May 18, 2025 • 22 mins
Step into the chilling world of real-life nightmares behind closed doors. In this episode, we uncover 5 terrifying true stories that took place in hotels and motels places meant for rest and safety, but which turned into scenes of horror. From unexplained disappearances to sinister encounters, each story will leave you questioning what really goes on when the lights go out. These are the true accounts of vacations turned deadly, guests who never checked out, and secrets hidden in plain sight. Listener discretion is advised.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
A couple of years ago, I was traveling with my
best friend Charlotte. We have traveled together several times now,
but this was by far the scariest thing that ever happened.
After our flight, we booked a hotel not too far
away for the entire time that we were staying. We
took an uber there and the hotel was pretty average
for the most part. It was nothing fancy, but also
(00:28):
nothing was really bad about it either. It was clean
and the staff was friendly, and they had a continental
breakfast as well. So I remember after being out for
most of the first day, Charlotte and I got back
to the hotel sometime at night. We were hanging out
in the room when we noticed this one guy out
of the window. Our room was on the second floor
and it overlooked mostly the parking lot that was behind
(00:50):
the hotel. It was not too busy because there was
another parking lot out front where most of the people parked.
The man was standing sort of at the far back
of the parking lot, almost at the end of it,
and he appeared to be looking right at us. Our
window was not open, but we did not have any
shades covering the window, so it seemed like the man
could see into the room. We looked at him, and
he was definitely looking right at us. The guy appeared
(01:13):
to be somewhat short, had a go tee and sort
of long hair. He motioned to us, but I couldn't
quite tell what he was doing. We were both kind
of confused as to what he wanted. Then we heard
him yell something at us, but I couldn't make it out.
Our window was closed and he wasn't quite loud enough.
Then he pointed at us and said something else. He
didn't necessarily seem angry or anything, but it was just
(01:34):
kind of weird. Then, after pointing at us for like
ten seconds, the man started to jog through the parking
lot closer to the hotel. It seemed like maybe he
was going to go inside. We were a little concerned
that he might go to our room or something, and
the whole thing was kind of weird, so we decided
to cover the windows at that point. About five minutes later,
we heard a knock on our door. We got completely silent,
(01:56):
and then I went over as quietly as I could
and got to the door. I looked through the peep hole,
and sure enough, the man was standing there. We did
not know what he wanted. He stood by the door
and kind of looked around. After staying at the door
for like fifteen or twenty seconds, the man then moved
along and walked away. We thought that we heard him
knocking on another door, so maybe he didn't quite know
(02:17):
which room was ours. Either way, it was kind of
strange and we weren't sure what the guy was doing.
There's no way that we were answering the door for him, though,
so the rest of the night was fine. We hung
out a while longer and then went to sleep. The
next morning, Charlotte and I went down to the first
floor for the Continental breakfast. When we got there, there
were quite a few other people. However, right after arriving,
(02:39):
we noticed the same guy. He was standing on the
far other end of the room holding a cup of coffee.
As soon as we saw him, he seemed to see us.
Then he started walking over in our direction. Charlotte and
I both had a really bad feeling about the guy,
so we decided to just go back to the room.
We quickly turned around and went back. After getting back
to the room, we decided to just leave the hotel
(03:00):
with our plans for the day When we left the hotel,
we didn't see the man. We were gone for the
whole day and arrived back some time that night. I
remember that things were quiet by that point. We walked
through the lobby and then went up to the second
floor to get to our room. As we were walking
down the hallway to our room, we heard someone at
the far other end of the hall. I didn't really
think anything of it, but I looked over and then
(03:21):
noticed that the man was there. He was walking in
our direction and also walking really fast. Charlotte noticed too,
and tried to hurry up and put the key in
the door. She got it open, and we both quickly
went inside. We slammed the door shut behind us. Probably
ten seconds later, the man arrived at the door and
tried to open it. Then he quickly knocked on the door.
We called down to the front desk and reported the man.
(03:43):
He walked away from the door after we didn't answer again.
We were nervous that we would keep seeing him, but
he didn't come back that night, and we didn't see
him the next day or for the rest of our trip.
I guess either the hotel's staff found him and kicked
him out, or something or maybe he just realized that
we wanted nothing to do with him and left. Either way,
I'm really glad that he never got into the room,
and I'm glad that we never answered the door for him.
(04:15):
Two years ago, I was driving back from Oklahoma and
it was a pretty long drive. I would be stopping
and staying overnight at a hotel, and I decided to
just find a cheap one. I'm not a picky person,
and for just one night of travel, I just chose
to stay in a pretty crappy motel. This is something
that I probably won't do again, though. I just figured
(04:36):
at the time I would have a bed, a TV,
and a place to sleep for the night, plus I
would be saving money. It didn't seem like a big deal.
So I drove until about nine pm and then came
across a small town. It wasn't a large city or anything,
and honestly, I have no clue where it was, but
I figured that it would be a good time to
stop because I didn't know where the next city would be.
