The Year I was Chased by a Graverobber

Let me just say that I LOVE Halloween! I love everything about it. As a kid, I got to be whoever I wanted to be. As an adult, I get to appreciate the kids enjoying it like I used to.

When I was around 17 years old, it was close to that time of year. To be accurate, it was late October around the 28th or 29th and I was feeling brave. I went and grabbed my girlfriend (it isn't that type of story, don't worry!) and took a drive through a local cemetery just before dark. The light was just fading enough to obscure things and be creepy at the same time. A perfect time to drive through the land of the dead.

As I turned into the graveyard, I noticed that there was absolutely nobody around, which was strange. I mean there was NO ONE around, like that opening scene from "Night of the Living Dead". We rove through a couple of the roads reading grave stones from the car. We weren't brave enough to actually leave the car and that turned out to be a blessing.

Then, as we turned into a back area of the cemetery, I saw a small car parked on the grass near an above ground mausoleum type grave. There was a person standing by the crypt but I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. I thought "Well, they certainly are here late", but there was something wrong about the way they were standing. This person wasn't kneeling or have their head down as if in prayer.

This individual was hunched over the crypt and when they heard the car coming, looked up quickly. That was when I realized that the person had a crowbar in hand and was attempting to pry the lid off of the crypt!

I looked, unbelieving, at what was going on. It was like watching a live scene from Frankenstein or something. I knew that grave robbing existed but never imagined it HERE, where I live. Anyway, the man (I could now see that it WAS a male), looked straight at me and pointed his finger as if to say "STOP!" which, of course, I did not do.

At this point we were maybe 30 yards apart and I only had one way to go and that was directly past the guy. So I did the only thing I could think of to do. I hit the gas and sped past before he could do whatever he had in mind. Obviously, we had disturbed him in his work and wasn't the least bit happy about it.

As I sped past where he was now moving towards his vehicle, I looked right at him so as to get a good idea what he looked like if the police asked me later. He looked weird with dark eyes and deeply creased skin that looked like leather somewhat. He wore a cap of some sort and was dressed, strangely, in deep maroon clothing head to foot. I would think someone in that profession would wear black, but what do I know about robbing graves?
I had planned to go to the police with the license number of the car and the guy's description. What happened next wiped all that from mind completely.

He was behind me now and moving every bit as fast as I was. My girlfriend was freaking out that he may want us to go away forever. All I knew was I had to get away from this person as fast as possible. I have honestly never been that scared f anything in my entire life before or since. That I can guarantee you 100%!

We got out onto the street and I opened up the engine as fast as I could safely handle, trying to get somewhere that held some people. Thank goodness, the car I had was an old police car and was pretty darn fast. Compared to the cracker-box he was driving, I was able to put enough distance between us and lose him at a stop light.

I made a wide circle around and took my girlfriend home much to her liking. She asked what I was going to do and I said I was going home. I did, but by a way that did not pass that graveyard. I went as far out of my way as I possibly could to avoid it.

I never saw that car again and I have never driven through another cemetery again for pure entertainment purposes. The thought crossed my mind that he MIGHT have gotten my license number. I reported the tags stolen, threw them away and had new ones issued. Cost me a few bucks, but it was a lot better than the alternative!

That Halloween has always stuck out in my mind as the creepiest, scariest Halloween I have ever had.