30+ People Who Watch Security Camera Footage for a Living Sharing the Most Shocking Things They’ve Seen

If you watch security cameras for a living, odds are you’ve seen many mundane things. Even those can be scary sometimes, though! This might not have scared everyone but it’s definitely scary for an arachnophobic.

Seeing a spider is often startling enough without getting a view of these eight-legged creatures covering a camera lens. Even after you noticed it was just a spider, it’s still a sight to make your skin crawl.

Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, if you were to stay up all night reviewing security camera footage, you might get a little creeped out by the unexplained.

This person couldn’t help but feel a little shocked every time they saw a door swinging wide, or even closing itself, for no apparent reason. Maybe it was just the wind or central air system cutting on but when you’re watching for something suspicious, it’s easy to get spooked by this.

There are some things you never want to see happen and a security camera doesn’t really allow you to warn someone. This scene almost seems like something out of a terrible, gross cartoon.

The only problem was that this time, it wasn’t a banana peel that the person slipped on. Instead, it was a much more unpleasant surprise. We hope that the woman who slipped was okay and managed to move past this messy incident.

Being in a casino is something many people find hard to pull themselves away from. It seems that’s what this person was having trouble with.

Still, it must have been a bit shocking for this security guard to watch someone step aside to use the casino floor as a bathroom like this. Although, the problem must’ve been more upsetting for whoever had to clean up the mess that this person left behind before they went about their business.

If you aren’t doing anything against the rules of the locale, you may not pay any mind to the security cameras around you. Still, that doesn’t mean you aren’t on camera.

This can lead to some embarrassing situations. When this person was shown some security footage of themselves hanging out at Blockbuster, they realized they should’ve been a little more aware of the cameras. That is if they didn’t want their friend to catch them picking their nose.

This is another case of something that’d definitely unsettle you if you were watching security footage. After all, it flips the rules on their head.

Again, you don’t usually expect people to stare straight back at you when you check security footage. It’s a generally upsetting concept but it seems like it really upset this person’s mom, who couldn’t shake the video for quite a while after watching it.

There’s a lot that could go wrong in a marina. After all, you need to know what you’re doing if you’re going to control a boat or even jump in the water.

That’s why everyone was so concerned when they saw surveillance footage of someone spending so much time on their boat, just standing, before diving in. However, it seems that they couldn’t find any evidence that anything had happened when they looked later.

There are a few things you can see over a security camera that are chilling. Plus, you can’t always take action if you’re watching from a distance. There are a few things that you don’t want to see when you check the cameras.

A box of cardboard suddenly catching fire is definitely a bad sign. To make things even worse, the camera was positioned in just the right spot to see how quickly and devastatingly the fire spread.

There’s a lot you might see on a camera that you don’t expect. If you made someone guess a thousand times, though, they may not have guessed this. Plenty of people love a bit of venison but this might be a bit extreme.

Not to mention, it doesn’t seem like the prime of food safety. We’re not sure how we’d react to this. It seems like this person didn’t have to react since the guy on camera left as quickly as he came, if not much more calmly.

If you’re watching a road in the middle of the night, you might see a few things you don’t expect. After all, anyone can head out on a midnight walk.

It seems like this isn’t limited to humans either. You don’t have to worry about anything creepy like a predatory animal or science fiction nightmare. In fact, this time, it was just a chicken making its way down the road.

There are times that you don’t necessarily see something that shakes you or unsettles you. Sometimes, it’s not even a surprising presence that caught someone’s eye.

In this case, this person was just watching their friends hard at work. Well, hard at work until their friend took a rather comedic tumble. While it’s great they could laugh about it, it seems like they thought the manager overstepped with the joke in the end.

This person doesn’t work for a company, reviewing security footage for a living. Yet, they did find themselves in a position in which they watched some footage.

It seems like a rather intense experience too. There are some things that’d be terrifying if they happened and the last thing you’d want to do is watch it from another angle after the fact. This seems like the last video you’d want to watch at that point.

It seems like security guards see a lot of unfortunate situations while they’re on the job. We have to sympathize with whoever has to clean up these messes left behind. According to this story, the nurse in question didn’t even stop when she pulled this move.

It seems like no one had to, or was able to, clean it up right away. Instead, this security guard watched an hour of reactions ranging from missing it completely, to drawing back in horror, to even stepping right into it!

It seems like these stinky stories never end. At this point, maybe it’s best to wait until you aren’t right next to a client’s door. This person was there to help remove the snow.

Instead, he decided to leave something behind. At least this person managed to avoid it when they almost stepped right into it. We can’t imagine checking the tape to see what animal did this and finding out the answer was the snow removal person.

If you work in a two-level restaurant where people order downstairs, it’d be confusing to see a group head upstairs without uttering a word. So, of course, the team working there was sure to go check it out.

You’d think the result would be a confused party waiting for menus or maybe even kids making trouble. However, when they arrived upstairs, there was no sign of the group they saw on the security camera.

