huge aquariums in one of the casinos. This tank happened to be close to the entrance of a popular nightclub. We started our dives at 3 a.m., and let me tell you, nothing good happens at 3 a.m. in Vegas. I’m outside the tank, spotting my other diver, and see some paramedics roll up with a stretcher a little while later, they bring this dude out of the club FULLY strapped down, and he is laughing like the damn joker with his eyes rolling up into his head. His face is COVERED in dozens and dozens of razor cuts.”
“Honestly, there wasn’t much blood, but you could see these lines all over his face, and he was just losing his mind and laughing.
It was so completely unnerving, and the rest of the area was just so silent, and all I could hear was my diver’s air comp and his laughing.
I can only assume it was a bad trip and/or psychosis, and here’s hoping the guy got the help he needed. His face was probably fucked for life.”
—Seastarstiletto
Aaron Black / Getty Images
11.“One that my grandad told me. When he was about 13 or 14, and it wasn’t uncommon to leave school at a very young age to help support the family, he went to work down the local coal mines. One shift, he was down in the depths alongside the older miner he was apprenticed to when a fellow miner went past, giving an acknowledging nod of his head as he went by. The only problem with this was that he knew the miner couldn’t have been there because he’d been killed in a cave a few weeks before. My grandad took off for the surface as fast as he could and didn’t want to go back ever again, but money was tight, and everyone had to work if the family was to eat, so he went back down the mine.”
“Three days later, a huge slab in the ceiling of the shaft he was working in collapsed, killing the man my grandad was apprenticed to and trapping my grandad by the leg.
He was down there in total darkness, stuck with the body of his senior worker, for over 12 hours before they could free him and bring him up. He always swore that seeing the dead miner was his warning and that he should have found a way not to go back.
His leg never did heal properly and was still a mess to the day he died.”
—MadamKitsune
12.“I worked the night shift for most of my adolescence. I was on the third and fourth floors of a mall, and one of my jobs was to walk through the back stairwell that was made for fire escape. I was really overweight at the time and had to take breaks on the stairs. As I walked, I suddenly heard something that sounded like footsteps. I called out, ‘Hello, security. Is someone there?’ Dead silence. I kept walking and heard the footsteps again. This time I shouted, ‘SECURITY! WHO’S THERE?’ Nothing. The footsteps started again, and I started hustling.”
“Now, there’s no way out of the stairs once you’re on them. They go all the way down to the first floor and exit outside. I was on the fourth floor. I heard the footsteps coming, and they were getting louder and closer.
I started running, and so did the other steps. I raced down the stairs and frantically got my key to disarm the fire door. If you don’t disarm it and go through it, the fire alarm will go off.
I was trying to get the key in and heard the footsteps loudly coming RIGHT at me. I slammed the door open, setting off the alarm. I ran outside and turned around with my mace, ready to spray whoever came out. Nothing. Dead silence. Nobody was there.
I lied to my boss and fire department and said I accidentally tripped into the door.”
—Royalchariot
Charlotte Bleijenberg / Getty Images
13.“I worked at a 7-Eleven years ago and was filling in for someone on the overnight shift. This guy pulls up in a taxi, hammered. Only he and I were in the store. As he was looking over the beer options, he said to his friend on the other end of his flip phone, ‘I gotta rob this 7-Eleven now; I don’t even have any money to pay for the cab. I don’t really have a choice.’ I started weighing my options in the eternity it took him to browse. I was looking for a stick or pipe to hit him with (he was quite drunk), then I thought to smash a glass coffee pot over his head. Then I remembered I had the cell number of a cop who worked in that area and texted him. He said he was working and on his way. It was the longest wait ever as I left him inside and pretended to sweep up/mop/anything but be near the counter. The cop came in, grabbed the guy, and he had a loaded revolver on him. Bullet(s) dodged successfully.”
—Jellyeleven
14.“When I was 22, I interned in a nursing home to get credits for school. I couldn’t find any nursing home nearby that would accept me except this one, but it included night shifts. One night, the two other nurses and I were right about done with our shift around 11 p.m. The rule was that we had to wait for the night shift to relieve us. We waited in the break room/conference room since there were cameras there, and we could see if any resident got out of their room. As we were chatting, my colleague stopped, stared at the camera, and said, ‘Uhh, I think I saw someone on the first-floor corridor. Let’s go and check it out.’ The other nurse couldn’t be bothered, so I tagged along.”