(04:56):
I drove until I found this cheap motel on the
edge of the city. Right away, it looked kind of
sketchy and like there was nobody else there, but I
didn't care. I figured what could happen, I'm just staying
here one night, So I parked my car and then
went to the office and got a room. It was cheap,
only forty dollars for the night, and I got a
key to one of the rooms. The motel was two
(05:17):
levels and had the standard small rooms that would open
up to a sidewalk that was just in front of
the parking lot. The parking spaces went almost right up
to the room doors, so I got my room, which
was on the first level. I'm not sure how many
other people were staying there that night, but if I
had to guess, it was less than five. So after
making it to my room, I looked around and was
pleasantly surprised. Nothing seemed too dirty or anything. The bed
(05:41):
was decently comfortable, and the cable TV worked fine. It
wasn't that large or the greatest quality, but I felt
good knowing how much money I was saving. Had I
been traveling with somebody else, I probably would not have
stayed there, but for just me it was cool. Even
though it was night time, I really wasn't that tired,
so I just got into bed and started watching TV
and relaxing. Probably thirty minutes later or so, I remember
(06:03):
hearing a really loud car engine. I thought it was
a truck because it sounded almost like a diesel engine.
It got louder and then sounded like it was literally
right outside my room. I ignored it at first, but
the sound continued for a good ten or maybe even
twenty minutes. After a while, it was getting annoying, so
I got up and walked over to the window. The
window to the room was completely covered by the shades.
(06:26):
I pulled them back a little to see that there
was an old, beat up looking car parked right out
in front of my room. The car was rather small,
looked to me from the mid nineteen nineties, and had
some noticeable duct tape on it. I was kind of
annoyed because there were so many empty parking spaces in
the lot. Why was somebody parking right in front of
my room and running their loud engine for so long?
But I guess you get what you paid for, and
(06:47):
I paid just forty dollars for the room that night.
I was starting to regret my decision already because I
could have easily afforded a better hotel, but I was
just being cheap, but overall it wasn't a huge deal
to me, so I went back to the bed and
continued watching TV. After a little while, the engine to
the car turned off and things were quiet again, so
I paid it no mind. A short time later, though,
(07:08):
I was sure that I heard somebody trying to open
the door to my room. It was very quiet and
I barely heard it, but there was also really no
mistaking it. I had a bad feeling, and I got
up from the bed and slowly walked over to the
window first. When I did, I looked and nobody was there,
so either I was just hearing things or whoever had
tried to enter my place had left. I went back
(07:29):
to the bed again and tried to forget about it.
Things went well for the next hour or so. I
still wasn't tired, but got pretty hungry as well as thirsty.
I knew there was a vending machine up the stairs,
so I decided to leave my room to get something.
After grabbing a few dollars, I left the room and
went outside. Things were very quiet out there and I
didn't see anybody at all, so I walked over to
(07:50):
the gap between the two buildings and went up the stairs.
At the second level. Up against one of the buildings
were two vending machines. As I approached them, I noticed
somebody was outside of the room on the second level. However,
I didn't look closely at them, and I didn't pay
them much attention, so I went to the vending machine
and made my selections. Afterwards, I turned around to leave
and I saw the man who had been standing outside
(08:11):
of the rooms. It was the same guy who had
been at my door. The guy was at the end
of the walkway on the second level and had been
there the whole time that I was there. He appeared
to just kind of be standing around, and after noticing me,
I saw him start to walk in my direction. I
didn't know if he was going over to me or
if he was just moving in my direction. I was
already moving to go to the stairs, though I didn't
stop around to wait, and I kept going. I went
(08:33):
back down the stairs, took a left, and then headed
back to my room. When I got back, I quickly
went inside and locked the door. Then I sat back down.
It was maybe two minutes later when I heard a
knock on my door. I got up went over to
the window and carefully looked out. That same guy was there.
He was acting really suspicious, and I didn't know what
he wanted. I thought maybe he was staying in one
(08:55):
of the rooms upstairs. But why would he knock on
my door? There was no way I was answering, so
I just stayed in my room and hoped that he
would go away. He knocked one more time, though, and
I still did nothing. After maybe two or three more minutes,
I heard the loud car starting right outside my room.
I went over to the window and looked out, and
then saw the guy driving away. I was glad that
(09:15):
he was gone. For the rest of the night, he
did not return, and when I got up the next morning,
he wasn't there either. Looking back, I don't know what
was going on there, but I think that the guy
was being really suspicious. I'm never staying in a cheap
motel like that again. Years ago, I used to work
(09:41):
at a fairly nice hotel. It was not five stars
or four stars, but it was a pretty good quality hotel.
The rooms were nice, and there were a decent amount
of meeting rooms and things like that. Most nights there
would be quite a few people staying there. When I
worked there. I would do just a bit of everything,
whatever I was asked to do. Really, most of the
time I would move stuff like equipment. Other times I
(10:03):
would clean meeting rooms or set stuff up, and I
would also work at the restaurant that was in the
hotel sometimes. One night I was working kind of late.
I think that I got off at like midnight. I
got done with working on something, and then I remember
that my boss came up to me and told me something.
He said that guests were reporting a man out in
the parking lot who was harassing them asking for money.
(10:23):
My boss then asked me to see what was going
on and to ask the guy to leave if he
was still there. So I left a hotel and I
walked out into the parking lot. I was kind of
nervous because it was not the usual type of task
that I would do. I had never been told to
ask somebody to leave before. The parking lot was fairly
large and also had quite a few cars in it.
