I first want to say that I am amazed that others saw the same “Hat Man” that I saw as a child. When I was around 3-4years old I lived with my Mother and Brother. My parents were in the middle of separating so my dad was around sometimes. My grandmother passed away when I was 3 years old, my older brother normally stayed the night at her house until then. So my mother let us continue to share a room but got me my own bed and put it in her room. Both rooms were side by side, we had a door between the rooms that my mom always left open and we would get light from the restroom connected to his room, so it was never pitch dark. So I always felt pretty safe in my house, it was really small, old and cozy. I remember the hat man clearly. He scared me; but I do not remember ever suffering from sleep paralysis like many others. He wore a long trench coat, with a top hat to match. I remember the details of his appearance, I could even tell he would breath heavy when he leaned over to look at me sometimes, or I could feel the swift air move when he would dart across the room. I believe he was a 3d image, he looked real to me, yet with a slight cartoon feel or flat feel that made me know he was not a human. Usually I would be wide awake when I saw him, he would be wandering around the room, as if he were looking for something. He moved fast, but he would stop and look over at me kinda acknowledging that I was watching him. Then he would move directly towards me and hover over me and just stare for a moment, I usually tensed up and would either turn my head or cover it with my sheet. I remember covering my face once and still seeing him moving though the sheet, the way it would look if an actual person were there. I told my parents about him, they thought I was just having bad dreams, remember I was 3 or 4 so I am sure I didn’t explain it well, but my mom does remember me always telling her about him. He never seemed too interested in me, I always had the feeling he was looking for something else. One night, I remember pushing my self in a half sitting position up next to the wall and just starting at him with my blanket pulled up to my chin, he would drift into the closet corner a lot and be out of sight. This night my dad had stayed at our house, I remember staring into the dark corner waiting for the Hat man to reappear from the closet. From the side of my vision I saw my dad looking at me (the room was never completely dark) and he waved at me and I guess he could tell I was scared so he called me over to sleep between him and my mom. I remember looking back into the closet corner and somehow, I know the Hat man was still there but I jumped and ran straight to my parents bed. This is how I know that I wasn’t just dreaming this man, I was wide awake, I didn’t have sleep paralysis. I don’t think I ever saw him after the age of 4. I remember when I was 10 or 11 me and some friends were playing at my house and we found a real wood carved Ouija board in my moms closet, I asked my mom about it and she said it was always in there and it was not hers and she never touched it, she was scared of it and she made it clear we were not allowed to touch it either. The house was old, and had been passed down to my mom. The board was missing the 2nd piece but at that time I felt that maybe the Man was a ghost and was looking for it…long story short this was always my thought, basically I assumed he lived in this house years before we did and he was looking for something. I figured since I was so little that could be why I could see him, I figured he was a ghost that came with the house. Until now, I am realizing he is a common figure that people see all over the world. Thankfully I never thought he was after me or wanted to hurt me, while he was scary, I don’t feel like this experience made my life difficult just interesting I guess. He never talked to me or really did anything besides look at me. My mom did tell me that my grandmother had a similar story in the same house but during the day, she saw the silhouette of a man wearing a coat, hat, and carrying an axe thought the front screen door, the shadow covered the wall but when she jumped up to see who was at her door, nothing was there. My mom always assumed this was the same “ghost/Hat Man” that I described.
