5 Creepiest Stealth Camping Moments Ever Recorded

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00:00Ian on YouTube is a channel run by 30-year-old Ian who's been posting on the platform for the

00:04better part of a decade. His content covers everything from day-in-the-life work vlogs

00:09to different adventures after hours. And while most of it is nothing more than fun,

00:14one particular encounter left him shaken to his core. On January 18th, 2024, Ian posted a video

00:21going over the disturbing experience he had while stealth camping in a McDonald's parking lot in

00:26Palm Springs, California. Stealth camping, for those who don't know, is when someone spends the night

00:31in a vehicle or tent in an area not officially designated for camping, usually while trying to

00:36avoid detection. It's often done out of necessity, curiosity, or simply for the thrill of it.

00:42And while it can be harmless, it also means the camper is completely exposed and vulnerable to

00:47whatever or whoever might be lurking nearby. This is exactly what happened with Ian on the 16th of

00:53January 2024. He'd been stealth camping for quite some time by that point, and had spent nights in

00:59much harsher conditions, like during heavy rain or in a sandstorm. So, staying overnight in a

01:05McDonald's parking lot seemed like nothing to him. Unfortunately, he couldn't have been more wrong.

01:11After setting everything up, he went to lie down in the back of his car. But just as he was about to

01:15fall asleep, he was interrupted by the sound of someone repeatedly trying to open his car's door.

01:20He immediately got up to see who it was, and this is what he came across.

01:25What's going on, man? What's going on? What's up? What's up, man? What's going on?

01:37What are you doing?

01:39There was a man standing outside the passenger door. What made the encounter even more unsettling was that

01:45the man never said a word, even as Ian repeatedly called out to him, trying to get some kind of

01:49explanation for what he was doing?

01:51Hey, bro.

01:56What's up?

02:01What are you doing, man?

02:02Ain't weird, bro.

02:04Despite his panic, however, he made the wise decision to stay locked within his car and quickly drive to a

02:09more hidden spot in the lot. But that wasn't enough. Because just a few minutes later, Ian spotted the

02:15same man walking around the parking lot, possibly trying to locate his car. Fearing for his safety,

02:21he drove to a completely different location and managed to sleep through the rest of the night

02:24without any incident. Still, the question remained. Who was this man, and what exactly was he trying to

02:30do? Ian never made a follow-up or shared any more info regarding the encounter in the video's

02:35description, so we can only speculate on what happened that night. Now, it's entirely possible that he was just a

02:40harmless, mentally ill person who wasn't fully conscious of what he was doing. This could explain

02:45why he didn't answer when Ian called out to him and just calmly walked away without a word.

02:49However, a far more likely explanation is that the act of trying to break into Ian's car was

02:54completely intentional, and when he was caught, he just acted confused and harmless to seem less

02:59threatening. Perhaps he really thought the car was empty and was trying to steal it. Or maybe he knew

03:04Ian was inside and had intentions to rob him or something far more sinister. His strange behavior

03:10also suggested that he might have been under the influence of some kind of drugs, which would have

03:15made him even more unstable and, by extension, more dangerous. Fortunately, Ian managed to drive

03:21away unscathed before he could find out the man's true intentions.

03:24On February 11th, 2024, stealth camping YouTuber Brendan Explorers posted a video of him spending

03:34a night in the small village of Jaywick, England. The thing about Jaywick, however, is that it's been

03:40named as the most deprived town in all of England. The combination of high unemployment and poor living

03:45conditions has pushed many of its residents toward a life of crime. Brendan, however, wanted to see the

03:50village firsthand to decide whether it was truly as bad as the media made it out to be. His first

03:55impressions of the place were quite good, with him admiring the natural landscape surrounding the

03:59village. What he didn't realize at the time was that this lighthearted escape to the countryside

04:04would soon spiral into complete disaster. It began with him driving through the town and searching for

04:09a discreet spot to park his van so he could settle in before it got dark. He eventually found a parking

04:14lot that looked promising and decided to make it his home for the night. But it didn't take long for him

04:19to start noticing a series of red flags in the area, like people riding around with gangster rap

04:24blaring from a speaker. And a group of street racers speeding down the road right in front of the

04:36parking lot. As the evening approached, he was also left alone in the parking lot, making him a prime

04:46target for any would-be robber. So, after thinking about it for a few minutes, he thought it would be

04:51best to leave the parking lot and find a more secluded spot for camping. He eventually went

04:55down a dirt trail and parked in the middle of nowhere, without any houses or major roads nearby.

05:01This turned out to be the worst decision Brendan could have made in that situation.

05:04Because, at around 2.30am, about four hours after he went to sleep, he was woken up by the sound of

05:10someone walking around his van.

