Creepypasta Stories

Why I Never Use Street View On Google Maps

By: unknown writer

Some people ask me why I never use the street view function on Google Maps. They say things like "how will you know what the place looks like?" Or "Don't you want to see more than just birds-eye view of the place?"

I usually reply by saying it's always better to go outside and see things with your own eyes, which usually ends in them commending me for my confidence. Truth be told, the reason I say that is not because of confidence. On the contrary, it's because of fear.

To understand where I am coming from, I need to tell you the story of how I first found out about Google Maps. I was in elementary school at the time and during computer class, instead of doing the assigned project, my friends and I were fooling around on coolmathgames.com. We were playing Fireboy & Watergirl when one of my friends started to speak.

"Hey, you guys heard of Google Maps?"

"Yeah, my parents use it all the time."

"But did you know that you can actually see the places on the map? Like you are actually there?"

To my 12-year-old brain that sounded amazing. I let my friend pull up Google Maps on my computer then he asked me for a place I wanted to see.

"Hmm, how about our school?"

"School? Really?"

"Yeah, I want to see how it looks."

After typing in the address of our school, my friend dragged this little yellow stickman onto the school address and opened up street view. I was mesmerized by the pictures on the screen; it felt so surreal to be able to navigate and look around as if you were really there. I could everything, from the broken swings at the playground, to the concrete stairs that lead to the front door. Something about being able to see things without actually being there appealed to my young mind.

"Oh, oh, oh! Did you know you can see your house too? Here, lemme show you my house."

My friend typed his address and pulled up street view on his house. I visited his place many times before, and the house looked just as in real life. The yellow exterior, the white fences at the front, and the garden at the side—Google Maps gave a perfect recreation of my friend's abode.

While we were sitting there snickering at my friend's house, the bell rang, and it was time to go home.

...

After school, I did my usual routine of going home, searching the pantry for anything to eat, then going up to my room and playing on the computer. I didn't have any homework that night, and my parents said they were going to be home late, so I had the house all to myself. As a kid, I decided the best thing to do was play flash games as late into the evening as I could.

Eventually, I got bored of playing flash games and wondered what I should do. It was just past 6pm, but it was dark outside already. I looked out of my bedroom window and saw all the houses in my neighborhood with lights shining through their windows.

Suddenly, I remembered about the Google Maps thing my friend showed me at school that day. I eagerly opened up Google Maps and typed in my address. Then, I opened up street view.

The image of my home covered my screen. I had a fun time dragging the camera around and seeing everything. I even zoomed into the living room window, imagining that maybe I would see someone if I zoomed in enough. Of course, the window was too blurry after I zoomed in that much.

I decided to zoom out again and take a look at my house as a whole. It was then that I noticed something odd: there was a man wearing a hoodie near my side gate. I tried zooming onto the man's face, but I could only see the back of his head.

For context, the side of my childhood house has a gate that leads into the backyard. Right above that gate was my bedroom window.

Being an imaginative child and given it was dark outside, I rushed to my window and pulled back the curtains, expecting to see someone scary when I looked down. I sighed in relief; of course, there was no one by the side gate.

When I got back on my computer, I was greeted by a horrifying sight: the image of a man's crooked face with eyes bulging and a cartoonishly wide smile. I never zoomed out from the man's face before checking the window, so his face filled my whole screen.

I instantly zoomed out. I wanted to close my browser, but I was afraid that if I did, the man would go away. Since I zoomed out, I got to see the man's full body.

The best way to describe the man was tall, lanky, and crooked. He had a hoodie on, and his hands were in his hoodie pockets. His head was tilted to one side and his eyes were staring directly at the screen. What really scared me was how his entire torso was facing the screen, as if he knew I was looking at him.

The street view images were all taken during the day, so I reasoned to myself that even if there was a smiling man outside, that could not possibly be happening at this moment. After all, it was already dark out. I looked at the date the image was taken and saw that it was taken months ago. I then looked again outside my window just to confirm no one was at the side gate; thus, I was reassured there was no way the man was currently outside my house.

When I looked back at the computer my eyes widened. The man stood just as he did moments ago, except one of his hands were outside of his pockets. This hand was giving me a thumbs down. All this time, the man was still staring directly at the screen with his bulging eyes and absurdly wide smile.

I darted downstairs and made sure all the doors and windows were locked. I closed all the curtains for all the windows then locked myself in my room. When I looked back at my computer, I saw the man's face was no longer smiling—now, it was laughing.

I considered closing the browser, but I was deathly afraid of what would happen if I did so. Clearly, it seemed that the man was responding to what I was doing. So, I was left staring at his image on my screen.

After a few minutes of staring at the man and making sure I don't take my eyes off of him, my computer got the blue screen of death. Panicking, I quickly unplug my computer and plug it back in, trying to restart it. The screen came alive and showed the Windows XP boot up screen.

There was nothing but silence throughout the entire house. I sat there looking at the boot up screen, wanting nothing more than to get back on Google Maps to make sure the man was still there. Back then, PCs took a very long time to load.

Suddenly, I heard the doorknob to my front door start jiggling.

I feared for the worst. Was that the man? I looked back at my computer and it was still booting up.

The jiggling stopped. Then, I heard the familiar creaking sound of my front door opening. My heart was racing in my chest and my hands were trembling. I knew that the door to my room was locked, but if the man could get through the front door, he could just as easily get through the door to my room.

Then, I heard my mom's voice calling out: "We're home!"

All the tension I had suddenly disappeared, and I raced downstairs to see my parents taking off their shoes at the front door. I frantically told them about what happened regarding the man and they did not believe me. I practically dragged them to my room and opened up Google Maps street view for our house, expecting to see the familiar jagged smile.

However, the man was not there. I zoomed in and out all over my house and could find no trace of the man. I kept insisting that he was there, but my parents never believed me. They said that even if the man was there, there was no way it could've happened in real time since the photos were taken months ago.

The next day, I told my friends the story at lunchtime, and while it scared them for a moment, they eventually forgot about the story.

I never forgot what happened that night—the memory of the man's crooked smile and bulging eyes come back to me whenever I consider opening up street view on Google Maps. So now, whenever someone asks me why I never use street view, I simply tell them that I would rather see things with my own eyes than trust whatever image is on the screen.