35 Nightshift Workers Share Their Strangest Encounters In The Middle Of The Night
Working nightshift cuts you off from the rest of the world. Not only are you working and sleeping on a separate schedule than everyone else, but being one of the few people awake gives you an eerie sense of isolation.
These nightshift workers are sharing some of the strangest encounters they ever had in the middle of the night.
There’s a reason horror movies have the really creepy stuff pop off at 3am. It’s the witching hour.
1.
I worked the night shift at a hotel, and around 3 a.m. a guy came down to the front desk in a full business suit that was visibly soaking wet, like he’d just walked through a storm, except it hadn’t rained all night. He was barefoot, holding a plastic cup with a goldfish in it, the kind you win at a fair. He set the cup down very carefully and asked if we had a microwave because the fish was cold. I told him we didn’t, and he nodded like that confirmed something he already suspected. He asked if the lobby thermostat could be turned up just for a few minutes. While I was doing that, he started telling me he had a meeting in the morning and needed the fish to “be alert.” After about ten minutes he thanked me, put the cup inside his suit jacket like an inside pocket was made for this exact situation, and went back upstairs. An hour later he checked out early, still wet, still barefoot, and left a five-star review mentioning the “excellent late-night hospitality.” I never saw him or the fish again.
2.
A guy walked into the lobby of the hotel I work at in a downpour sobbing and without a wallet or phone because his friends ditched him at a bachelor party for a wedding in a town he wasn’t from because they decided to prank him. He was full on sobbing but I managed to get him to call his parents, he was like early twenties, and they asked for a number of a taxi company that does e-transfer (of which I knew of one) and thanked me for looking after their son. I gave him water and a towel as he sat in the lobby dry heaving from sobbing so much, he walked a solid hour before finding a 24 hour lobby from a vineyard. He had no idea where he was and only had part of his Air BnB address he was staying at with his friends (that stole his phone and wallet and left him stranded, again, in a town he wasn’t from and knew nothing about). After the cab picked him up and took him to the now completed address of the Air BnB (thank you Google) his dad called about ten minutes later to request if his son was picked up in the taxi to verify before he transferred the money and then thanked me a whole lot for looking after his son.
That kid needs new friends.
3.
Was driving downtown near a major hospital.
Saw a very tall man walking along [undressed].
Saw a cop working a traffic detail down the street.
I told him and he just shook his head and asked, “Why is it always a guy?”.
4.
Worked night shift at the front desk of Bellagio.
At 3 AM a man in a bathrobe tried to check in a rotisserie chicken as his “wife.”
Security showed up.
The chicken was still warm.
The man was serious.
Don’t ask about what we found in the cavity.
Management later sent an email clarifying that food items cannot be registered as guests.
5.
I used to do night shifts monitoring a datacenter. The weirdest thing isn’t what you see, but what you hear.
When you sit in a room with thousands of cooling fans humming at the exact same frequency for 8 hours, your brain starts creating ‘audio pareidolia’—basically hallucinating patterns in the white noise. By 3 AM, I would swear I could hear a distant radio playing or people whispering in the server aisles, but it was just the fans.
6.
When I was an overnight manager for a retail company we had one individual come in almost every night, go straight to the dairy section, pick up blocks of cheese, and tell them how bad they were. He would then smack the block of cheese several times before moving on to another one. We called him “Cheese Spanker”.
7.
In the mid 90’s, I was working front desk at a hotel with an open lobby/atrium that went up 10 floors. Paul Sorvino coming back from a film shoot and instead of going to his room, went over to the lobby piano and started playing then singing an amazing opera song.
8.
Two ostriches in the parking lot who escaped from the nearby wildlife preserve. They were known escape artists and very aggressive. Had to call the vet staff at 3am to come tranquillize them and take them back to their habitat.
9.
3AM working the graveyard at a hotel, we were on a downtown residential street. I’m outside having a cigarette, I see someone about a block away walking in my direction about two blocks away in the middle of the street. As he gets closer, I hear a fwip, fwip, fwip noise getting louder. At this point the cigarette is gone, but I’m intrigued. As he gets closer, it’s a guy with a snorkeling mask, and flippers, wearing a pair of speedos. As he passes me, I nod hello. He ignores me and walks past towards a large park.
5AM another cigarette break. I finish the cigarette and from the opposite direction, I hear fwip, fwip, fwip. I have to stick around for this, same guy, walking back where he came from, only this time he’s soaking wet.
10.
When I worked security at a 24/7 gas station I witnessed two cars pull into the parking lot, the drivers got out and threw hands until they both fell over and they got up and fist bumped and got back in their cars and left. It was like a hockey fight broke out. Knee touched the ground and the fight was over.
11.
Worked at a Catholic hospital. At 3AM found a Monsignor (distinguished priest) hopping [bare] down the hall on one leg (he only had one.).
12.