05:12I think someone's outside the van.

05:25Half-past two.

05:33This person then tried to open the van's sliding door.

05:36Someone just tried to open the van.

05:41By it, before Brendan even had a chance to fully understand his predicament, this happened.

05:47Hey!

05:59Whoever this person was shattered the passenger side window before running away once Brendan started

06:04shouting. In the video's description, Brendan speculated that this person was likely trying

06:08to steal the mini refrigerator he had on the passenger seat. While this might not be entirely

06:13accurate, there's still some truth behind it. Judging by the fact that the intruder fled the

06:17moment they heard Brendan, it's likely they were simply looking to steal something, nothing more.

06:22As for how they managed to find his van in the middle of nowhere, it's entirely possible that

06:27they stalked him from when he was in town. However, given these circumstances,

06:31the situation could have turned out a lot worse. As one comment under the video pointed out,

06:35When you said you had found the perfect quiet spot after driving away from town down a quiet

06:41pitch black lane in the middle of nowhere with nobody else around for miles, at that point I

06:46was absolutely terrified. How on earth you managed to go to sleep to begin with amazes me. A few blokes

06:51with their hoods pulled down and armed and you wouldn't have stood a chance. While nothing truly tragic

06:56occurred, the experience was terrifying enough to rattle Brendan. Instead of staying in the night,

07:01he drove through the darkness until daybreak just to make it back home, which was ultimately the

07:05right call. He's still making stealth camping videos, but now he's far more cautious about where

07:10he parks, especially when it comes to remote or isolated spots.

07:17In March of 2025, a camping YouTuber named Daniel Mark Brown planned a stealth camping trip in the

07:23woodland surrounding Ostwestry, England. His plan was simple, travel alongside one of the many hiking

07:28trails in the area and then go off trail to find a good stealth spot. And this worked better than he

07:33expected, finding the perfectly hidden camping area in no time. After setting down his supplies,

07:39Daniel went to the nearby river to cook a meal before heading back to the spot he'd found earlier.

07:43By the time he came back, it was already starting to get dark and the trail was starting to empty out,

07:47giving Daniel the peace of mind to wind down and call it a night. However,

07:51what happened next made him realize the true danger he was in. After laying out his sleeping bag,

07:57settling down and finally falling asleep, 90 minutes had passed when he was suddenly jolted awake.

08:16Daniel was woken up by the cracking of branches, followed by the light from a flashlight.

08:21He eventually found the courage to unzip his sleeping bag to see who was out there.

08:25Oh, that's right. They're looking straight at me. I'm trying not to panic.

08:41By this point, he couldn't think of anything else to do but call out to the person who was now aiming

08:46the flashlight at him. But instead of getting a reply of any kind, the person just turned around

08:51and disappeared into the woods, never to be seen again.

08:56Hello?

08:56I haven't seen a single light now for maybe 5-10 minutes. I don't even know.

09:12I've been just trying to keep as calm as possible. But when they walked off and the light went out,

09:19I don't even know which direction they went. But somewhere in that direction.

09:25I'll forget it. Let's just go.

09:28This experience startled him enough to quickly pack his stuff and hightail out of the wooded area.

09:33However, if the person with the flashlight had malicious intent, leaving the campsite wasn't going

09:38to be an easy task. The way they refused to respond to Daniel's hello was unsettling enough.

09:44But how they silently turned off their light and disappeared into the woods suggested they might

09:48have been hiding, waiting to ambush him to rob him, or possibly worse. That being said, it's entirely

09:55possible that the mysterious person was just someone walking their dog at night or something

09:59else completely innocent. As for why they didn't reply to Daniel, it's possible they were just as

10:04scared as he was after hearing a hello from the darkness of the woods. However, we also can't

10:09rule out the possibility that they were trying to sneak up on Daniel for some sinister reason,

10:13only turning around once they realized they'd been spotted. Whatever the case may be,

10:17Daniel made it out of the woods safely without encountering the same person again.

10:25Ellie and Graham are an elderly duo from the UK who travel around the country in their camper van

10:30while vlogging about their adventures on YouTube. In November of 2022, they were on one of their

10:35trips when they had to urgently travel back home due to an emergency. However, they were too far

10:39away to make it back in one day. After searching online, they found a stealth camping spot on the

10:44outskirts of a town called Altrium. It was a fairly small car park. But the couple was in a hurry,

10:51so they didn't have any other choice but to camp there for the night, hoping to get back on the road

10:54the next morning. What they didn't expect, however, was that this would spiral into the most

10:59terrifying experience of their entire camping journey. By the time they got to this location,

11:04it was already dark out. They parked their van and settled in for the night, going to sleep at around

11:0811pm. But then at 1am, both of them woke up to the sound of loud music blaring from a car.