We were near some restaurants and some other businesses that
(10:44):
were down the road, so I figured whoever was walking
around the parking lot harassing people had walked over from
some place. I looked around the parking lot and at
first saw nothing. I was hoping that the man was gone,
but it only took me walking out a few more
steps to notice him. There was a somewhat young looking
man with brown hair and a rough looking beard. He
was wearing a T shirt, jeans, and was barefoot and
(11:05):
was standing near the other end of the parking lot.
I obviously worked at the hotel, and I started to
approach him. I called out to the man, asking what
was going on out there. The guy turned and started
to walk away. He did not leave, though, but just
moved behind some cars. I continued to walk over to him.
The guy was now sort of hiding from me behind vehicles,
and when I got closer, I called out to him again.
(11:26):
He did not answer me. I told him that we
had reports that someone was out there harassing guests at
the hotel. The man then came out from behind a
car a ways away and seemed angry. He said that
he was not harassing anyone. I said that we had
reports somebody was asking people for money and stuff, and
asked if he knew anything about it. The man then
admitted it was him and said that asking people for
(11:46):
money is not a crime. I told him that we
couldn't have him asking our guests for money, and the
guy started being difficult. He kept saying that he did
nothing wrong. The man was overall giving me a tough
time and was not seeming reasonable. I said that guests
were complain and that he would have to leave. I
told him to go off our property, and then he
got into this whole thing, claiming that it was public
property because there was a parking lot. First, the man
(12:08):
said that if I gave him money, he would then leave,
but I was not going to do that. He then
said that he was not moving and I could call
his lawyer. I tried to reason with him. The man
was not having any of it, though, so then I
threatened to call the cops. That's when the guy got
mad and started shouting. He was cursing at me, saying
that I was harassing him and all that. I started
to walk away from the guy. He stayed where he
(12:30):
was and I hoped that he would leave, but I
went back inside and told my boss what happened. My
boss said that we would have to call the police,
so we both went outside to find the man was
still there. So we called the cops and then waited
for them to arrive. When they got there, they couldn't
get the guy to leave either, and he started making
a scene, so he got arrested for trespassing. He was
also found to be in possession of meth, so I'm
(12:51):
sure he got in trouble for that too. However, the
story doesn't end there. I continued working at the hotel
like normal. It was only like a week, maybe a
week and a half later, when I had another late
night shift. I got off work a little bit after midnight.
I started heading to my car, which was in the
back parking lot. When I was walking to my vehicle,
I saw someone come out from behind a nearby car.
(13:12):
I realized that it was the same guy from before.
He looked really angry and immediately came out from behind
a vehicle and started charging at me. I just turned
around and ran back for the hotel. I sprinted as
fast as I could and made it back inside. I
used my keyfob to open the door, and it was
the back door, which is locked at all times, so
the man was not able to get inside that way.
(13:32):
After getting back in, I called the police right away.
The man was already banned from our premises from before,
so he was trespassing. It seemed as though he had
been planning to attack me or something. As I was
inside the hotel, I told a few coworkers and was
waiting for the police. Several minutes later, the man came
into our main lobby of the hotel. He started yelling
and cursing about the hotel and employees. He was clearly
(13:54):
mad about what happened before. I stayed away from him
and was in the back, and most people tried to
keep away from him as well. He stayed in the
lobby shouting until the police got there. Then he was
arrested for trespassing again. After that night, I never saw
the guy again. I worked at the hotel for maybe
another three or four months. I was kind of worried
that he would go after me again or something. Thankfully,
(14:15):
he never did. This is a sort of foggy memory
because it happened a really long time ago when I
was a kid. However, I still remember some of the
details very well, and I don't think I will ever
forget them. So it was sometime in the late nineteen
(14:38):
nineties and I was like twelve. I was on a
road trip with my family. It was my parents, my
aunt and uncle, my younger brother, and my two older cousins.
We had three hotel rooms for all of us. My
parents had one, my aunt and uncle had another, and
then the four of us kids had our own room.
The oldest was my cousin Sherry, who was probably sixteen
at the time. I remember that after we got to
(14:59):
the hotel room, it was a lot of fun. Us
kids were just watching TV and hanging out and had
some games. Our parents told us to go to bed
by I think eleven, because we were planning to hit
the road early the next morning. Of course, we wanted
to stay up late, and without parents' supervision. We were
playing games and having popcorn as well as watching movies.
I'm pretty sure we stayed up until like one am,
(15:20):
as it got to be pretty late. Though. After midnight
we tried to quiet down so that our parents wouldn't
hear that we were still awake. Things around the hotel
had gotten much quieter as well. We had the volume
lower for the TV and we're still watching movies and
having popcorn. My brother was playing on his game boy
in the corner of the room. Then out of nowhere,
we heard this really creepy and weird sounding laugh coming
(15:40):
from the hallway. It sounded like a man laughing, but
was just really strange sounding. It gave me the creeps instantly,
and I had a bad feeling about it, but maybe
that was just because it was so late at night.
But us kids, being in the room, whispered to each
other about it, wondering what it was. After like thirty
seconds of hearing the laughter on and off, it finally stopped.