I worked overnight in a grocery store. Not once but twice I had a person in a gorilla costume buy bananas. The fact that i didn’t react probably ticked them off. But the overnight was full of interesting people.
13.
Not night shift all the time, but a varying shift pattern (oh the joys of forensics. Can people crime in office hours only please so the time-sensitive testing is at a reasonable hour? Ta.)
About 4am-ish, on my way to a job, man walking what appeared to be a pet goat on a lead. Man was [bare], goat had a jumper and scarf. Man waved and asked if we wanted to pet the goat.
14.
I’ve been waiting decades for someone to ask this. I worked at a small but nice hotel as the night auditor. The pool was across from the desk, with windows around it, and something caught my eye around 3 AM. I went closer to the glass and saw water falling from the ceiling into the pool. I grabbed the cordless and made my way upstairs to try to identify the source and eventually heard water running in a guest room. I went back to the desk and saw there was someone in the room and tried calling several times with no response.
I am a woman, was young then, and working alone. I knew this was a costly issue that I couldn’t ignore, and ultimately, the maintenance man came in to check the room with me around 3:30 AM. When we opened the door, we saw a tiny Asian man in tighty whiteys, squatted down, frantically scooping water with his hands from the floor to the sink. He apparently got wasted at a business dinner and passed out after starting to fill the hot tub in the room. It was a suite, damage was extensive, and he was moved to a regular room for the duration of his stay. When I saw him the next evening, he said, “Sorry, drunko.” I will never forget it.
15.
Worked front desk at a Howard Johnson overnight, had some cops walk in and say someone kept calling emergency services from one of our rooms. They go to the room and I could see on security screens when she answered the door. She was [bare] and one cop walks in and the other looks behind him before going in. 30 min later they come out stop by the front desk and tell me that she was just drunk and didn’t know how to turn off her cellphone…. Yuh huh.
16.
Not 3am, but 1am. I worked a gas station next door to a strip club. I had a guy wordless limp in, his eye was all swollen and bloody, his clothes were torn and he looked rough. He wandered around the store for a few minutes and didn’t respond to anything I said. He then walked out and up the street. I noticed as he left that he was missing a shoe. It was really strange.
Later that night, the dancers and bouncers came in once the club closed. Found out it was the guy’s birthday and his friends got him a dance on the stage with all the dancers. The place had a very strict no touching certain areas rule. This gentleman received a couple warnings from nicer dancers. Then he grab the wrong dancer inappropriately. This dancer was a known firecracker. She turned around while pulling off her shoe and popped him in the eye with her heel. He pushed her off the stage, the bouncers did what bouncers do and he lost a shoe in the scuffle. His friends watched this happen and then went back to what they were doing.
17.
Night desk at a hotel. There was a state high school wrestling tournament in town. I heard a noise out by the pool, so I grabbed the aluminum baseball bat (yes, it was that kind of hotel) and went to investigate. Twenty teenage boys, all in their tighty-whities, were stacked up in the sauna trying to sweat down to a lower weight class. It was, at best, a five-person sauna. They’d even brought bolt cutters to break the chains on the door. Several coaches were throwing tantrums at the front desk by 8 AM.
18.
I used to work night shift at a self serve gas station. One time a guy walked up to the window and asked me if I knew [co-workers name]. I said yes then he said he had a gun in his pocket and was robbing me (with his hand in his pocket). For some reason tired dopey me took it as a joke and laughed in his face.. he looked sort of befuddled and walked away into the night. I mean he said he knew my coworker so I guess I assumed he was kidding. The next night he actually did come in and rob the gas station with someone else working at gunpoint.
I mean what was I thinking there…
19.
Answered phones at a catholic hospital overnight… someone called in at 3AM hoping we had an exorcist on staff that they could speak to because their 12 year old son tried to burn the house down.
20.
I used to work overnight at a 711 in FL. One time this guy came in literally covered in mud. At first glance I thought he had a facial deformity but it was like an inch thick of caked on mud. He tried to buy a buzz ball and fell backwards into a display and threw up. After that he kept coming in and out for like 2 hours until finally some guys came in that knew him and they finally left with him. I had a couple regulars who would come in and regularly break down talking about their lives. And then their husbands/boyfriends/girlfriends/wives who were also regulars would come in and do the same thing. They didn’t tell me I’d be doing therapy when I got hired. It was also across the street from an illegal casino and had a few times where some very [out of it] people dropped over 1k on scratch offs and didn’t win anything. I let a drunk homeless dude sleep in my car.
21.
I was an overnight cleaner at a rest stop and there was this weird woman that washed her baby in the toilets and then made a fort with her stuff in the stalls like it was her house now. Couldn’t understand why it wasn’t her house.
22.
I was called out to a tree down during a storm years ago in the middle of the night. It was as you would imagine very windy and raining heavily.
