15 Criminals Who Experienced Something Supernatural While Breaking The Law
By Juliet Lanka
These stories from Ask Reddit will convince you to stay on the right side of the law.
1. I had an out of body experience right before attempting murder
“Tried to kill someone and had an out of body experience during it. I’m not exactly faithful but I think something stopped me.” — hippynoize
2. While trespassing, we heard the sounds of a little girl screaming
“Back in high school me and my friends liked to go places we shouldn’t and smoke pot. So on 4/20 one year we all go to our old elementary school at like 10:30 at night to blaze it. Since it was so late we were kinda trespassing. On the way there my friend, whose mom worked at the school, told us about how one of the old janitors told his mom that a long time ago a girl died in a landslide on the hill behind the school. So we are walking around the buildings when suddenly we hear a very loud, clear little girl scream coming from the direction of the playground, which would make sense if it wasn’t 10:30 on a school night. It was one of those moments out of a movie, were we all just looked at each other mouth agape, and booked it out of there as fast as possible.” — Maiq_The_Deciever
3. My car broke down and stopped me from killing myself
“I was 17. I had decided on the way home from school I was going to slam my car head on into a light pole… hopefully kill myself. As I rev my car, I hear a loud shotgun sound. My back right tire blew out. My dad came to help me change it. I thought that oddly coincidental.” — averageuser81
4. I broke into an abandoned (haunted) house
“I suppose I broke into this one abandoned house once. It sat on the edge of the block and was behind a tall white wall, so you only saw what the yard looked like once you climbed over. Old shopping carts, toys, old dog house, kinda dreary. Door of the house had boards on it so had to pry those off with a crowbar. Once on the inside everything was black. It looked like the entire inside had been coated in soot, from the ceiling to the bathtub to the windows. Just all black. Thought that was weird. Anyway I spent a whole week there in the darkest point of winter, and I’m sure there was more than one reason i never got a night’s sleep.” — Sensei10
5. The window shattered for no reason at all
“When I was a kid I lived in a little hamlet next to a camping area. Right at the opposite side of the camping area was a rather large, seemingly abandoned house.
At the time I was kinda into urban exploring but I wasn’t at the point where I’d “break i to” buildings just in case maybe it was just a poorly maintained building with inactive occupants or squatted by questionable people.
So I wandered on the property for a bit, climb trees near the house and look at the building wondering about its story. I’m on the biggest tree on the property, against a wall overlooking the camping area when one of the windows on the third floor suddenly explodes. There were no warning, I hadn’t seen any lights or movements i the house, I don’t remember hearing an impact sound or anything just straight up loud shatter noise and the window being completely gone.
After a couple of seconds I heard gravel moving behind me in the camping side, so I turn around and see two guys inching towards me. They notice that I’ve seen them and one of them yells to someone else to call the cops while they grab me. I jumped off the tree and made a dash through the forest surrounding my hamlet, the camping site, and the ‘abandoned’ house before making a loop around my hamlet and hiding between houses to lose them.
I don’t really think it’s supernatural per se but I still can’t exactly think of a reason why the whole window would just blow up. If the guys behind me had thrown a rock in my direction, missed me, and ended up hitting the window, I feel like I’d have heard some of that and only one of the window panels would’ve shattered, not the whole window.” — ArrayedFracture
6. I was going to rob a house — until the occupant unnerved me
“One day I went to rob the house of an old lady. Got to the door, thought it was my lucky day- it was unlocked! So I quietly made my way to the living room and almost shit my pants- the old lady was sitting in silence, staring at some unknown presence in the garden, not moving at all. I didn’t want to be ghost food, so I left.” — spawnofbacon
7. Because of our sins, we were unable to walk into the church like everyone else
“Me and my crimepartner did a lot of stuff. Burglaries, robberies, thefts etc for like 5 years.
We’re both Orthodox Christians, so once in a while we would go to church.
Anyway, we’re walking up the stairs and I see people entering the church.
The second we try to open the door, it’s locked. (Tourists around us were taking pictures and we were the only ones trying to get in).
We walk away 20m and see people walking in there.
Guess God didn’t want us in that day.
