19 Times Security Cameras Saw a Little Too Much

1.

Security cameras can be a powerful tool in anyone's home security arsenal. They let you keep tabs on your home and family from afar and keep a record of anything and everything that might come in handy later. That said, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

2.

Worked in one of the oldest buildings in my college town. Was once a Wild West saloon where 2 people were documented to be killed in a shootout when the state state was still a territory, in the 20s it served as someone’s house, where the youngest daughter was documented to have died in childhood. When I got hired on, even the owners talked about it being haunted. I’ve never truly “seen” a ghost or had an encounter, but something about the building, particularly the office to the back and definitely the dirt basement did not feel right to me at all. Not malevolent, but always “off”. My first closing shift after I get promoted to keyholder, I’m also helping a new girl who has really taken the whole ghost spiel she got a few days prior to heart. This particular store ranged from small little treasures that were almost too easy not to steal, to a few items that cost 5x the going rate for tuition at the local college. Naturally, the owners had 15 cameras installed that played on a live feed in the office and in the storefront for customers to see to know they weren’t being slick. I’m counting the drawer and she’s anxiously watching the security camera just waiting to see something crazy. I’m putting the final totals into a calculator and she SCREAMS. She calls me over to the camera feed, and there it is on the top right feed, very clearly there is what looks like a figure in a white, boxy nightgown-type dress. We are both near pissing our pants, but we can’t leave. There’s still a bunch of stuff to get done and the owners and the opener tomorrow will be pissed if we just ditch the last half of the closing responsibilities on account of a ghost. We watch it, stunned as it appears to sway. Suddenly, a huge spider obscures the view of the figure. We, two grown women, have been near tears for what feels like ages because we’ve been watching a fucking spiderweb that the AC blew into view of the camera.

3.

So we have two cameras at back of my house. 3 people show up with horse masks on and spent probably 15 mins pretending to be horses. Then left a small bag of meat with flowers in it. My wife was so freaked she didn't sleep for a week.

4.

Good friend of mine has a camera that also shoots treats for his dog. It notifies him of barking and people movements. Can speak through it. Record videos etc. He got a barking alert. Logged in to find two complete strangers in his house. Just chilling on his couch. He rushes home. No one is there. House is all locked up. Still cant figure it out.

5.

It started out being slightly creepy, but it ended up being really funny. I have external cameras with night vision all around my house. My family and I were on vacation several time zones west of our house. One night, right before I was about to go to bed, I got an alert and logged in to see what was going on. I saw a car pull into my driveway and 4 people get out, acting all sneaky and stealthy. It was well past midnight at my house, and this didn't look good. I called my wife and kids in to watch it. I was preparing to call the police in my home town. We saw them all sneak away and toilet paper a neighbor's house. They then ran back to their car in my driveway and sped off. My family and I laughed so hard. It was a highlight of that vacation.

6.

Bit of backstory I rent the upper floor of my best friends house so we see each other quite often and i use the kitchen and the washer and stuff like that. One day wile we were at uni someone broke into the place. Nothing was stolen but the house was a disaster. So I check the footage of the camrea we have out front See the guy go in. Dont see him come out. Called the police. Checked the entire house. Nowhere to be seen. I don't have neighbors to add to the strangeness of the situation Well turns up the guy was ON THE F**KIN ROOF. He was up there a good week before we realized anything.He is now facing trail.

7.

Had a Ring doorbell when I lived in South Florida. Kept getting motion notifications one afternoon but couldn’t see anything. Finally saw what it was, a 6 foot gator chilling out in the entrance way. Thankfully he left before I got home.

8.

I have cameras in my house for my dogs that alert me when they bark and I can send them treats, etc. It basically functions as a security camera. Anyways, we went on a vacation and I warned our dog sitter in advance that we have cameras in common areas of the first floor of our home. One day during my trip (at 3am) I review my dog footage because I get an alert on my phone that my dogs are barking like crazy. I normally wouldn’t creep but I was concerned that maybe there was a fire or break in, or the woman fell, etc. The footage shows the dog sitter (a 70 year old lady) running around the house swearing at my dogs, in underwear only.

9.

My old apartment had incredibly unprofessional repair staff. I'd call them because my AC would be out, and they'd come over while I was at work (rather than at the agreed-upon time while I was home) and they'd use my bathroom, poke around through my stuff, type on my keyboard, mess around with my pets, etc.

Needless to say, I was pretty livid.

I setup a camera and caught them, then took the footage to the front office. I got a personal call from the owner of the apartment complex to apologize, and almost the entire repair staff got fired.

10.

A neighbour walking by, which he does every day, and realizing the cameras were being installed (CCTV van, etc.). Next day, on his walk by, he stands still, and just looks at the camera. Could understand him looking for a few seconds to see how they were wired, what brand, what they might be able to see, etc. but he stood there, just looking at a single camera, for about 14 minutes.

11.