I was driving to the location which was a fairly remote part of Scotland and not somewhere I’ve ever really seen people walk even during the day. Driving along the road I passed a woman walking in the rain pushing a pram on the opposite side of the road.
I pulled over and asked if she was okay or needed help and she just said no thank you, I’m trying to settle the baby.
23.
Woman 3x over the limit drove into petrol station forecourt, hitting one of the pumps, and got out like nothing had happened. She didn’t even register that I was on the phone to the police.
A [man] took a container of waste oil from the back of a restaurant and threw it all over the road. Police had to cordon off the road for hours to get it cleaned up. When the newspaper delivery guy came along, he ignored the police and sped past them, skid on the oil and crashed his van.
Guy smashed a jar of sauce over his own head, walked of the shop and tried to walk in front of a bus.
I’ve seen it all.
24.
Night shift casino surveillance, saw someone win a jackpot worth just under $1mil. No reaction. Just scooted over to the next machine and kept playing while staff organized the payout.
25.
I was zoning out listening to an audio book on my mp3 player in the frozen foods, changing sale signs and price labels when a clip-clopping noise caused me to look around. A skinny [bare] man in a crotchless purple fishnet bodysuit, day glo yellow 6 inch heels, a white wig, completely bedazzled frank and beans, a mini hello kitty purse, and an old manual egg beater was in the ice cream section a few freezer doors down from me. Trying to focus on matching barcode numbers and not this discoball, suddenly BAM! His sequined, sparkle package is inches from my face and they’re tapping my shoulder asking if mint chip or cherry vanilla sounds better in a cone. “Both are good.” That was the right answer apparently, because he looked jubilant, thanked me, and threw sugar cones and sprinkles into his cart with the ice cream and clip-clopped back to the front of the store.
26.
Worked McDonalds overnights. We’d have to shut everything down for like 15 to 30 mins between 3am-4am to roll over the system or whatever. One night we’re all doing our shutdown tasks and after 10 minutes I walk by the first window.
Window is absolutely shattered. Someome managed to rip a support beam holding up the fence outside and i guess javelin throw? It through the window. The weird part was none of us heard it happen and there was at least 6 people working.
27.
Once when I did C-Store overnights a car flew into the parking lot, door opened, and a dude was very much thrown out onto the sidewalk. Car burned rubber peeling out. Guy was *incredibly* high. I do not know what he was on, but he was very VERY out of it. Still walking around, but you’d think he was lobotomized with how out of it he was. Called the police, they took their sweet time getting there while he went around staring at various customers who showed up and other harmless but creepy things.
When the cops did show up, I found out why they weren’t that concerned. This was a weekly occurrence. This guy would routinely take a ridiculous amount of [illegal substances] and his friends would abandon him at a random gas station or grocery after they couldn’t stand him for the night any longer. Cops would be called, they’d put him in a cell for the night, and the cycle would repeat.
28.
Had a guy ask where the matches where, found him in that isle trying to light himself on fire.
29.
I worked at the only 24 hour pharmacy in town.
I once had a woman accuse me of making her feet bleed while shoving her feet in my face because i was sending her bad vibes. I hadn’t been thinking about her at all and also her feet weren’t bleeding.
I also had people come in who were actually covered in blood and just act like everything was normal. They world just buy something and leave.
There was also a guy who came in the middle of winter wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He passed out in the women’s restroom and scared the absolute [hell] of me when i walked in because i didn’t know he was in there. He woke up and walked out like nothing had happened.
30.
I saw a mountain lion creeping through the grass fifty feet from where I was working.
31.
This was about 10 years ago but while working night shift at a retailer we had a customer come through, go to the kitchen section and grab a knife and he ended up just cutting himself with blood all over the floor. We had out Supervisor go over and she was mortified. Ended up with the police being called over and him being taken to the hospital. Blood, just all over the floor. Janitorial was pissed.
32.
A full christmas dinner with turkey, potatoes stuffing the works. Except it was July. Chef needed to clear some freezer space up. Really nice meal but I so wanted to sleep after. Good job there was no alcohol.
33.
34.
I worked as security guard in wax figurines museum and we had glass entrance doors and some figurines that could be seen from outside…well i checked camera and there was wookie with bowcaster and everything staring inside (there was comic con or star trek convention or something).
35.
I get back from lunch break at 3. One time I come back into the cooler from lunch and find three of the 5 gallon waste buckets knocked over, one on its side and the eggs all over the floor, the other 2, I stg, perfectly upside-down with all 5 gallons of egg inside, like a jello mold. I couldn’t get them right-side up without spilling, so unfortunately I did have to clean up 15 gallons of squashed egg. Genuinely no clue how it happened, I was the last person in the cooler before lunch and my boss checked the cameras to see if anyone else went in while I was gone, nope! Even if they some how fell off the cart they were on, I have no clue how they would have landed like that?!