11:15However, the music stopped soon after, so they brushed it off and began settling back into their bed.

11:20That's when they both heard a disturbing bang coming from their own van. It was loud enough that

11:25they thought a tree had fallen onto their van. They quickly rushed outside to see what had happened,

11:30and this was the shocking sight they came across.

11:35I can't believe it. We've just been woken up with a loud bang. And er, I guess we dropped something on the floor there.

11:47Or was that grass? Two bricks. And someone's just smashed Merlin's windows while we were sleeping.

11:55So no, we don't recommend this as a place to stop. They smashed the windscreen, but Graham's hoping he can

12:01drive with that. But here's us under nowhere, with a broken window and a cracked windscreen,

12:11about 200 miles from home. After some investigation,

12:15they found three bricks around the van which was severely damaged. The windshield was cracked,

12:20the passenger side window was completely shattered, and the van had a massive dent behind the sliding

12:25door. More troubling than the physical damage to the van was the psychological impact on Ellie and

12:30Graham, who were now absolutely terrified. It's also possible that this could have been a trap designed

12:35to lure them out of the safety of their locked van. However, even after hours had passed,

12:39no one approached the couple, attempted a break-in, or made any kind of move toward them.

12:44But instead of bringing comfort, this only made the two even more unsettled.

12:48They were just attacked with multiple bricks, yet they had no idea who did it and why.

12:53After talking to the family from another camper van that was parked nearby,

12:56they learned that the attacker came in a car, as the other family heard tire screeches after the attack.

13:01Ellie and Graham also figured that this was a group effort, because despite the multiple bricks,

13:06there was only one collision sound. In other words, there were at least three suspects who threw

13:11bricks at the same time. Why would anyone attack an elderly couple out of nowhere and then leave

13:16without gaining anything from it? Maybe they just wanted to scare off campers for whatever reason.

13:22But if that were the case, why was the other van spared completely? Unfortunately, there's really

13:27no clues to help answer these questions. No faces were seen, no voices were heard,

13:32and no clear motive ever emerged, leaving the entire incident a complete mystery.

13:37And while Ellie and Graham were too scared to ever go stealth camping again after this incident,

13:41it seems by now they've since made a complete recovery and are back on the road again.

13:45On the 15th of July 2022, YouTuber The Abandoned Camper uploaded a video of her stealth camping in

13:56an abandoned cemetery from the 1800s. Things started off quite normal as she found a clearing hidden in

14:01the thick foliage and began unpacking her camping gear. After setting up camp, she decided to explore

14:06the cemetery to pass the time until nightfall. And that's when things started to take a strange turn.

14:12As she was filming the gravestones, she began to hear what sounded like a bunch of kids screaming.

14:42She assumed she was alone in the cemetery. However, she could not have been more wrong.

14:58As she was going back to her camp, she saw a group of kids in the distance who likely knew about her

15:03presence. So if you can't tell, it's pretty dark here right now. But there are kids here, like young kids

15:15in the cemetery. And I'm wondering how active this place actually is. Do people come here at night and

15:21kind of party in the forest or something? That dog kind of ruined it? Not ruined it, I shouldn't say that.

15:35The dog barking, I didn't want to disturb anybody, especially since I'm not supposed to be here.

15:40So I think I'll finish my exploring tomorrow morning. Because there seems to be still a lot of stuff here.

15:53See? I think they know I'm here. That's not good.

15:58At this point, she was pretty certain that the kids knew about her and were just messing with her.

16:05However, she still kept her camera rolling just in case and even made sure that she wasn't followed

16:09back to the campsite. I'm going to keep this recording. Just in case. But I'm also going to stop

16:22and find out what they're doing. Is there actually watching me or not?

16:31Well, I can see them.

16:32I just don't want them to see where I'm going.

16:49Okay. I think they're gone.

16:53Once back at her stealth campsite, she started a small fire to cook her food.

16:57Unfortunately, this turned out to be a huge mistake. Because shortly after starting the fire,

17:03she started hearing the sound of people talking and walking toward her in the forest.

17:08There are people walking around back here. They don't have headlamps on. But,

17:15um, like I said in my last video, I do not like being around people in the middle of the forest.

17:22Especially when it's dark out. So, I might pack up and get out of here.

17:33When I think the coast is clear.

17:35It's unclear what the kids' intentions were and we likely won't ever know as she made the wise

17:40decision to avoid any risk by packing up her things and quickly leaving the cemetery,

17:45making sure to remain as quiet as possible.

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