“So, we took the stairs to check it out, but as soon as when we got there, I got this feeling like it was cold, but not really. Something felt wrong. We checked the left wing, but there was no one. We checked the right wing. No one. Alright, cool, no emergencies. Let’s go back to the break room.
We called the elevator, got on, and pressed the button to the ground floor. As the doors closed, we both saw an old lady standing in front of the door, smiling at us.
We rushed to the break room, terrified, and checked the cameras. Nothing. The night shift arrived maybe two minutes later, but it felt like an hour.”
—Lordmak
Image Source / Getty Images
15.“I worked as the night shift auditor/front desk alone all night, five nights a week at the Green Park Inn in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. So it’s 3 a.m., and I’m sitting at the desk, bored out of my mind and ready to go home, when the front door opens slowly and then closes back. No one is there. I already knew the stories from the hotel and its history, so I’m a little uneasy, but I guess it could have been the wind. About 20 minutes go by, and I get a call from a guest asking why someone is playing the piano in the reception room directly below her room at this hour of the night. So I had to go to the reception room to see what was going on, and as I got closer, I could clearly hear the piano playing. I’m thinking maybe we have an intoxicated guest or maybe an older guest with dementia. Right as I get ready to open the door to the reception room, the music stops. No one was in there. The last two hours of my shift seemed to go on forever.”
—babywitch828
16.“I was in college working at a coffee shop. My shift was set to end at midnight, and I could leave when the baker arrived. My crappy manager wanted to leave early, so he locked the doors and left me alone to hold down the fort. Typically, it’s not a problem. Very few people go to the drive-through in the middle of the night. After he left, I heard a door open. It was a man who I assume was hiding in the bathroom. I told him the lobby was closed. He asked, ‘Are you all alone back there?’ I obviously lied and said, ‘No, I’m here with the baker and stock boy. You need to leave and go through the drive-through for your order.'”
“He just stood there. I pressed a button on my headset and said, ‘John, will you please call for assistance? There’s a man here who will not leave.’
Thankfully, the real baker arrived while I retreated to the back room, and when we returned to the front, the man wasn’t there anymore. That was the last time I ever worked there alone. My coworker walked me out to my car, and I was shaking the whole way home.”
—Nuggslette
Matthew Troke / Getty Images
17.“I used to work armed security for a hospital network and would work a lot of nights at our oldest hospital that’s been around since the mid-1800s. One night, I was doing my rounds when I got a call over the radio to go check the old dorms because we had a report that someone was up there. These are no longer used, very old dormitories that were used by the nuns who stayed at the hospital way back when. No one was supposed to be up there. I acknowledged it and went to check it out. There was no power in this section, so it was flashlight time. I was checking all the rooms, but there was nothing.”
“As I was about to head back and say I found nothing, I heard a bang in the next room. I called out, ‘Security, please come out; you’re not supposed to be here,’ but there was no answer. There was a bang again, and it sounded like someone had started running. I sprinted into the next room, but no one was there.
I looked all over and found nothing and no one. What’s even crazier is that dispatch told me they never called me and didn’t hear me when I said I’d go check it out.”
—FlannelLegend1
18.“I’m not a night shift worker, but I was working late one night at my office alone and I heard the cleaning crew come in and start doing their usual routine. About 10 minutes later, I closed up and I could still hear them, so I decided to go tell them I was heading out so that way they weren’t surprised. The office is divided into two sections by secure doors, one side for the main teams and the other for admin teams. The exit for the building is on the main team side, so I had to leave the admin side to go to my car. I packed my bags, walked to the dividing door, and could still hear the cleaning crew rolling their large trash cans around, vacuuming, etc.”
“However, as soon as I opened the dividing door, it became deathly quiet. Like the void of space quiet. But I had just heard them, so I knew they had to still be there; maybe they just all paused at the same time. Dumb thought.
I kept calling out to them, saying I was leaving, but I didn’t hear any responses, so I decided to walk around and look for them. There was no one there. It spooked me, so I made a beeline for the exit. There were no cars besides mine in the parking lot either.
I hopped in my car, drove home, and never worked that late again.”
—arty8803
Carlos Barquero / Getty Images
If you’ve ever worked a night shift, comment below the creepiest thing you’ve witnessed. You can also fill out this form if you prefer to remain anonymous.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Dial 988 in the United States to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The 988 Lifeline is available 24/7/365. Your conversations are free and confidential. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org. The Trevor Project, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386.
