December 14th 2020, I saw The Hat Man and I will never forget it. My kids said they had been having nightmares about a tall man with a wide-brimmed black hat, he had sharp claws and sharp teeth and would chase them in their dreams. I ignored it thinking it was the imagination of young children. I was DEAD wrong. They started having the same nightmare and said they saw each other in their dream and even described it exactly the same when we separated them and asked them about it individually. They were 7 and 4 at the time, and they were both so scared telling us about it I started wondering if they weren’t actually seeing something.
Shortly after this happened I was asleep next to my husband and I woke up, or so I thought. I looked towards the door frame of my room and saw a shadow standing there. It was dark, so at first, I thought it was my husband. But, as I was about to ask what he was doing I felt my husband next to me and in that moment I realized this was someone else entirely. In that moment of realization, I was suddenly terrified and I panicked. I started kicking at The Hat Man to get him away from me as it suddenly appeared to be getting closer. Just before my husband got me to wake up, this thing started to lean over me and I swear I saw him grin and bared these razor-sharp teeth. It was exactly the way my kids had described, wearing a black fedora hat and a long black trenchcoat.
When I woke up I was shaking. My husband said I was whimpering and started crying in my sleep as my legs were kicking. I had a severe cramp in my right leg, which was the leg I thought I was kicking at the figure with. I curled up in a ball under my blanket and slept like that for weeks. I did not know what this was until years later when I heard someone on a podcast describe The Hat Man and chills ran down my spine. I looked it up and found this website and pictures of what people think they saw. When I saw these pictures and heard these encounters it was like I knew this is what I also experienced and I didn’t feel so alone. I have not seen him since but I know my brain doesn’t want to again. A fear lingers over me to this day about seeing him again, I even had my ex-roommate also put sigils of protection on both my doors because of what happened.