After that, all of us went over to the door
(16:02):
and one at a time looked through the people into
the hallway, but nobody was there. It gave us all
the creeps because of how weird the laughter sounded, and
there were no other voices in the hallway, just this
one guy laughing. We went back to what we were
doing after that, just brushing it off for the most part. However,
maybe twenty minutes later, we heard the laughter again. It
was coming from what sounded like right outside the door.
(16:23):
I was the closest to the door, sitting on the
edge of one of the beds, so I got up
and walked over to the door. I looked through the
people and I saw a man there. He was really
creepy looking. I just remember that he had these really
wide eyes and a big forced grin on his face.
The man was not looking directly at our door, but
sort of in the direction of it. He was laughing
this really creepy and insane sounding laugh. Then he sort
(16:46):
of turned and took a few steps in one direction,
only to turn back and walk towards our door again.
Sherry had made it to the door and asked what
I saw. I had to stop looking because I was
so creeped out, so then she looked and whispered that
it was really strange. The man then slowly walked away
down the hallway. The laughter then stopped. We heard it
one more time about ten minutes later, but it wasn't
(17:06):
as loud. It was very weird, and other than that,
everything seemed completely silent. Soon thereafter, we decided to go
to bed. I found it difficult to sleep, though we
didn't hear the guy at all any more, and eventually
I was able to fall asleep. The next morning, we
all got up and went to the hotel breakfast before leaving.
I remember that there was a room with some tables
and food for breakfast, and a bunch of other people
(17:28):
were there as well. They also had some other furniture
and decorations in the room, and when I was there,
I saw some framed pictures on the wall. Most were
simple pictures like paintings of landscapes or whatever, but they
had a few pictures of people looking back. I don't
know why, and in one of the pictures it was
several people standing outside together, like a group of people.
I have no idea who they were, but one of
(17:50):
the guys in the photo I recognized as the man
who had been laughing in the hallway. I was sure
that it was him. I showed my cousins and they
all agreed it was so creepy. We told our parents
about it, and they hadn't heard the man because they
had all been sleeping. They told us there was probably
some drunk guy going back to his room. Overall, they
didn't seem too concerned, but after seeing the guy in
the picture, it just seemed really weird. We left soon
(18:13):
after and went on with the road trip. That's something
that I wish I knew more information about now. I
wish I would have found out what group of people
that picture was and who the man was. He wasn't
really acting drunk. In my opinion, it was like he
was trying to be as creepy as possible. When I
(18:38):
was younger, my family used to own this motel and
I worked there for a while. They sold it several
years ago, which I'm happy about, because I didn't really
like working there. Being a motel, I would see a
lot of sketchy people in my time there. I would
also have to work overnight shifts a lot of the time,
and usually nothing much happened. I would just sit behind
the counter and I would feel pretty safe because there
(18:59):
was glass walls opting you from the customers. One night
I was working and it was really late at night,
probably like eleven p m. A man walked into the
office and approached me. He looked sketchy from the start,
but many people who stayed at our motel did. It
was a cheap motel, so it didn't make me suspicious
or anything that he was there. The guy walked up
and then asked for a room for the night. I
(19:20):
told him the price and stuff, and he paid in cash.
Then I gave him the key to the room and
told him the room number and all that. He took
the key and walked out. I went back to what
I usually did which was going online on the computer
there at the desk and playing games and stuff. About
ten minutes later, though, the door opened again and I
saw that the same man was back. He told me
that he needed help and he couldn't get his key
(19:41):
to work. I told him the room number again and
made sure that it was the correct room. He said, yes,
it was, and said that the key would not work
no matter what he did. Then he asked me if
I could help him. I looked at the key and
it looked like it should be working. We had had
some problems though in the past, because, like I said,
we were a cheap motel. I was annoyed, and I
figured that I would just see for myself, so I
(20:02):
told the man I would try it out. I left
my room behind the counter and walked outside with the guide.
The motel had rooms that opened up right outside and
mostly to the parking lot. It was very quiet out
and there was woods next to the parking lot. The
man's room was supposed to be towards the end of
the building. I walked down there with him and noticed
a large white van was parked right in front of
the room. I figured that was his. We walked over
(20:24):
to the door of the room, and the man gave
me the key. As I tried the key, the door
instantly opened right away. It was like there was no
problem at all. But then right as the door opened,
I felt the man start to push me from behind.
He shoved me inside the room and I hit the door,
went inside, and then fell down. The man then entered
the room. He quickly turned and was closing the door
and locking it. And during that time I knew what
(20:45):
I had to do. Working at a sketchy motel, I
was not completely unprepared. I had never been in a
situation like that before, but I always carried a stun
gun with me just in case. I got it out
of my pocket and I quickly got to my feet.
Then I went for the man. He had just finished
locking the door when I reached him, and I got
him with the sun gun pretty good. The man didn't
seem to expect it and moved to the side a little.
(21:07):
I pushed him and he hit the wall. I quickly
opened the door, left the room and ran back for
the office. When I got inside, I locked the door
and called the police. I told him what happened and
was able to look out of the window and see
the man getting into his van. Then he quickly left,
screeching the tires. When the police got there about five
minutes later, I gave him a description of the man
and his vehicle. They located him a short time later.
