There are almost too many possibilities when visiting a friend or loved one's house for the first time. Unfortunately for these people, they walked into complete and utter horror scenes. They couldn't get out of there fast enough. A co-worker or parent my appear friendly, but the place they live in could be filled with sinister, unnerving secrets. This content has been edited for clarity.
Despite His Nasty Surroundings, He Thought He Was All That
“I used to have an ‘almost-rich’ friend. Almost-rich meaning that his parents were well-to-do (they just up and gave him a house) and his grandma was in the oil business (she would leave 6-figure dividend checks uncashed on her tables because why not).
He moved into his detached garage, halfway turned it into an apartment, and he rented out his house to another friend. I didn’t go over there often, but I knew that he hadn’t sprung for improvements for the garage like a toilet or running water. I guessed he would just go in the house to use the bathroom.
I visited one day and his ‘apartment’ was totally trashed, with used pizza boxes everywhere, dirty dishes, dirty clothes, etc. All of that I could kind of understand; this was his living space, so who was I to judge?
Then I noticed two things: a definite dog poop smell and his penchant for Gatorade. The dog poop was obviously from the other friend’s dog, except that it had tracked it into the apartment and my friend had stepped in it and smeared it everywhere, mushing it into the carpet.
I was about to comment on him storing Gatorade all along the shelf near his computer and how he should’ve kept it colder…until I realized that these bottles were already used. The bottles were full of what used to be Gatorade before he drank it. But he was almost rich, so he was better than me, according to him.”
“Mysterious Crusty White Substance On The Couch”
I was a mental health case manager a few years ago, so I would do home and school visits to make my client’s lives easier. I had this one client who lived in a three-bedroom/two-bathroom house with her two parents and 11 siblings, two cats and three dogs. When I walked in, I almost dry heaved due to the smell, and then it just got worse from there. I stood up for our entire one-hour session (I cut it down to 45 minutes) because there was dog poop, some roaches, probably dog pee, and some mysterious crusty white substance on the couch and the floor was awful too. There was moldy food sitting on the coffee table and rotten milk in what I’m guessing was a bowl of cereal.
I had to call CPS due to these kids’ living environment, and then I insisted that I either see the child at school or the family come to the clinic. I was paranoid that I had picked up some bed bugs or lice or fleas or something and went home and stripped in the garage. I felt so bad because I know that my client had no choice but to live with her family in that house, and that mom and dad had to work multiple jobs each to be able to afford just to keep a roof over their family’s head, so there was no time for much else.
Fortunately, with the help of some resources through CPS, my client later showed me pictures of her ‘new house’ which was really just her old house with clean floors, new furniture, and fresh food.”
Have To Get Out Of There Now!
“It actually caused a rift in our friendship that I don’t think we ever got over. He was in town only for a few days. I told him if I came over, since we were drinking, I needed to spend the night and that my wife would be there, because we lived an hour away. So he’s home from college, and we go to his childhood home, his mom’s house. She’s out with friends.
I walk in with an overnight bag for me and my wife. I ask where to put it, and he shows me where we’ll be sleeping. This is a mid 80s era trailer. Looks clean though. Until he opens the door to this room. His mom’s room. I dare not turn the light on. There are unclean sheets on the bed. There are five dogs in there, mostly laying on the bed, which I now notice is covered in dog hair. On the floor, which is bare plywood as the carpet looked to have been haphazardly torn out, there are 10-15 piles of poop and urine soaking into the wood everywhere.
My friend looks past all of this and tells me I can put my bag on a chair in the room. I said ‘Okay,’ and my wife was just glaring at me. I looked back at her like, ‘I got this.’
It looked as though he had cleaned the whole house pretty well, then shoved the dogs into his mom’s room (which seemed frequent given the state of it).
So I went out on the back porch with my wife and the first thing out of her mouth was ‘We are not sleeping here, your friend is so disgusting and I’m not staying in that room.’
I said, ‘Babe, you don’t have to sell me on it. I just don’t know how we’re gonna get out of it, I basically requested a room.’
She said, ‘I’ll stay sober. I can drive, you gotta get us out of here.’