This is something I’ll never forget.” — Tsar_family
8. An ‘angel’ let me know that she saw what I did wrong — even though she was nowhere in sight
“So I used to work as a security guard at a large office building. I often stole things like computers, desks, chairs etc from the offices. I was very careful and never took anything during my shift. There were only cameras in the lobby and on the outside of the building, not in any tenant spaces. One day I found a wallet in a desk and it had a few hundred dollars. I took the money and left the wallet. I wasn’t on that night, no one saw me enter or leave the building and I wasn’t on any camera. A few weeks later a lady I’d never seen before came up to the security desk and told me that she saw me take the money and even knew the exact amount. She said that she just wanted me to know that she knew. Then she left and I never saw her again. There is just no possible way she could have seen me.” — Iusedtostealthings
9. I bailed on a job at the last second because of a gut feeling and avoided getting arrested
“When I was 14 (33 now) I used to boost cars for this car theft ring in California. I did it for several months and never got caught. It was more of a thrill and lack of direction from living in a bad area and lack of supervision and authority in my life. I had never been arrested or got caught. I was always a good kid, but I rebelled after my parents split up. Anyways, there was one car that I needed to pick up and get delivered that day. The boss man was extremely insistent that the order needed to be filled within a few hours. It was another job like any other. But when I was about a mile away from my order, I got a very uneasy and disturbing feeling. Nothing was out of the ordinary or different from the dozens of other jobs I’d done. But I couldn’t shake the feeling. As I got closer to my destination, it was as if it just got noisier and more distracting (in my head). Finally that unsettling feeling overcame me and I bailed out. I saw the car and acted like I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t do the job. I kept going and knew I was in deep shit with the boss guy. I decided to lay low because not filling an order was seriously bad news. That guy was not someone you disappointed or you would feel it. He was wrathful and on drugs. So I knew I had to hide for a while. 2 days of him blowing up my pager (yeah, that’s how long ago it was lol) then the calls and pages it suddenly stopped. Come to find out, word on the street was that the cops pulled a big sting operation and that car I was supposed to steal was being monitored. My old boss sent some other kid to get the car and they followed the kid back to the scrap yard and did a big bust. That guy got arrested. That kid got arrested. A whole boat load of people got pinched. But no one ever came for me. To this day, I know God was looking out for me. At that moment. At that time. And I listened. Since that incident, I never pulled any shit again. I straightened up, got back into school, and graduated with honors. It was all because of that weird, supernatural moment…” — shadowofzero
10. A man disappeared right in front of my eyes
“This one night I was boosting some silverware from this old lady’s house. She was home, but old people are pretty deaf and damn slow, so I didn’t give a shit. I hear this strange sound coming from the room where she’s watching tv (VOLUME WAY LOUD, GRANDMA), so I go look and she’s like having a seizure or some shit.
I might be a thief, but I’m not a bastard, so I call 911. They answer. Shit. I don’t know what to say. ‘Hi, I was just robbing this old lady’s house and she’s having a seizure,’ so I freeze and say nothing. I wait with her, but she stops seizing and then I hear sirens, so I hide in her tiny front hall closet with the foldy doors and shutters.
Before the EMT’s arrive, she stops seizing. So by the time they get to her door, she seems fine, except confused why they’re at her house. They make nice, apologize and leave.
As soon as they’re gone she starts seizing again. Fuck. So I call 911 again, just in case. Really don’t want a dead lady on my conscience. Same thing– sirens, she stops seizing, answers the door. It’s like a comedy at this point with me hiding in the closet, the bad guy with a heart of gold, but I’m not about to pop out and say, ‘But she was having a seizure!!’ So they leave.
Just as they drive away with her waving an old lady goodbye, she falls down and starts seizing again. Now it’s just sad/funny. Gotta call 911 again for grandma, but this time I’m thinking about leaving a note or something cause I do want to get the fuck out of there. I call. Wait for the sirens.
Then she stops breathing. Fuck. FUCK. I’m thinking if I don’t get the fuck out of there, murder charge. I hide as the EMTs come through the door, put an oxygen mask on her and take her away. By this point, my adrenaline is through the roof and fuck it all, I feel like I’ve EARNED the right to take as much shit as I can walk out the door with and since the house is now empty, I can take my time going through her stuff, silverware, jewelry, cash in a shoebox– you name it, if I can find it, it’s mine. A fee for being a good samaritan.