(21:30):
After that event, I took some time off, and about
two years later my family finally sold the motel. That
was by far my scariest experience working there.
A couple of years ago, I was traveling with my
best friend Charlotte. We have traveled together several times now,
but this was by far the scariest thing that ever happened.
After our flight, we booked a hotel not too far
away for the entire time that we were staying. We
took an uber there and the hotel was pretty average
for the most part. It was nothing fancy, but also
(00:28):
nothing was really bad about it either. It was clean
and the staff was friendly, and they had a continental
breakfast as well. So I remember after being out for
most of the first day, Charlotte and I got back
to the hotel sometime at night. We were hanging out
in the room when we noticed this one guy out
of the window. Our room was on the second floor
and it overlooked mostly the parking lot that was behind
(00:50):
the hotel. It was not too busy because there was
another parking lot out front where most of the people parked.
The man was standing sort of at the far back
of the parking lot, almost at the end of it,
and he appeared to be looking right at us. Our
window was not open, but we did not have any
shades covering the window, so it seemed like the man
could see into the room. We looked at him, and
he was definitely looking right at us. The guy appeared
(01:13):
to be somewhat short, had a go tee and sort
of long hair. He motioned to us, but I couldn't
quite tell what he was doing. We were both kind
of confused as to what he wanted. Then we heard
him yell something at us, but I couldn't make it out.
Our window was closed and he wasn't quite loud enough.
Then he pointed at us and said something else. He
didn't necessarily seem angry or anything, but it was just
(01:34):
kind of weird. Then, after pointing at us for like
ten seconds, the man started to jog through the parking
lot closer to the hotel. It seemed like maybe he
was going to go inside. We were a little concerned
that he might go to our room or something, and
the whole thing was kind of weird, so we decided
to cover the windows at that point. About five minutes later,
we heard a knock on our door. We got completely silent,
(01:56):
and then I went over as quietly as I could
and got to the door. I looked through the peep hole,
and sure enough, the man was standing there. We did
not know what he wanted. He stood by the door
and kind of looked around. After staying at the door
for like fifteen or twenty seconds, the man then moved
along and walked away. We thought that we heard him
knocking on another door, so maybe he didn't quite know
(02:17):
which room was ours. Either way, it was kind of
strange and we weren't sure what the guy was doing.
There's no way that we were answering the door for him, though,
so the rest of the night was fine. We hung
out a while longer and then went to sleep. The
next morning, Charlotte and I went down to the first
floor for the Continental breakfast. When we got there, there
were quite a few other people. However, right after arriving,
(02:39):
we noticed the same guy. He was standing on the
far other end of the room holding a cup of coffee.
As soon as we saw him, he seemed to see us.
Then he started walking over in our direction. Charlotte and
I both had a really bad feeling about the guy,
so we decided to just go back to the room.
We quickly turned around and went back. After getting back
to the room, we decided to just leave the hotel
(03:00):
with our plans for the day When we left the hotel,
we didn't see the man. We were gone for the
whole day and arrived back some time that night. I
remember that things were quiet by that point. We walked
through the lobby and then went up to the second
floor to get to our room. As we were walking
down the hallway to our room, we heard someone at
the far other end of the hall. I didn't really
think anything of it, but I looked over and then
(03:21):
noticed that the man was there. He was walking in
our direction and also walking really fast. Charlotte noticed too,
and tried to hurry up and put the key in
the door. She got it open, and we both quickly
went inside. We slammed the door shut behind us. Probably
ten seconds later, the man arrived at the door and
tried to open it. Then he quickly knocked on the door.
We called down to the front desk and reported the man.
(03:43):
He walked away from the door after we didn't answer again.
We were nervous that we would keep seeing him, but
he didn't come back that night, and we didn't see
him the next day or for the rest of our trip.
I guess either the hotel's staff found him and kicked
him out, or something or maybe he just realized that
we wanted nothing to do with him and left. Either way,
I'm really glad that he never got into the room,
and I'm glad that we never answered the door for him.
(04:15):
Two years ago, I was driving back from Oklahoma and
it was a pretty long drive. I would be stopping
and staying overnight at a hotel, and I decided to
just find a cheap one. I'm not a picky person,
and for just one night of travel, I just chose
to stay in a pretty crappy motel. This is something
that I probably won't do again, though. I just figured
(04:36):
at the time I would have a bed, a TV,
and a place to sleep for the night, plus I
would be saving money. It didn't seem like a big deal.
So I drove until about nine pm and then came
across a small town. It wasn't a large city or anything,
and honestly, I have no clue where it was, but
I figured that it would be a good time to
stop because I didn't know where the next city would be.