I said, ‘Okay, can we just hang out a while longer?’
She agreed that was fine. A couple hours later and her body language basically said she was done. I asked where the bathroom was. I went in there as I tried to think of what to do to get out, then it occurred to me. I was doing it. I came out of the bathroom gripping my stomach and covered in flop sweat (splashed on water from the sink). I proclaimed we had had sushi for dinner and it must have been bad. Went and got my bag and went home.
I’m not the best actor. I’m pretty sure my friend knew what was up. We were never the same after that. Our friendship definitely wasn’t worth staying a night in that literal turd.”
What A Disturbing Thing For Two Young Girls To Find
“Growing up, I was good friends with a girl whose brother unexpectedly passed away in his teens. They were a really nice family and I truly enjoyed spending time with her. About three years after her brother passed away, we were at her house playing when we smelled something horrible coming from his old room.
She was so embarrassed and just said, ‘It happens sometimes, I tell my mom but she doesn’t care.’ We decided to investigate because at 12 years old that’s totally normal. Well, her brother had four ferrets and at some point, they had reproduced.
There were about 10 dead ferrets and a dead turtle in a tank, all surrounded by feces, mess, moldy/petrified food, and all of his dirty laundry. It turned out his mom was so sad from him passing that she literally left his room the way it was, animals and all.
I told my mom what happened and her suggestion was to always have her over at our house from then on, which was for the best. I also asked my mom a couple times how my friend’s mom was doing but she always just changed the subject.”
One Big Happy Family?
“Walking from the mall one day, I took a different route then I normally did. I passed a house with a rusted old vehicle in the driveway, and just as I pass, roaches scatter in broad daylight. A month or so passes and I’m hanging out with my buddy, and he says to me, ‘I met some dude whose pretty cool, want to go over to his place?’ Sure! We pull up to that same house from the beginning of the story, same car, same roaches. The guy was okay to hang out with it turns out, but EVERYTHING else that happened in that house was the thing of nightmares. And yes, the roaches live inside too!
His dad and mom hanging out on dirty couch, with dad in his underwear. There were two emaciated dogs, a great Dane with some horrible joint issue or displaced leg socket limping around, and a chihuahua constantly rubbing his butt all over the carpet. No running water. It had to be turned on from the mains, as everything leaked in the house if they left it on. Smokes put out on tables, desks, literally anywhere possible. There was a kid literally BBQ’ing inside his room. That same kid spray painted his room black. That kid’s brother sleep walked and peed on the kitchen floor. He cleans it up with a towel laying on the floor and leaves it there once he’s done. That same kitchen has stacks of dishes, migrating out from the sink onto every inch of the counter. My buddy and I ask if he has any snacks, he comes back with a bag of chips, jar of mayonnaise, can of corn and can of tuna. Mixed it all up and proceeds to double dip all day. Wash it down with a bottle of Shasta Cola with Santa on it. It’s August. Dad comes in to chat with the guys and talks about his gout for an hour. The dude’s cousin is living there because she got kicked out of her house, she’s trashy and lonely, so she try’s to hang with us. Sitting on the nasty stained carpet, picking her feet while eating a bag of Cheetos and without shame asks if we’d like any.
Now granted this all took place on mostly separate occasions, and I kept going back. But whoa boy! That family was something else. And every time I left, I thought to myself, ‘That’s it, I’m never coming back.’
The Bunnies Should Have Been A Warning
“I had a new friend in middle school and I went over her house for a sleepover. It was fun at first because we were just playing outside, but then she showed me her creepy, unfinished basement with a rabbit hutch and some bunnies. She told me how sad she was when one of her bunnies died recently and how her older brother made her laugh by making its corpse dance.
Then we went upstairs where her dad was drinking in the kitchen, and something about him made me feel uneasy. She showed me a room with a big fish hanging on the wall and flies around its eyes. She said we could either sleep in there on the couches or in her bedroom. One of the couches was against the wall right below the fish, so I was horrified at the thought of sleeping beneath it.