There are some things it seems like you shouldn’t do with chemicals. Lab safety usually says to keep them away from your face. It doesn’t seem like you’re supposed to kiss barrels of a chemical either.

While why he did it is a question of its own, it seems the more pressing question is if this chemical needed to be treated with care. It seems this person wasn’t quite sure how to react to what they saw, and we can’t blame them!

Most people are aware of how popular security cameras are with businesses. So, it makes sense that they might try to hide their face from view when they do something illegal.

It wasn’t the fact that this person hid their face for a robbery that stood out to the people watching the security footage. Rather, it was the choice of disguise they chose. Surely there must’ve been a less recognizable option than a full Boba Fett helmet, right?

While most people are aware of security cameras, it seems that they sometimes forget that the devices are present in a lot of elevators too. Still, some people tend to use a few moments alone in the elevator for a private moment.

That means that this security guard came to know which employee used the elevator for a little ballet practice. Honestly, this seems like the most fun thing that could happen on an elevator security camera, compared to some of the other stories we’ve seen.

There are some things that someone does and you’re not sure how they survived. As for this story, we’re just grateful it had a happier ending. After all, not everyone who falls 30 feet can come out practically unscathed.

It’s even less common when you think about the fact that this person was pulled under the dam in their fall. Still, it seems like they managed to pull through without too many injuries.

Security cameras are there for, well, security; and it seems like that’s exactly what happened here. It caught someone in the act, after all. There’s not much to say once you see footage like this.

From the sounds of it, this woman was caught red-handed with a crime she may have gotten away with, or even avoided altogether if she’d noticed there was a camera nearby. We’re not too surprised by the end of this story.

Lately, it seems like vehicles that drive themselves are becoming more of a reality. Yet, that’s not what happened here. This delivery truck was like any other. That is to say, it needed a driver.

That’s why everyone was so confused when no one got out of the truck. They gave it two whole days too but still, there was no footage of anyone coming or going. This would definitely make you wonder about things if you were on the job.

We’ve already covered that watching security camera footage for a living may not be for the arachnophobic. After all, spiders tend to hang out in the corners security cameras usually reside in.

This spider seemed to have a timely sense of humor. That, or this security guard was already a bit startled at the height of Slenderman’s popularity. Either way, this definitely seems like a startling visual to notice out of the corner of your eye.

There are some things that you expect to see on a security camera. For instance, you might catch someone picking their nose when they think no one’s looking. That’s not quite the sight that caught this person off-guard.

Really, it was how this man followed up on his nose-picking. Even worse, it was at his girlfriend’s expense! We can see how it might be hard to pass the message along, though.

If you have a doorbell security camera, it makes sense you might not take every alert seriously if you live somewhere with a lot of wildlife. It wasn’t until this person remembered something important that they realized something was wrong with the alert.

After all, there were no wild animals wandering around in the house. This would make for a pretty unsettling drive home. If it was a mouse, it really went the extra mile to startle everyone!

Computers are machines that can do some surprising things, especially if you don’t know a lot about the tech behind them. On the other hand, this one seems to fall outside of the realm of explanation, even for a tech expert.

At the end of the day, doesn’t a desktop computer usually need to be plugged in if you want to use it? We guess this one is the exception, at least for one night.

There’s a lot you might want to go out and investigate if you see it on a security camera. Other things, you might want to leave outside on their own.

For example, if you see someone on the cameras, you might walk out and ask what they’re doing. As for mountain lions, they aren’t usually up for friendly conversation. At that point, it’s probably a good idea to just stay inside until the animal passes by.

From this post, it seems like turning off the power in a casino isn’t as easy as turning off your living room lights or flipping a breaker. Instead, this person makes it sound like there’s a specific procedure to follow if you wanted to pull this off.

That’s why it was surprising to everyone when someone just wandered in and managed to cut off the power themselves. This would leave you with a lot more questions than answers.

A lot of stores deal with a degree of shoplifting. However, it’s usually smaller items that are easier to pocket. It seems like this duo had their sights set on something bigger.

It also seems they were charismatic enough that the two employees were kind enough to help. How do you possibly steal something as large as a canoe without anyone batting an eye?

Luckily, the shocking things you see on security footage aren’t bad. Sometimes, they just stand out because they’re just not what you expected to see. Rats aren’t an uncommon presence on a construction site.

However, it still seems like these construction workers weren’t expecting one to run right up to them. We can’t say that we wouldn’t have scrambled to get away if a rat suddenly appeared where we were working all day!

A trail camera would catch a lot compared to a security camera. It makes sense – these usually keep an eye on wildlife for hours at a time. Still, there are some things you don’t expect to see.

Seeing a person walking by wouldn’t be frightening footage on its own. On the other hand, seeing someone just lingering at the edge of your yard, seemingly just watching, would make anyone wonder what was going on.

