Last week, the famous horror YouTuber Mr. Nightmare released a video where people shared their creepiest experiences relating to the Apple airtag. One story was written by someone who claims to be a Buffalo suburb resident, and was tracked home from the Walden Galleria mall by an older man who made conversation with her. In the story, she also claims that her brother is a student here at UB.
All across campus, students have reported some of their most disturbing real-life stories. Some dealt with stalking, others reported what they thought were ghostly encounters with strangers at the park late at night, while others talked about the paranormal.
For Halloween, it is time to finally hear these stories.
Stalking
The idea of being followed or stalked is one of the most horrific things a person can experience. Earlier this year, Angelina Cao, a sophomore criminology major, was driving home from campus one night, close to 8 p.m., when she noticed a black SUV with tinted windows following her.
She first noticed the SUV on a road close to North Campus when it began flashing its lights at her. Cao remembered advice her brother had given her about how you should drive faster if somebody flashes their lights at you, but she couldn’t.
“I can't really go fast because there's another car in front of me. So, what am I supposed to do? So I'm just driving normally. I'm like maybe two or three miles over the speed limit. He's still flashing his lights at me. And he's also tailgating me. So I'm like, okay, I'm really freaking out. Like I don't know what to do.” she said.
The situation began to escalate as she noticed that he was continuing to follow her. “We kept on hitting every red light, and I'm like, dude, just let me go home.”
He subsequently followed her down her dead-end street.
“I turn in my street and I park in front of my neighbor's house. I see in my [rearview window] that same car behind me [pulled] into my street. As I'm still stopped in front of my neighbor's house, mind you, my car is still on. I duck into my seat. I see the car go past me, go at the end of the street, do a U-turn. Once he is near my house, he slows down.”
Cao then saw his face and it was an old man. She estimates the man to be around 60. He subsequently drove off, but the situation unsettled her greatly. “Like, I don't know what to do. Because now he knows where I live.” Cao now leaves campus while it’s still light out.
Masked Men
Another student with a traumatic driving experience is Keeley Bryant, a senior psychology major. Last year, while driving in downtown San Diego, a horrifying situation unfolded.
“This guy with a gas mask jumps in front of our car. And tries [to] open the door to try to get me out of the car, but we kept driving.”
Bryant couldn’t process what happened. “I wasn’t even scared. I was so shocked like ‘what the heck just happened?’ I didn’t even have time to be scared.”
Near-Death Experience
Kyle Suen, a junior economics major, recounted almost dying at 15 while staying with his friend’s family at a cabin in the Adirondacks.
He drank “ …a mixture. Everything we could find in my friend’s parents' cabinet. A little bit of tequila, a little bit of vodka. Some bourbon, some whiskey. A little bit of everything.”
Suen began to think he might die when his throat started to close up. “I couldn’t feel any part of my body, but I could feel myself shaking and I couldn’t breathe.”
Returning to school, Suen had “massive canker sores in the back of my throat for like a month. It was tough to eat for a while.”
Paranormal Activity
Griffin Ball, a junior political science major, shared a story about being home alone with his sister.
“From upstairs, we heard what sounded like somebody in boots stomping around, like clear footsteps. It’s just totally inexplicable until this day.”
The paranormal has always been a touchstone for horror. Tommy Sheehan, a freshman business management major, and his family have had numerous encounters while living in a house of horrors for over a year.
After his childhood home burned down. Searching for a new place, Sheehan and his family settled on a new home.
The family quickly had to adjust to the strange peculiarities: sounds of bouncing on empty beds and phone alarms going off with nobody setting them, and showers turning on with no water. “Each week, there would be something different that would happen, that was kind of eerie. My dad kept hearing footsteps behind him, each time he would go down the stairs, once he’d stop, the footsteps behind him would stop.”
In another instance, funnily enough, Ben Avery, a junior mechanical engineering major, was alone in a park at around 10 p.m. when he heard a voice come from behind him. “It was pitch black. I couldn’t see anything,” he said, when he abruptly heard a woman say, “‘Do you want to hear about the man who saved my life?’ She spoke in the creepiest voice I have ever heard.” Turns out, it just was a Mormon evangelizing, but “for a solid ten seconds, I was scared out of my mind,” he said.
These stories should serve as a reminder that horror movies and true crime documentaries are close to home. With a never-ending shortage of the disturbing in our world, these stories will persist for generations to come.
Jacob Wojtowicz is an assistant features editor and can be reached at jacob.wojtowicz@ubspectrum.com