(04:56):
I drove until I found this cheap motel on the
edge of the city. Right away, it looked kind of
sketchy and like there was nobody else there, but I
didn't care. I figured what could happen, I'm just staying
here one night, So I parked my car and then
went to the office and got a room. It was cheap,
only forty dollars for the night, and I got a
key to one of the rooms. The motel was two
(05:17):
levels and had the standard small rooms that would open
up to a sidewalk that was just in front of
the parking lot. The parking spaces went almost right up
to the room doors, so I got my room, which
was on the first level. I'm not sure how many
other people were staying there that night, but if I
had to guess, it was less than five. So after
making it to my room, I looked around and was
pleasantly surprised. Nothing seemed too dirty or anything. The bed
(05:41):
was decently comfortable, and the cable TV worked fine. It
wasn't that large or the greatest quality, but I felt
good knowing how much money I was saving. Had I
been traveling with somebody else, I probably would not have
stayed there, but for just me it was cool. Even
though it was night time, I really wasn't that tired,
so I just got into bed and started watching TV
and relaxing. Probably thirty minutes later or so, I remember
(06:03):
hearing a really loud car engine. I thought it was
a truck because it sounded almost like a diesel engine.
It got louder and then sounded like it was literally
right outside my room. I ignored it at first, but
the sound continued for a good ten or maybe even
twenty minutes. After a while, it was getting annoying, so
I got up and walked over to the window. The
window to the room was completely covered by the shades.
(06:26):
I pulled them back a little to see that there
was an old, beat up looking car parked right out
in front of my room. The car was rather small,
looked to me from the mid nineteen nineties, and had
some noticeable duct tape on it. I was kind of
annoyed because there were so many empty parking spaces in
the lot. Why was somebody parking right in front of
my room and running their loud engine for so long?
But I guess you get what you paid for, and
(06:47):
I paid just forty dollars for the room that night.
I was starting to regret my decision already because I
could have easily afforded a better hotel, but I was
just being cheap, but overall it wasn't a huge deal
to me, so I went back to the bed and
continued watching TV. After a little while, the engine to
the car turned off and things were quiet again, so
I paid it no mind. A short time later, though,
(07:08):
I was sure that I heard somebody trying to open
the door to my room. It was very quiet and
I barely heard it, but there was also really no
mistaking it. I had a bad feeling, and I got
up from the bed and slowly walked over to the
window first. When I did, I looked and nobody was there,
so either I was just hearing things or whoever had
tried to enter my place had left. I went back
(07:29):
to the bed again and tried to forget about it.
Things went well for the next hour or so. I
still wasn't tired, but got pretty hungry as well as thirsty.
I knew there was a vending machine up the stairs,
so I decided to leave my room to get something.
After grabbing a few dollars, I left the room and
went outside. Things were very quiet out there and I
didn't see anybody at all, so I walked over to
(07:50):
the gap between the two buildings and went up the stairs.
At the second level. Up against one of the buildings
were two vending machines. As I approached them, I noticed
somebody was outside of the room on the second level. However,
I didn't look closely at them, and I didn't pay
them much attention, so I went to the vending machine
and made my selections. Afterwards, I turned around to leave
and I saw the man who had been standing outside
(08:11):
of the rooms. It was the same guy who had
been at my door. The guy was at the end
of the walkway on the second level and had been
there the whole time that I was there. He appeared
to just kind of be standing around, and after noticing me,
I saw him start to walk in my direction. I
didn't know if he was going over to me or
if he was just moving in my direction. I was
already moving to go to the stairs, though I didn't
stop around to wait, and I kept going. I went
(08:33):
back down the stairs, took a left, and then headed
back to my room. When I got back, I quickly
went inside and locked the door. Then I sat back down.
It was maybe two minutes later when I heard a
knock on my door. I got up went over to
the window and carefully looked out. That same guy was there.
He was acting really suspicious, and I didn't know what
he wanted. I thought maybe he was staying in one
(08:55):
of the rooms upstairs. But why would he knock on
my door? There was no way I was answering, so
I just stayed in my room and hoped that he
would go away. He knocked one more time, though, and
I still did nothing. After maybe two or three more minutes,
I heard the loud car starting right outside my room.
I went over to the window and looked out, and
then saw the guy driving away. I was glad that
(09:15):
he was gone. For the rest of the night, he
did not return, and when I got up the next morning,
he wasn't there either. Looking back, I don't know what
was going on there, but I think that the guy
was being really suspicious. I'm never staying in a cheap
motel like that again. Years ago, I used to work
(09:41):
at a fairly nice hotel. It was not five stars
or four stars, but it was a pretty good quality hotel.
The rooms were nice, and there were a decent amount
of meeting rooms and things like that. Most nights there
would be quite a few people staying there. When I
worked there. I would do just a bit of everything,
whatever I was asked to do. Really, most of the
time I would move stuff like equipment. Other times I
(10:03):
would clean meeting rooms or set stuff up, and I
would also work at the restaurant that was in the
hotel sometimes. One night I was working kind of late.
I think that I got off at like midnight. I
got done with working on something, and then I remember
that my boss came up to me and told me something.
He said that guests were reporting a man out in
the parking lot who was harassing them asking for money.
(10:23):
My boss then asked me to see what was going
on and to ask the guy to leave if he
was still there. So I left a hotel and I
walked out into the parking lot. I was kind of
nervous because it was not the usual type of task
that I would do. I had never been told to
ask somebody to leave before. The parking lot was fairly
large and also had quite a few cars in it.
