10 Creepy Urban Legends That Are Actually Real

By now, everyone and their parents have heard a wide variety of different Urban Legends. Everything from ‘Bloody Mary’ to waking up inside of an ice bath while missing one of your kidneys in a seedy motel room. Most of these are pretty terrifying to the normal human being, but what makes them worse is that they are actually true tales, not just made up stories. This could, literally, happen to almost anyone these days, so be wary next time you are visiting certain places in the world or try new things.

Tug-of-War

In one of the biggest tug-of-war matches to have ever been created, 800 people lined up on each side of the rope to win at Retrocession Day in Taipei, Taiwan. Apparently, Yang Chiung-ming and Chen Ming-kuo had their arms ripped from their bodies due to the force.

Chimney Death

Santa Claus may manage to fit down your chimney every year, but that doesn’t mean everyone can. Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac tried to climb down one, but got stuck within. Three days later, a housesitter saw fluid dripping from the chimney, and rotting flesh falling forth.

Wife Cooking

Chef David Viens thought himself quite skilled for awhile, until he decided to cook his wife. Following an argument, the chef duct-taped the woman and cooked her in a massive pot for a period of four days total.

Flesh-Eating Maggots

Yes, this can actually happen to you. British woman Rochelle Harris spent time hiking in Peru while on holiday, but came home with a terrible ear infection. Doctors discovered flesh-eating maggots had been within her head since the trip.

Metal Breakfast

A Galveston, Texas, woman went to the emergency room after she experienced severe pain in her throat. Apparently, the doctors found shards of metal wire lodged in the lining of her throat. Her father, the day before, had cooked on the grill, using a metal wire brush to clean it. The wire got caught in the grill, then lodged in her burger, which she ate.

Frozen Alive

Being buried alive is horrifying enough, but eighty-year-old Maria de Jesus Arroya was presumed dead following a heart attack. Funeral workers pulled her body from the refrigerator, only to discover she had awoken within the locker and tried to escape.

Engorged Ship

Following a fire on a freighter’s cargo hold, the crew attempted to put out the smoldering wood with water for over three weeks. Down deeper in the hold, fifteen hundred tons of tapioca pudding was slowly simmering. It expanded so much that the ship nearly burst.

Accidental Hanging

In Sparta, Michigan, a fourteen-year-old boy choked to death during a Halloween hay ride. The boy replaced the skeleton hanging by a noose that passed over their heads, hanging him from the tree instead. The boy died before anyone could figure out he was a human and not a decoration.

Straight Jacket Escape

Joseph “Amazing Joe” Burrus, performing his biggest stunt ever, tried to escape a plastic coffin seven-feet underground. The weight of the dirt and concrete above him crushed the magician within his trick tomb.

Ice Bath

The idea of waking up inside of an ice bath while missing a kidney is scary, but 500 Indians were arrested in an illegaly kidney-transplant ring, which was run by four doctors, five nurses, twenty paramedics, and three private hospitals.