Fuck if the EMT doesn’t come back– who the fuck knows why. I hide again. He walks into the living room, turns the TV off and grabs a bag off her chair.
This is the part that fucks me up.
As he turns to go, an old man just appears OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE, pats him on the back and whispers something to him. But the EMT doesn’t react AT ALL– doesn’t turn around, doesn’t pause, just heads back out the door like the old man isn’t even there. Then the old guy GLIDES to the front window and stands there, waving goodbye.
Then he disappeared.
I’m standing in the closet frozen wondering what the fuck just happened and when I feel it. Somebody’s breathing down my neck.
GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.
I started running, praying, crying, right out the fucking front door I didn’t care who saw. I ran like a bitch.
To this day, whenever someone says ‘scared straight’ I try not to remember the sound of that old man’s voice. But I always do.” — LudovicoSpecs
11. The house gave him a warning he was going to be kicked out
“A guy was talking about how he’d squat in a house that had been put on the market. He had a key to get in because he knew the owners, and he’d sleep and shower there after work.
He talked about how one night while he slept, the phone started ringing. He couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, and then he saw police cars pull up in the driveway. He hid while they scanned the windows and doors, and then booked it after they left.
He later came back and said that the locks had been changed. He looked at the whole thing like the house was warning him he’d be kicked out.” — YeremyV
12. We were rescued by a guardian angel
“A long time ago, my buddy and I stole a canoe on one of the docks at a local state park and took it out onto the lake. It was maybe an hour before sunset, we were deep into one of the lake trails when suddenly our canoe tipped over. We weren’t wearing life jackets and we couldn’t get the canoe back upright. We tried to swim back to the bank but it was REALLY far. After some point making little progress, my buddy said to me in a calm voice, “I don’t think we’re gonna make it…” and I really started to panic. The next thing I remember was this fisherman pulling us out of the water. He said he saw us struggling and assumed the worst. He also told us if he were even seconds late, we would’ve been unconscious at that point and he would have missed us. The thing is, I remember mostly everything until I started losing consciousness from the sheer exhaustion of trying to stay afloat. There wasn’t a single boat other than us on the lake as it was very close to park closing. He took us back to the dock and went back out to the lake. To this day, I always think it was some sort of guardian angel.” — dude_with_amnesia
13. I avoided a collusion because the interior lights in my car flashed on randomly
“I don’t know about crime, but I was once doing about 85 on a barren back country road in an old Cadillac when the interior lights suddenly came on and turned off again. I slowed down to check for an open door, when I came around a turn and found a broken down car in the middle of the lane with the lights off. Swerving in a ’77 Cadillac is no mean feat, and had I not slowed down I would have never had time to avoid a collision. Both doors were in fact closed, and it never happened again.” —
14. I stole from a man who had extreme senses
“I am a pretty talented pickpocket, slight cleptomania. Lifted a wallet from a man as I came up behind him on the street. Almost zero contact, no one should’ve noticed a thing but the man spoke out very calmly as I passed him, “could I have that back please?” Turned around to see he was wearing sunglasses. He lifted them up and revealed that he was blind. I was so completely dumbstruck and baffled that I apologized and gave him back the wallet. Wasn’t too worried about him picking me out of a line-up anyways, and didn’t wanna be that guy that steals from the handicapped.” — DeadPendulum
15. We heard a nonexistent voice warn us before the cops showed
“Over a couple of weeks one summer, me and some friends (all middle school, grade 7-8) snuck into a nearby school at night and just fucked around, nothing damaging. Ate candy out of desks, ate ice cream out of the teachers lounge. Wrote notes to teachers and hid them in desks.
The first night we went in I was going to go into the library, had the door open, but a friend said ‘no, don’t.’ He claimed it wasn’t him who said it though, so we didn’t go in. After that night, the library doors were locked, so we couldn’t go in even though we wanted to.
Then one night about 9 days later, our entrance, the roof top hatch, was locked. And we couldn’t get in anymore.
The very next night, some guys got busted after climbing in through the library windows. It seems they had motion detectors inside the library. Pointing away from the door we would have entered, into the main area. Connected to a silent alarm.
We would have been busted if not for whoever said those words.” — adaminc