This person may not work in security but they definitely got a bit of a shock when they went to check on their new puppy through their pet cam. They were really only expecting to see their puppy, so they were shocked to see a guest come into the frame.

The good news was that the visitor didn’t have any ill intent – they were just a kid! However, it might warrant a conversation about when it’s appropriate to visit the puppy.

There are some things that can really make family members look at each other and wonder what they were thinking or what’s going on. This seems like exactly one of those situations.

Sure, the fact that their uncle came in just for a jar of pickles is strange enough. What had the most fallout, though, was the fact that he used a key to get in that the owner of the home was formerly unaware of. It seems like there’s a lot more to this story.

There are some things that tend to unsettle people, especially in the wrong settings. Surprise clown imagery isn’t something most people look forward to.

So, if you were going through security footage, the last thing you’d want to see is a clown staring back at you. As if this wouldn’t be bad enough at a business, this person had a clown at their home. Hopefully, the clown left to join the rest of his circus not long after.

If you think someone’s dog is doing their business outside, all you can really do is try to talk to the owner and see if they’re willing to work out a solution with you. Of course, that means you have to know who the dog and the owner in question are.

This business decided the best way to do this was to set up a security camera so they could figure out who was behind the mess first. The answers they got were anything but what they expected, though.

There are a few things you rarely want to do while you’re at work. For most people, this includes making unnecessary extra work for themselves. This person surely didn’t mean to do this when they were driving the forklift.

Yet, it still must’ve made for an interesting view from the security monitor to watch such a disaster happen in real time. This seems like it’d be a hassle to clean up, to say the least.

Some people who are out to steal something have such deft hands, you might not notice what happened until later. It’s like a magic trick but a lot less fun.

Just like any trick, there’s a secret behind it. This person had the unfortunate experience of watching the security footage to see who stole their phone. We have to say, it certainly sounds like a shocking thing to watch after the fact.

There are some things you see that you’ll never forget. Unfortunately, this rule doesn’t just go for gorgeous artwork or laying your eyes on one of the wonders of the world. There are some horrid things you can’t forget too.

Seeing a deceased rat in the store is jarring enough for some people. What’d make things even worse is a scene like this. It sounds like a scene straight from a horror movie and one that definitely can’t be good for that man’s health.

As we’ve said, you don’t have to wait for something creepy to happen to have your jaw drop when you look over at a security monitor. A lot of people lean on the wall or door behind them while they talk. It’s comfortable, after all!

What’s less comfortable, though, is if the glass door you’re leaning on suddenly gives out behind you. Not to mention, falling into glass doesn’t sound fun. It’s good to hear he made it out unharmed!

We’ve all been there before. You’re walking along and, suddenly, it’s like someone switched up the gravity a bit and you take a fall. As long as no one’s around, no one will know, right?

Well, yes, but don’t forget that there might be a few cameras around. The good news is that this person wasn’t hurt when they took this cartoonish fall, leaving at least one person checking the security footage in stitches.

If you work somewhere that bachelor and bachelorette parties frequent, it’s likely you’ll see some wedding drama. Like many dramas, this one includes a little pre-wedding infidelity. It seems like this groom-to-be had something with another member of the wedding party.

While the employee wondered who he chose in the end, they were in a more immediately awkward position when they had to tell the new couple that maybe the hostel’s shared bathroom wasn’t the best place for this.

People who watch security cameras for a living catch some of the habits we usually try to keep private. Some of these stand out to these security guards more than others. This person couldn’t forget the time they saw someone itching their ear.

On its own, this didn’t stand out to them. It was watching another person snack on earwax when they thought no one else was looking. This would definitely feel like something you weren’t supposed to see.

Waiting for the elevator isn’t most people’s favorite part of the day. So, it was already odd to this doorman that someone waited more than once, of their own accord.

Secondly, people in elevators don’t usually just disappear. Of course, this story comes with the explanation of a camera malfunction. Still, it seems so odd that it looks like they never pushed any buttons and never left the elevator, much less the building.

There are some things you catch on a security camera that can really confuse and shake you. At least this was footage in review, not something they experienced live.

The person hanging out outside of the business for a while, in the middle of the night, is unexpected but not necessarily unsettling on its own. However, you usually don’t expect to check a security camera to see someone watching you back.

Once in a while, you might catch a passerby on a personal security camera. Still, there are some red flags that really might set off some concern.

For instance, if someone’s wearing a mask over their face, it’s likely to make you wonder what they’re doing. Plus, the use of the word “prowling” here makes it seems like they were acting like they were up to no good too. Otherwise, why bother moving the cameras?

If you take the last shift at a restaurant, it might be your responsibility to close up. That is if you’re a manager. This person was shocked when the security footage showed someone climbing right in via the drive-thru.

Once they realized who it was, they couldn’t help but ask why they chose that particular method. We’ve all forgotten where our keys are, at least once, right?