We were near some restaurants and some other businesses that
(10:44):
were down the road, so I figured whoever was walking
around the parking lot harassing people had walked over from
some place. I looked around the parking lot and at
first saw nothing. I was hoping that the man was gone,
but it only took me walking out a few more
steps to notice him. There was a somewhat young looking
man with brown hair and a rough looking beard. He
was wearing a T shirt, jeans, and was barefoot and
(11:05):
was standing near the other end of the parking lot.
I obviously worked at the hotel, and I started to
approach him. I called out to the man, asking what
was going on out there. The guy turned and started
to walk away. He did not leave, though, but just
moved behind some cars. I continued to walk over to him.
The guy was now sort of hiding from me behind vehicles,
and when I got closer, I called out to him again.
(11:26):
He did not answer me. I told him that we
had reports that someone was out there harassing guests at
the hotel. The man then came out from behind a
car a ways away and seemed angry. He said that
he was not harassing anyone. I said that we had
reports somebody was asking people for money and stuff, and
asked if he knew anything about it. The man then
admitted it was him and said that asking people for
(11:46):
money is not a crime. I told him that we
couldn't have him asking our guests for money, and the
guy started being difficult. He kept saying that he did
nothing wrong. The man was overall giving me a tough
time and was not seeming reasonable. I said that guests
were complain and that he would have to leave. I
told him to go off our property, and then he
got into this whole thing, claiming that it was public
property because there was a parking lot. First, the man
(12:08):
said that if I gave him money, he would then leave,
but I was not going to do that. He then
said that he was not moving and I could call
his lawyer. I tried to reason with him. The man
was not having any of it, though, so then I
threatened to call the cops. That's when the guy got
mad and started shouting. He was cursing at me, saying
that I was harassing him and all that. I started
to walk away from the guy. He stayed where he
(12:30):
was and I hoped that he would leave, but I
went back inside and told my boss what happened. My
boss said that we would have to call the police,
so we both went outside to find the man was
still there. So we called the cops and then waited
for them to arrive. When they got there, they couldn't
get the guy to leave either, and he started making
a scene, so he got arrested for trespassing. He was
also found to be in possession of meth, so I'm
(12:51):
sure he got in trouble for that too. However, the
story doesn't end there. I continued working at the hotel
like normal. It was only like a week, maybe a
week and a half later, when I had another late
night shift. I got off work a little bit after midnight.
I started heading to my car, which was in the
back parking lot. When I was walking to my vehicle,
I saw someone come out from behind a nearby car.
(13:12):
I realized that it was the same guy from before.
He looked really angry and immediately came out from behind
a vehicle and started charging at me. I just turned
around and ran back for the hotel. I sprinted as
fast as I could and made it back inside. I
used my keyfob to open the door, and it was
the back door, which is locked at all times, so
the man was not able to get inside that way.
(13:32):
After getting back in, I called the police right away.
The man was already banned from our premises from before,
so he was trespassing. It seemed as though he had
been planning to attack me or something. As I was
inside the hotel, I told a few coworkers and was
waiting for the police. Several minutes later, the man came
into our main lobby of the hotel. He started yelling
and cursing about the hotel and employees. He was clearly
(13:54):
mad about what happened before. I stayed away from him
and was in the back, and most people tried to
keep away from him as well. He stayed in the
lobby shouting until the police got there. Then he was
arrested for trespassing again. After that night, I never saw
the guy again. I worked at the hotel for maybe
another three or four months. I was kind of worried
that he would go after me again or something. Thankfully,
(14:15):
he never did. This is a sort of foggy memory
because it happened a really long time ago when I
was a kid. However, I still remember some of the
details very well, and I don't think I will ever
forget them. So it was sometime in the late nineteen
(14:38):
nineties and I was like twelve. I was on a
road trip with my family. It was my parents, my
aunt and uncle, my younger brother, and my two older cousins.
We had three hotel rooms for all of us. My
parents had one, my aunt and uncle had another, and
then the four of us kids had our own room.
The oldest was my cousin Sherry, who was probably sixteen
at the time. I remember that after we got to
(14:59):
the hotel room, it was a lot of fun. Us
kids were just watching TV and hanging out and had
some games. Our parents told us to go to bed
by I think eleven, because we were planning to hit
the road early the next morning. Of course, we wanted
to stay up late, and without parents' supervision. We were
playing games and having popcorn as well as watching movies.
I'm pretty sure we stayed up until like one am,
(15:20):
as it got to be pretty late. Though. After midnight
we tried to quiet down so that our parents wouldn't
hear that we were still awake. Things around the hotel
had gotten much quieter as well. We had the volume
lower for the TV and we're still watching movies and
having popcorn. My brother was playing on his game boy
in the corner of the room. Then out of nowhere,
we heard this really creepy and weird sounding laugh coming
(15:40):
from the hallway. It sounded like a man laughing, but
was just really strange sounding. It gave me the creeps instantly,
and I had a bad feeling about it, but maybe
that was just because it was so late at night.
But us kids, being in the room, whispered to each
other about it, wondering what it was. After like thirty
seconds of hearing the laughter on and off, it finally stopped.