Then she told me that her mom and brother sleep in her room with her every night and they lock the door. I asked why and she said it was because of ghosts. I thought to myself, ‘What about your dad?’ but didn’t ask it aloud because I figured it was really him they were hiding from. Then I faked a stomach ache and had her mom take me home.
Despite all the weirdness, I was still going to sleep there up until my friend said her mom and brother slept in her room at night because of ghosts. She told me that fact with the same level of excitement that she told me the story about her brother making the dead bunny dance. For all I know, she was just messing with me because she got a thrill out of being creepy, but it was still more than I could handle.”
“Loud, Long Guttural Scream”
“I was an IT contractor that was sent to a few assisted living houses. These houses were for adults that suffered from a wide variety of developmental issues. Keep in mind, we’re talking four ‘Adult Daycare’ centers, and at least 50+ houses.
One of the houses, as soon as you walk in the door, you are assaulted by toilet stink. Imagine a port-a-potty baking in the summer sun. It’s just old, musky, urine/poop stink. I immediately flinch, and the woman caretaker says, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.’ I go to sit down at their computer, and I notice the chair has a poop stain on it. No thanks, I’ll stand. I then go to put my laptop bag on the ground, and the caretaker says, ‘You may wanna keep that with you. We haven’t bombed for bed bugs just yet, and we had an outbreak last week.’
I immediately step outside, and explain that I need to leave, but my office manager says just finish the job, and we won’t have to come back. I put my laptop back in my car, and went back to the client.
As I am attempting to fix the computer, a client comes in and is demanding something. When the caretaker won’t give it to her, she just starts screaming. Just a loud, long, guttural scream. After 20 seconds or so, she reaches into the back of her sweat pants, and pulls out a wad of poop, which she proceeds to throw at the caretaker. Apparently she got so mad she pooped herself, and then she proceeded to use that poop as a weapon. I duck behind the PC screen, wait for this literal nightmare to end, and I immediately book it to the door. I don’t bother calling my office manager until I am 20 minutes away, so she can’t tell me to turn around.”
This Guy Was Oblivious To His Disheveled Ways
“We were on date three and I suggested going to either my place or his for make out opportunities. We opted for his as I would’ve needed a day or two to clean my place up to new date standards. He warned me that he had a plumbing leak and things were in boxes, but I figured it wasn’t a problem since construction/home renovation is my jam.
When we first arrived, an intense wave of body odor hit me. The dude wasn’t dirty and otherwise seemed well groomed, but he was semi-retired, meaning he’d wake up, make coffee, and then do his hobby programming. In his mind, he didn’t sweat and therefore didn’t need to shower daily. He obviously had no idea that his house reeked.
Then there was the messiness; there wasn’t a single uncluttered surface for me to put my purse on. When we went to his den, there was a blanket nailed on one of the two windows, a couch covered in a sheet, and a coffee table with a bunch of junk on and under it. The chairs in the living room were also covered in stuff, so I had nowhere to sit. The dining room table wasn’t even wiped down.
I don’t consider myself materialistic, but make a freaking effort when you invite a date to come over, especially when said date has indicated a desire to be more intimate. Air out your place, pick up the clutter, and wipe down the gosh dang table if you’ve invited someone over for dinner! Otherwise, you’re telling your date that you don’t care for his/her comfort level or that something is wrong with your mental state. I was only willing to hang out in the dining room and whooped him in Scrabble, but never went back. When I pointed out the mess, he said, ‘We aren’t serious enough for me to clean.’ A self-fulfilling prophecy, you might say. There was a text breakup the next day. A polite ultimatum was issued from me and his response was to claim I was toxic. So that was that.
In hindsight, I’m glad we chose his place first, so I could uncover that awful truth.”
His Parents Really Need To Call Pest Control
“I once made the horrendous mistake of spending the night at my ex’s parents’ house. I woke up to the feeling of something crawling on me, and soon realized there were three somethings. I flipped on the light and discovered…scorpions. There are NO scorpions native to our area.
I freaked out, swatted them off, and ran to the bathroom to strip and check for more. When I turned on the light, several scorpions on the wall scattered like roaches. Then I woke my ex up because seriously, what the heck? He was like, ‘Oh yeah, forgot to warn you. Just ignore them, they’re harmless.’
