Urban Legends- The tale of the Babysitter

When a Stranger Calls, movie, 2006

To celebrate Halloween this week, here is an urban legend horror story that is sure to give you the chills. 

Urban legends are a form of modern-day fairy tales that are passed along from person to person. They often have cautionary warnings attached to them that serve to remind us to always be careful and mindful of what we are doing and of our surroundings.

The particular urban legend story I am sharing with you today is said to have originated in the 1950’s or 1960’s. 

The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs

In this story, a young teenage girl goes to babysit for a family in her town who live in a very large house. In some accounts of this legend, the house she goes to is located in an isolated area with no nearby neighbors. The couple have two children. 

After the babysitter puts the children to bed, she heads downstairs to watch tv and work on her homework. Later in the night, she receives a strange phone call. A man in a low hushed voice asks her if she has checked on the children in their rooms yet. 

Startled by his message, she hangs up slightly paranoid about what he might have meant but thinks it might have just been a prank call.

Later in the evening she receives the same call again, with the same man warning her to go upstairs and check on the kids. This time the man accompanies his message with eerie heavy breathing. Too scared to move and go check on the kids, she instead calls the police.

The police tell her that it is probably just a prank call, but that they will trace any incoming phone calls from the phone line for the rest of the night.

Even though she now knows something is completely wrong, the babysitter tries to go back to finishing her homework. After some time passes, the phone rings again.  Hands trembling, she picks up the receiver only to hear the man’s sinister voice on the other line yet again telling her to go check on the children. Slamming down the receiver, she hangs up and re-dials the police station.

A frantic policeman answers her call and tells her to get out of the house NOW! because they traced the man’s call and it was coming from inside the house she is in. She bolts outside and waits for the police to arrive. When they do, they arrest the man who had been hiding upstairs waiting for her to come up so that he could attack her.