After that, all of us went over to the door
(16:02):
and one at a time looked through the people into
the hallway, but nobody was there. It gave us all
the creeps because of how weird the laughter sounded, and
there were no other voices in the hallway, just this
one guy laughing. We went back to what we were
doing after that, just brushing it off for the most part. However,
maybe twenty minutes later, we heard the laughter again. It
was coming from what sounded like right outside the door.
(16:23):
I was the closest to the door, sitting on the
edge of one of the beds, so I got up
and walked over to the door. I looked through the
people and I saw a man there. He was really
creepy looking. I just remember that he had these really
wide eyes and a big forced grin on his face.
The man was not looking directly at our door, but
sort of in the direction of it. He was laughing
this really creepy and insane sounding laugh. Then he sort
(16:46):
of turned and took a few steps in one direction,
only to turn back and walk towards our door again.
Sherry had made it to the door and asked what
I saw. I had to stop looking because I was
so creeped out, so then she looked and whispered that
it was really strange. The man then slowly walked away
down the hallway. The laughter then stopped. We heard it
one more time about ten minutes later, but it wasn't
(17:06):
as loud. It was very weird, and other than that,
everything seemed completely silent. Soon thereafter, we decided to go
to bed. I found it difficult to sleep, though we
didn't hear the guy at all any more, and eventually
I was able to fall asleep. The next morning, we
all got up and went to the hotel breakfast before leaving.
I remember that there was a room with some tables
and food for breakfast, and a bunch of other people
(17:28):
were there as well. They also had some other furniture
and decorations in the room, and when I was there,
I saw some framed pictures on the wall. Most were
simple pictures like paintings of landscapes or whatever, but they
had a few pictures of people looking back. I don't
know why, and in one of the pictures it was
several people standing outside together, like a group of people.
I have no idea who they were, but one of
(17:50):
the guys in the photo I recognized as the man
who had been laughing in the hallway. I was sure
that it was him. I showed my cousins and they
all agreed it was so creepy. We told our parents
about it, and they hadn't heard the man because they
had all been sleeping. They told us there was probably
some drunk guy going back to his room. Overall, they
didn't seem too concerned, but after seeing the guy in
the picture, it just seemed really weird. We left soon
(18:13):
after and went on with the road trip. That's something
that I wish I knew more information about now. I
wish I would have found out what group of people
that picture was and who the man was. He wasn't
really acting drunk. In my opinion, it was like he
was trying to be as creepy as possible. When I
(18:38):
was younger, my family used to own this motel and
I worked there for a while. They sold it several
years ago, which I'm happy about, because I didn't really
like working there. Being a motel, I would see a
lot of sketchy people in my time there. I would
also have to work overnight shifts a lot of the time,
and usually nothing much happened. I would just sit behind
the counter and I would feel pretty safe because there
(18:59):
was glass walls opting you from the customers. One night
I was working and it was really late at night,
probably like eleven p m. A man walked into the
office and approached me. He looked sketchy from the start,
but many people who stayed at our motel did. It
was a cheap motel, so it didn't make me suspicious
or anything that he was there. The guy walked up
and then asked for a room for the night. I
(19:20):
told him the price and stuff, and he paid in cash.
Then I gave him the key to the room and
told him the room number and all that. He took
the key and walked out. I went back to what
I usually did which was going online on the computer
there at the desk and playing games and stuff. About
ten minutes later, though, the door opened again and I
saw that the same man was back. He told me
that he needed help and he couldn't get his key
(19:41):
to work. I told him the room number again and
made sure that it was the correct room. He said, yes,
it was, and said that the key would not work
no matter what he did. Then he asked me if
I could help him. I looked at the key and
it looked like it should be working. We had had
some problems though in the past, because, like I said,
we were a cheap motel. I was annoyed, and I
figured that I would just see for myself, so I
(20:02):
told the man I would try it out. I left
my room behind the counter and walked outside with the guide.
The motel had rooms that opened up right outside and
mostly to the parking lot. It was very quiet out
and there was woods next to the parking lot. The
man's room was supposed to be towards the end of
the building. I walked down there with him and noticed
a large white van was parked right in front of
the room. I figured that was his. We walked over
(20:24):
to the door of the room, and the man gave
me the key. As I tried the key, the door
instantly opened right away. It was like there was no
problem at all. But then right as the door opened,
I felt the man start to push me from behind.
He shoved me inside the room and I hit the door,
went inside, and then fell down. The man then entered
the room. He quickly turned and was closing the door
and locking it. And during that time I knew what
(20:45):
I had to do. Working at a sketchy motel, I
was not completely unprepared. I had never been in a
situation like that before, but I always carried a stun
gun with me just in case. I got it out
of my pocket and I quickly got to my feet.
Then I went for the man. He had just finished
locking the door when I reached him, and I got
him with the sun gun pretty good. The man didn't
seem to expect it and moved to the side a little.
(21:07):
I pushed him and he hit the wall. I quickly
opened the door, left the room and ran back for
the office. When I got inside, I locked the door
and called the police. I told him what happened and
was able to look out of the window and see
the man getting into his van. Then he quickly left,
screeching the tires. When the police got there about five
minutes later, I gave him a description of the man
and his vehicle. They located him a short time later.
(21:30):
After that event, I took some time off, and about
two years later my family finally sold the motel. That
was by far my scariest experience working there.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!