10 True Tales of Boondocking and Stealth Camping Scares

After long days of driving, many van lifers pull into boondocking sites or stealth camping spots without much of a second thought as to who (or what) dangers might be lingering outside. There is a thrill to finding a secluded spot surrounded by nature or a convenient place to sleep in the city, away from the hustle and bustle. Most of us mind our business and wish to be left alone at night to fall asleep in peace. However, as the tales below show, sometimes scary things happen when we least expect them to.

From unexpected visitors to wildlife encounters, these brave van lifers share some of the most hair-raising experiences that have happened to them while boondocking or stealth camping. Sit back, grab the popcorn, and prepare to be entertained (and slightly startled) by these van life nightmares!

1. Chick-fil-A Fright

Woke up as I was legally parked in a parking space, but nine cop cars were parked all around my truck, and I about sh** myself even though they were all at the Chick-fil-A next door to the parking lot I was in. – Matthew

2. Machine Gun Misunderstanding

I always leave the keys in the ignition and am ready to go. – Owen

Once in Italy (around 1993), I was approached by four guys in shorts and t-shirts carrying machine guns at 3 am. It turned out ultimately that they were police carabinieri, but it was scary. The same thing happened in Turkey in about 1994, and they advised me they would prefer me to stay in the town. I moved, of course.

Then people pretending to be Spanish police in Spain tried to get me to hand over my passport. However, I thought that was unlikely as I spoke better Spanish than them! Still enough to make me drive away and find another spot. The last one was a person trying to break into my motorhome at 2 am at a French motorway service. I jumped into the driver’s seat and drove off.

The biggest advice from me is not to ever put anything on the outside of the van which means you can’t just jump into the front and drive off at a few second’s notice. I always leave the keys in the ignition and am ready to go. – Owen

3. Stealthy Surprise

Never while boondocking, but while stealth parking, I had a dude try and break in while I was inside. He was very surprised when I opened the door with my pew pew in hand and asked him wtf. – Danc

4. A Knock in the Night

I was laying in my van, getting ready to go to sleep. All of a sudden, somebody was pounding on my door and yelling something. I couldn’t hear because I had the fan on in my van. I lay there really quietly hoping they would go away. I was scared. The next morning, I got up and went to start my van. The battery was dead. I left my lights on. I’m sure whoever was pounding on my door was yelling at me that my headlights were on! That was the scariest experience I ever had! – Debby

5. Tukwila Takedown

Tukwila, WA, on an abandoned side road, no houses. At 2 am, the door of my van flew open, and 6 officers with guns out confronted me. They had a less-than-pleasant attitude. I offered no insult or argument, and I was sober. Made me move to a parking lot beside a freeway. – Brad

6. Latrine Lurker

My girlfriend at the time, her son, and I had an experience once while camping in northwestern Montana back in 2018. I had dug a latrine in the side of the hillside that we all used while camping there. One morning I went down to use it just after waking up. Did my business and then went to do morning camp chores. When my girlfriend woke up, she went down to use it about 20 minutes after I used it.

Standing there, she asked me why I had dropped three huge rocks into the latrine. I told her that I hadn’t. I walked down there to see for myself what she was talking about. Sure enough, three large rocks were sitting directly on top of my poop. Obviously, they had been placed there after I had done my business.

The only problem was that we were far back in the woods and nobody else was even closely around. Not to mention, it was so quiet that morning that nobody could have walked in there without me seeing them especially since the latrine was well in sight of our camp and only about 20 yards away.

To this very day, we have no explanation of how those rocks got there, but we did learn later that that particular area was known for high sasquatch activity. So did one somehow snuck in there in put rocks on top of my poop? And if so, why? – Paul

7. Branching Out

Totally different kind of scary, but a round of real bad weather and a good-sized branch a couple of inches in diameter pierced right through the roof above our bed. – Martha

8. Twelve-Dollar Wake-Up Call

A man knocked on my window wanting $12. I was pissed he woke me, but it got me past D.C. at 6 am. He said, ‘I don’t have a weapon,’ leading me to think maybe he had a weapon. I said, ‘I believe you,’ letting him know I’m not falling for his mind game. I didn’t give him $12.” – Micki

9. Close Call with Coyotes

Coyotes. In the middle of the night. Let my two dogs out to pee, and coyotes went after them. I bailed out of the van hollering and screaming and waving the flashlight, and they turned tail. My dogs literally jumped 10 feet back into the van. Scared the hell out of me. – Jeffrey

10. Bigfoot BBQ

I had a Bigfoot steal my food off the grill while cooking late at night. I was in my camper getting a plate and fork to eat on. When I looked out the window, an eight-foot ape-looking thing stole my steak from the grill. He looked right at me and walked away. They eat fruit, too, because I left it out in a bag hanging 10 feet off the ground, and he took it and left a bunch of firewood. This happened up in Pittsburgh, NH on the Canadian border. – Scott

Have you had any boondocking or stealth camping nightmares? Share in the comments!