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This Reddit thread is completely amazing. Someone asked "police officers of Reddit" (although other first responders, including firefighters, dispatch officers, and medical personnel like nurses have contributed as well) to share their stories of encounters with the paranormal. 

 

One of the biggest problems with paranormal stories is that you're talking to an average everyday person. And average everyday people have a very narrow experience of the world (i.e. their own). They also tend to be really terrible eyewitnesses, frequently messing up what you would think would be pretty significant details, being confused about whether they are awake or asleep at the time, and occasionally suffering from delusions associated with mental illness.

 

By comparison, cops, firefighters, EMTs, and nurses all spend their entire careers seeing all the crazy stuff that happens to people. They have a broader perspective than the rest of us.

 

For example, something I hadn't appreciated until this thread was that cops will always respond in force when they get a call about ghosts in someone's attic or basement. Why? Because a lot of the time, the "ghost" turns out to be an actual flesh-and-blood intruder. Like this story of a ghost that turned out to be a homeless man who snuck into a woman's attic on cold nights.

 

Angry suicide ghosts are another running theme. Like this uber-scary story of cops called out to investigate an abandoned hospital, this story of a suicide in a cabin in the remote woods, and this story about a suicide ghost who protested when the cops who arrived at his scene later sat around talking about how messed up it was. 

 

I think my favorite story from the thread is this one, from a cop who was called out on a complaint that a woman's neighbors were yelling rude and racist things at her through the wall. This one is great because it's one of the few stories where the caller wasn't complaining about paranormal activity. It just kinda turned out that, as the officer investigated, "angry ghost" turned out to be the most reasonable explanation for what was happening. (I also love the small details, like the mysteriously smashed Coke cans. Storytellers, take note!)

 

Nurses have a slightly different perspective on the paranormal. Like cops, they often work the night shift. But unlike cops, nurses - particularly those in the ICU and in nursing homes - are frequently there at the time of someone's death. And a lot of people have died in their workplace, which can make for some interesting encounters.