“When I was about 12 years old a friend and I were playing in the woods that were known for being “creepy”. While building a fort, a strange man snuck up behind us and yelled at us to get off his land and never come back yadda yadda. It really startled us as we knew the land was a public area and had never been threatened by an adult before. Several years later we found out he was an actual bank robber, wanted by the FBI for years. We were building our fort a few feet from his stash!”

“The ghost squirrel in my hometown of Dorking, UK. There was a ghost squirrel, called Albi, that was only ever seen in the graveyard at the church in town. Turns out, it was an albino squirrel that had a nest in one of the trees in the graveyard. Unfortunately, he became roadkill a couple years back.”

Through the 1970s and 1980s, children on Staten Island would whisper about “Cropsey,” an escaped mental patient with a hook hand living at a local abandoned psych ward who would [kidnap] children in the middle of the night. Much to their horror, he turned out of be real — well sort of. In 1988, Andre Rand was convicted of kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger. He was later convicted of kidnapping 7-year-old Holly Ann Hughes in 2004 after bragging about his exploits. He is suspected to have more than six additional victims.

“I live near a lake and there was an urban legend that there were huge lake monsters near the Hydroelectric dam. Most people thought it was just some fishermen's tall tales, we all guessed it was just a twist on the classic 'the one that got away'. Turns out divers went into the water behind the dam for a routine inspection to see if there was any damage after months of heavy flooding in the area. Apparently one of the divers got too close to what he originally thought was a large moss covered rock/boulder until it moved and tried to latch on to the divers arm. Apparently there are +-200 lb catfish behind the dam which thrive on the dead fish that go through the hydroelectric portion of the dam, the agitated water makes it easier for the large catfish to breath and grow past what is commonly found in the area, and the lack of fishers as all commercial fishing is banned for at least 1000 meters means these fish are truly free to grow to truly enormous sizes.”

“Out here in Washington there were rumors of a "fairy house" in the woods somewhere. One park ranger decided to go hunting for it and he actually did find a tree house in the woods. When he looked inside he found a ton of child —. He took it down and came back a while later and found it had been put back up. They eventually found who had been using the tree house and arrested him.”

"Growing up on the northeastern Ohio–Pennsylvania border, I heard all about a 'monster' that used to walk the roads late at night that everyone dubbed the Green Man. Everyone would warn you about him, and everyone knew the myth surrounding him. Apparently, he'd climbed onto an electric pole to look into a bird's nest, and he was electrocuted. He fell and ended up losing his eyes, nose, mouth, one ear, and one arm. It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out the legend of the Green Man was real. The myth was based on Raymond Robinson, who was horribly disfigured and blinded from an electrical accident, and who would walk late at night to avoid people."

“In Kenya Mombasa there was a story about a woman with long black hair and a white dress who would be seen around the beach at night and it was to stop people from being at the beach swimming in the ocean. Turned out to be true was older lady would sleep walk on the beach in her nighties even she didn't know until locals found the courage to follow her home.”

If 2016 wasn’t bad enough, people across the world began reporting sightings of creepy clowns lurking near forest preserves and schools. While the trend ultimately died down by the end of the year, New Zealand took a stand against the creepy circus, yanking clown costumes from shelves.

“2019 a random lady in Belgrade was dancing in traditional clothing late at night and chasing random people that were nearby. Then suddenly in 2022 or 2023 foreigners found those videos and made up this myth about the Serbian dancing lady and it became viral.“

When I was young living rural Ontario we were told as children not to wander too far into the forest saying that a monster would get us and we wouldn't come home. If anybody knows who [cult leader and convicted killer] Roch Thériault is, that actually turned out to be painfully true.

“'Welcome to the world of AIDS’ is an urban legend about a man meeting a woman at a bar, going back to his place to sleep together, only to have him wake up to her being gone and the famous slogan ‘Welcome to the world of AIDS’ written on his bathroom mirror. The urban legend has many different versions variations. It was just a parable about casual s— and risk. This was largely considered an urban legend. That is, until "stealth pozzing" actually turned out to be a very real think. Modern actual cases involve a British man named Daryll Rowe, who, already knowing he had HIV, would send a text after s— to his many victims saying things like ‘I have HIV LOL. Oops’ and ‘I’m riddled.’ Others have also been convicted for knowingly doing this on Craigslist.”

“The North Pond Hermit. things would go missing in this little vacation community and people attributed it to some mysterious dude. Turned out there was one, he lived out in the woods for 27 years without ever talking to anyone.”

“We've got a dude in milwaukee dubbed the "milverine," the milwaukee wolverine. he looks sort of like a midwestern logan from the x-men, and he's sighted all over downtown briskly walking around with his shirt off. like, no matter what he's doing, rain, shine, blistering heat or freezing cold, he's got his shirt off. turns out he's just a scruffy construction worker who's pretty ripped and vaguely looks like the superhero. apparently he's a nice guy and locals often tell people not to bother him because it's just r—. for a while a few years ago people were approaching him all the time, probably for photos and whatnot.”

“Sewer alligators. If alligators and other animals are 'flushed' or disposed of into plumbing...yea they can survive and hangout.”

“In Anchorage, people will tell the story of a woman who died after getting stuck in only knee-deep mud out in Turnagain Arm. The story has all the elements -- she was a newlywed, rescuers were gathered around trying to help her, etc. -- and I think it's widely regarded as an urban legend. But it most certainly did happen. Her name was Adeana Dickison, and it took place in September 1988.”

“There where abandoned tunnels below my town (A large part use to be a self sustaining mental institution covering several square miles.) Everyone talked about them, but noone ever talked about actually being in them. Went spelunking in the woods and found an old maintenance shack. There was a basement that was flooded. Went back a couple years later when there was bad drought. Basement has a rusted door leading into said tunnels. Nothing special, and no escaped crazy people.”

That creepy old guy living down the street was actually the Golden State Killer.