They Couldn’t Believe It

Urban legends are supposed to be scary, albeit fake, stories that we tell one another. But what happens when these stories turn out to be true? It turns out that happens surprisingly often, with many notable urban legends being more real than anyone thought. With that in mind, here are 20 scary things that no one realized was true until too late.

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1. Sewer Monsters

Animals in sewers have long been a subject of urban legend. There have been some real-life reports, though. In 1988, three giant snapping turtles were found in New York City's sewers. In Florida in 2015, a group of manatees had to be rescued after getting stuck in a storm drain. Sewer alligator colonies are likely an exaggeration, but it's still possible to find some surprising animals down there.

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2. Helium Balloons

Larry Walters attached 45 helium balloons to a lawn chair and took off into the California sky. He drifted up to 16,000 feet to the surprise of airline pilots and brought on the scrutiny of air traffic control. He landed in a power line snarl and was arrested.

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3. Charlie No-Face

The Charlie No-Face legend, a mythical, disfigured creature said to haunt a Pennsylvania railroad tunnel, was inspired by an actual person: Raymond Robinson, whose face and body had been altered after a childhood accident. He made regular nighttime walks on State Route 351 that became the stuff of legend and dare games among local children. Poor guy probably just wanted to be left alone, though.

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4. Stranger in the Woods

Visitors to a North Pond area in Maine had long rumored the existence of a hermit stealing supplies from cabins and tents. In fact, Christopher Knight had spent 27 years living alone in the woods, eking out a living and watching others. Knight was caught in 2013 and admitted to scores of thefts per year, confirming the rumors.

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5. MK Ultra

MK-Ultra was once a common name mentioned in rumors, urban legends, and conspiracy theories. There was a time when many thought that MK-Ultra was not real. This program was actually conducted by the CIA and has now been confirmed through declassified documents. MK-Ultra included secret mind control experiments using a variety of techniques and subjects.

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6. Fake Cops

This fake police warning isn't just an urban legend, either. In Illinois, one man used flashing lights to stop a car, then turned on the driver, who managed to escape. In Georgia, a fake cop stopped a teenage boy on his bicycle and stole his belongings. So next time you’re alone on a highway being stopped, hopefully it’s the real deal.

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7. The Bunnyman

For many years, the Virginia Bunnyman urban legend was told as a scary story, but it was based in fact. In 1970, a man in a white suit with rabbit ears would lurk around the area, scaring couples. He was later spotted causing property damage. While he never hurt a person, this true story is quite spooky.

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8. Bathroom Monsters

There are occasional instances where the toilet urban legend is based on truth. Some snakes and rats are known to travel through pipes and end up in toilets, startling the unfortunate person seated there. These events are very uncommon and are not usually harmful, but they are likely to give anyone the heebie-jeebies!

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9. Polybius

The legend of Polybius, an early 1980s arcade game in Portland, began as an urban myth but contains some elements of truth. There were reports of people getting dizzy, disoriented, or even feeling strangely compelled when playing certain games, and speculation about unusual side effects. While the story of the whole CIA experiment is almost certainly an exaggeration, the peculiar experiences people had with the game fed the persistent myth.

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10. Atari Games Landfill

Believed to be an exaggeration for many years, the story of a landfill full of old Atari games was real after all. In 2014, over 1,000 buried video games were dug up at the landfill. The story may have grown in legend over time, but the discovery proved the games were dumped in the landfill.

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11. Someone in the Backseat

This tip sounds like an urban legend, but it's a real-life occurrence: individuals have been spotted sneaking into the back seats of drivers' cars. In 2013, a man approached a woman at a gas station in Indiana and entered her van unprovoked. A woman in Canada faced a similar incident in 2016, when a man was found hiding in the back of her car.

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12. Jet Joyride

A Marine Corps legend about a junior enlisted Marine joyriding in a jet plane really was true. In 1986, a Lance Corporal stole a military jet from El Toro and flew it on an unauthorized flight. The real event verified the legend, which indicated that sometimes these tall tales are really true.

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13. Listening Devices

It used to be an urban legend that the government monitors everyone's phone calls. It has been discovered over the years that certain government programs have indeed listened to phone conversations for the sake of national security. In that sense, the old rumor was just a paranoid exaggeration that turned out to be true.

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14. Underground City

Secret cities underground at airports are largely myth. But in Las Vegas, an extensive network of tunnels does indeed exist. Created to redirect flood waters, they've also served as a haven for people experiencing homelessness on the surface. This one's real and incredibly human, showing how a city can be created below ground.

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15. Colonel Buck

Colonel Jonathan Buck's tomb in Bucksport, Maine, has a legend attached to it involving a recurring leg-shaped stain. Local folklore holds it to be associated with the curse of a young woman that he sentenced for witchcraft. The veracity of the curse itself is impossible to establish. The odd stain on his tomb, however, has been corroborated and continues to attract visitors.

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16. The Watcher

A New Jersey family bought their dream house in 2014. They were then sent letters by a man who called himself "The Watcher." The letters said his family had watched the home for generations and asked invasive questions about the family's children. The threats were real enough to keep the family from moving in.

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17. House Under the Lake

Local reports confirm that a fully intact house lies at the bottom of Connecticut's Gardner Lake. The house reportedly sank when a family was relocating it across the frozen lake in the 19th century. Legends of music from the submerged piano remain unverified, but the underwater home itself demonstrates that the tale is based on fact.

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18. The Fake Word

Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, accidentally listed a phony word in 1934. “Dord,” defined as “density,” was an abbreviation that an editor misread as a new word in the chemistry section. It wasn't caught until 1939, but wasn't formally retracted until 1947.

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19. Woman in Black

Headlines went wild in 2014 with reports of an all-black-clad, hooded woman walking along South highways. In fact, the story was a lot less thrilling: the woman was a veteran of the U.S. Army on a self-imposed religious pilgrimage.

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20. City Under the Lake

In the 1940s, the whole town of Georgia was flooded to make Lake Lanier, so it is technically an underwater city. Houses, streets, and even a racetrack were all submerged once everyone left the town. It’s not quite Atlantis, but it’s a reminder of what could happen to an entire city.

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