Pizza Delivery Ghost Horror Story

I live and work in Silicon Valley. The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most expensive places to live in the country. Which is why I work for a tech company by day but moonlight as a pizza delivery guy by night. That is, until recently. After the experience I had, I’m now looking for a less terrifying side hustle.

The night was hot and the pizza was flying fast and furious. I’d just come back from a five-pizza delivery run and it was after 10:30. I was about to clock out when my boss pulled me aside and said we had one last order. She asked me if I could take it since the other delivery guy had already gone home. She told me there was a guaranteed extra tip, and because I’m more broke than I was tired, I agreed.

There was just one catch. The house where I was delivering to was in a rundown section of East Palo Alto. If you don’t know anything about that area, East Palo Alto is generally pretty sketchy. But being as I needed the money, I sucked it up and got back in my car for one last pizza run.

The house I was delivering to was located at the dead end of a street lined with cars. The only streetlight in sight was out. Most of the houses on the street had their front porches lit up, but there wasn’t a single light on at the house where my delivery was taking me.

As I pulled up, I took a long look out my windshield and double-checked I had the right address. The place looked abandoned. More than that, it looked straight-up like a haunted house, complete with upstairs front windows that looked like eyes and a front door like a closed mouth before it opens up and eats you alive. The yard was overgrown with weeds, and there was a huge tree that loomed over the house.

I almost said, “The hell with this” and drove off. Almost. But after taking a few deep breaths and gathering up my nerve, I picked up the pizza box, got out of my car, and approached the house. I nearly biffed it when my foot hit a cracked piece of sidewalk, and I practically had to stoop under a long tree branch to get to the front door.

There was no doorbell that I could see, so I knocked three times and waited. I expected the front porch light to come on, or for some light inside the house to come on, but it stayed dark. I waited about a full minute before knocking again, this time harder. Still nothing.

I was about to turn around and leave when I heard movement on the other side of the door. It sounded like someone was standing up against the door trying not to be heard. I figured maybe they were afraid to open the door or something, so I cleared my throat and said, “Pizza delivery.”

I heard what sounded like a voice but couldn’t understand what was said. Then I heard the sounds of someone fumbling with the lock on the other side of the door. I took a step back away from the door and waited as the knob began to turn and the door slowly opened.

At first I couldn’t really pinpoint what it was about the person who opened the door that was so unusual. He was an older guy, probably around sixty or seventy, with gray hair and thick glasses. There was nothing otherworldly about him…nothing at all to indicate he was anything but what he appeared to be. Still, when I looked at him, I got an uneasy feeling.

I held up the pizza box and told him I had his delivery. He looked at it like it was something he wasn’t expecting. He didn’t say a word but just nodded and turned around like he was going to get his wallet. The door fell slightly closed and he disappeared from my sight. I waited and waited, but he didn’t come back. I listened and heard nothing. I realized that I hadn’t heard him walk away and thought maybe he was just standing behind the door or something.

Growing frustrated, I tried to peek my head around to see in. I didn’t see anything but darkness, so I decided to push the door inward slightly. I said, “Hello?” But there was no reply. I finally got so impatient that I pushed the door open all the way and called out again. I saw a completely empty front room, not even a single piece of furniture. It was entirely dark, and I couldn’t see any farther beyond. I listened for another minute before a sudden creepy feeling fell over me and I backed slowly away.

The house was completely empty. There wasn’t a sound to be heard. I’d finally had enough and turned around, almost nailing my head on the low hanging tree branch and practically running to my car. I didn’t once look back to see if there was any activity in the house, and I threw the pizza onto my passenger seat and go the hell out of there—not quite sure exactly why I was so freaked out but just giving in to my instincts.

My boss was pissed when I came back to the restaurant with the pizza. She asked me why I hadn’t called the number on the order to see if I had the wrong house and I admitted I hadn’t even thought of it. That’s how freaked out I felt. She went to the phone to dial the number herself and then put the phone back down with a confused face.

“It’s not in service,” she said.

I was still creeped out when I got home and couldn’t sleep, so I decided to look up the address online. First I found it on Google Maps and confirmed it was the house I’d been to. Then I Googled the address, along with the name on the order. What I found scared me so much I almost cried, and I called in to the pizza place the very next day and quit.

As it turned out, the house had been empty for years. Its last resident was a man who was questioned on suspicion of some child disappearances in the area back in the 80s. The article went on to say that the man had killed himself in his home not long after being questioned and let go—the assumption being that the cops were onto him, and this was his way of escaping punishment.

Although the police never found any evidence in his house to the crimes he was suspected of, it was pretty much assumed by everyone that he had kidnapped and murdered three children in the area, and there were probably lots more.

I couldn’t find any pictures of the man online, but something tells me that if I had, I would have seen the same face I saw in the doorway of that house. I believe that what I saw was a ghost, and that even though the man I saw might have escaped justice, he’s clearly not resting in peace. I just hope his victims are, and that they aren’t also stuck in that house with him.