Guy walked up to my front windows, put his ear against it, then walked away. I see him around the neighborhood sometimes, not sure what his deal is but he hasn't come to my place again so far.

12.

I'm a Property Manager, and one of the communities I worked at had cameras installed. One night, person in all black clothes with their hood up gets let in by a resident. Black clothes goes to elevator, goes up to a specific floor, then to a specific door, and knocks. Resident opens the door, black clothes produces a pistol, and bang shoots him the face, and walks off. Back on elevator, out the same door, never looked up. Creepy AF.

13.

I live alone and have had some truly weird s**t happen. At my last place, which was a townhouse, I had security cameras set up in my backyard after I noticed the screen pulled off my back window. I also put a padlock on the gate (which I usually didn't do so the landscapers could come in and mow.) One night I got a notification that there was motion in the backyard. I looked on the camera and didn't see anything. Then I noticed the gate was shaking. I saw a hat appear over the top of the gate, and some guy peeking over it. As luck would strangely have it, my bf at the time was on the SWAT team in my city and had just gotten to my place to spend the night after a SWAT hit.

He ran in the back, half dressed in all his gear, tackled the guy and I called the police. It was my neighbor's boyfriend, who also had a gun on him. He was high as a kite. They ended up arresting him, my neighbor, and a bunch of people in the house because apparently the gun he had was stolen and inside the house, there were a ton of drugs and stolen guns (her parents owned a gun store in the next city over and had had a ton of guns stolen recently).

14.

I put one of those $30 cube cameras in my car after my mentally unhinged coworker put a nail under my tire. Instead I filmed myself driving down the highway for five minutes, having a conversation with myself about grey hair and buying a taser.

15.

Not creepy but actually funny. About a month ago at 2 AM, a hedgehog came and rolled around our yard destroying all the green grass in front of my porch.

16.

This happened about 3-4 years back. I was in this pretty short street, about 25 houses I’d say. We had recently set up cameras because we were having some really bad issues with this neighbor. Most people on the street knew each other, we’d all barbecue and party together, and we all collectively hated this family. Their son, who I will keep his name secret, was one nasty son of a b***h. He’s pulled a knife out and point it at me from 20 feet away or so, tried to get his dogs (two big pit bulls) to attack me, and we were pretty sure he stole our quad. (I won’t divulge into that, I’ve already gotten far off track).

But we set up the cameras solely because of him. So one night, he snuck out of his house, and came over to ours. Had no clue why he was coming to our house, but whatever. He gets about halfway up our lawn, then stops, notices the cameras, and does some weird creepy smile thing where he tilted his head a bit. He ended up leaving and we decided not to do anything, because we were moving very shortly anyway. Supposedly he’s also moved, but out of state. Hope to never see that delinquent again.

17.

I've got cameras downstairs that cover my living room, kitchen and front door, and one in my 2nd closet where I have 2 large gun safes. Maintenance came in to clean and test the smoke detectors and change the AC filter. One of them opened the gun closet and started poking around at the keyboards on my safes. He tells the other guy: "I'm gonna figure out this code one day". The other guy was in my nightstand commenting on the condoms, lube and other assorted coital aids. I simply called the police and met them here. The guy in my nightstand was wearing one of my watches. They both went to jail.

18.

My son started sleepwalking and having night terros when he was around 11. Always looks odd to see him walking around in the middle of the night.

19.

Not me, but my mum. We’re renting out this barn house from this couple who are living in Canada for a few years. They have CCTV in the office. One day, she saw a creepy old man who she never met before waving at her through the CCTV. She eventually found out he knew the people we were renting the house from and didn’t realise they moved to Canada... but we were spooked for a while.

20.

My ex wife sneaking up to the front door and peeking in the window. At 10pm one night. Right after divorce was final. Probably a full 4 minutes worth, Ordered 3 more cameras from Amazon that night.

21.

Breaking the rules, but I caught something that ended up being surprisingly wholesome. I have a brick house, and the mailbox is bolted to it. Somehow one side managed to come loose, so it had been dangling for a couple of weeks since I just didn't have a chance to get to the hardware store. I get home from work one day and it was bolted back properly. I checked to see if there was a note or anything, but nope. On the one hand, I was really grateful, but on the other, was kind of spooked/wondering if I was totally losing it and maybe it had never come loose after all. (Also, I've kind of half-kidding half-serious thought my house was haunted, so this definitely added to that feeling.)

A couple days later I remembered I have cameras and could check to see if they caught anything. Turns out an older guy with a tool belt just casually walked up, fixed my mailbox, and left. He wasn't there for more than three or four minutes. Eventually I was able to piece together that one of my neighbors was having some roofing work done and this was one of the workers. I guess he had just seen my mailbox dangling for a few days and decided since I wasn't making any moves to fix it, he would. I hadn't been living there for that long, and it really warmed my heart to know someone would go out of their way to perform a simple good deed for a stranger.