Apparently, when he was younger, he thought ant farms were boring and decided to order scorpions on the internet, so he could make a scorpion farm instead. The survivors of his arachnid Mad Max setup escaped into the house where a few turned into an insane amount. According to the ex, they survived by eating all the wolf spiders that get in. This, to me, was the most horrifying part. His very wealthy parents chose to live with the scorpions rather than call an exterminator because they were afraid of theft. I never went back after that.”
She Was A Strange Girl From A Strange Home
“I was the new kid in 6th grade and quickly made friends with this one girl. I think she kind of jumped at the chance to be friends with the one person who knew literally nothing about her. She was really nice to me, but also pretty strange. Like, she’d growl at people and draw wolves on every single surface from the classroom to her bedroom. Nonetheless, we were both in an advanced art program so we saw each other more than average and I wasn’t in a position to reject friendship.
I went to her house once…and never went back. When we entered the home, it smelled HEAVILY of dog urine, but there wasn’t a dog. When I asked if she had a dog her response was, ‘No, not since the accident.’ Then there was an uncomfortable silence before she just started laughing uncontrollably. Big red flag.
I stayed because my mother wasn’t picking me up until a bit later and I didn’t exactly know how to walk home. When my mother did come to pick me up and I was about to exit the house, the girl’s mom literally ran after me, grabbed me, and brought me back upstairs. She shook my shoulders, screaming that I couldn’t leave at that moment. I started freaking out, not knowing what was happening.
The girl’s mom was frantically running around to all the windows in the house and screaming at someone outside in a language I didn’t understand. My mom called her, also freaking out, but the girl’s mom wouldn’t let her talk to me. My mom had just watched me get dragged back into the house by this woman, so she called the police.
From there, everything escalated and turned into a mini-hostage kind of situation. Apparently, there was a guy outside that the girl’s mom used to date and he wanted something from her. If I left, he’d run into the house when the door opened, so I couldn’t leave. The cops came and the girl’s mom gave me a plastic shopping bag duct-taped shut and told me that I had to hand it to the man outside when I left. She also said that under no circumstances was I allowed to look inside of it. I really didn’t want to do it, but it seemed like the only way I was getting out of there. I remember whatever was in there was round and felt as heavy as a bowling ball.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I took the bag and started to leave the house, literally peeing myself a little because I was so scared. When I made it out, I straight up hurled the bag onto the grass and ran to my mother. I have no clue where the guy was; I think at that point he was already apprehended by the police.
The whole time this was happening, the girl who I was there to hang out with was sitting on the table in her kitchen, jamming her face into a bowl of cereal LIKE A DOG, not at all phased by the series of events happening in front her.
We had to go to the police station that night and because it was so late when I got home, I didn’t go to school the next day. When I was absent the next day, the girl told everyone at school that I was insane and that when we hung out, I went crazy and peed myself for absolutely no reason. Safe to say we don’t talk anymore.
The girl wound up leaving the school the following year and the rumor was she went to a millitary academy in Florida. I haven’t heard much about her since other than she is in one of those religious protest organizations like the Westboro Baptist Church. I’m not surprised.”
That Bathroom Was A War Zone
“I once visited the house my friend shared with her (now ex) boyfriend. It was his house, but it was so messy you could barely squeeze in the front door. There were boxes and boxes of random stuff everywhere. I had to step over boxes just to get to the couch and at that point, I was mildly amused because I’d never really seen a mess like that before. But the true horror struck when it came time to use the only bathroom in the house…
It was a small bathroom, typical of a house built in the 1930s, and the toilet was against the wall that was opposite the door. This is only noteworthy because there were months, possibly years of old urine caked across the floor, the wall, and every part of the toilet except for the seat, presumably because my friend kept that clean, so she could use it. The smell was utterly horrid. Apparently, her boyfriend liked to stand at the doorway and launch his pee stream into the toilet. He had poor aim.
I left early because I really had to pee and I would go in the yard before I dared to use that bathroom. When I finally got home and pulled down my pants I found two ticks on my legs, which I assume I picked up in that mess of a house. I never went back.”
He Saved That Cat From An Awful Situation
“One time, during my college days, a friend and I went to his buddy’s place to smoke some joints and hang out. This guy had a single room house, a pet cat, and a mattress on the floor. His room reeked of cat pee and poop, plus there was no ventilation and no water to drink. Nonetheless, my friend and I just ignored that stuff and smoked.
After getting pretty high, we listened to some music and then out of nowhere this guy got furious and started yelling and beating his cat. I freaked, ran out of the house, puked on the driveway, asked the neighbors to give me some water to drink, called my friend out of the house, rushed back to my place, called pet rescue people, and got him busted. I like to think I did something good in a really terrible situation.”
The Whole Family Was Grubby And Full Of Neglect
“Walking from the mall one day, I took a different block then I normally did and passed a house with a rusted old vehicle in the driveway. Just as I passed, roaches scattered out from under the car, in broad daylight.
A month or so went by and I was hanging out with my buddy one day when he said to me, ‘I met some dude who’s pretty cool, want to go over to his place?’ I said sure so we went over there, and much to my surprise it was the same house I had passed that day, roached out car and all.
The guy was ok to hang out with, but EVERYTHING else that happened in that house was straight nightmare fuel. When we first went in, his mom and dad were hanging out on a dirty couch and his dad was in his underwear. There were also two emaciated dogs: a Great Dane with some horrible joint issue or displaced leg socket limping around and a Chihuahua that was constantly rubbing its butt all over the carpet.
There was no running water, it had to be turned on from the mains as everything leaked into the house if they left it on. They put their smokes out on tables, desks, literally anywhere possible. When we went into the kid’s room, he was literally barbequing and had spray painted his room black. His brother was sleepwalking and peeing on the kitchen floor, then cleaned it up with a towel laying on the ground and left it there once he was done.
The kitchen also had stacks of dishes migrating out from the sink onto every inch of the counter. When my buddy and I asked the kid if he had any snacks, he came back with a bag of chips, a jar of mayonnaise, a can of corn, and can of tuna. Then he mixed it all up and proceeded to double dip all day, washing it down with a bottle of Shasta Cola with Santa on it (it was August).
At one point, his dad came over to chat with us and talked about his gout for an hour. The dude’s cousin was also living there because she got kicked out of her house, and she was trashy and lonely so she tried to hang with us while sitting on the nasty stained carpet, picking her feet, and eating a bag of Cheetos. Whoa boy, that family was something else!”
Exposing Your Kids To Such An Environment Is Vile
“There were roaches on everything. Everything. The sofa, the fish tanks (all 17 of them), the kids’ toys, the carpet, the walls, and the empty cans all over the place. I’d never seen anything so disgusting in my life. They skittered across the fish tanks while I was looking at them. The people who lived in the house didn’t even seem slightly bothered by it.
I was there to buy some fish tank coral from them but I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I was so scared that the roaches were on me that I went outside and brushed myself off before I got into my car. It was horrifying.
I told a few of my friends that were in our reef hobbyist group, trying to decide if I should call someone about them. Then someone else went over there not long after me (like that day or the day after) and the wife blew up on them because they called Child Protective Services. Well, don’t subject your children to filth, you crazy woman! They obviously could’ve afforded an exterminator if they could afford 17 quality fish tanks, three of which were reef tanks with coral.”
Her Dad Gave Off The Sketchiest Vibes
“One time I slept over at a friend’s house and not only was her house dark and smelled weird, but her dad immediately gave me weird vibes. I kind of let it go because maybe I just wasn’t used to her house and maybe the dad was just kind of intense.
Then a lot of small things happened that were strange to me, like him not feeding us for the entire day, sending us to bed super early, or insisting that we slept head to toe. Nonetheless, I just brushed it all off.
Then I woke up early the next morning and the dad was just standing there watching the two of us sleep. He saw me awake and didn’t even say anything or acknowledge his weird behavior. That was the moment I was like, ‘Ohh, yeah, I’m never coming here again.'”