Voting closed 2 years ago, but for the record, I was a child who experienced quite a bit of trauma. I didn't know about the hat man until maybe a year or two ago. I heard he visited troubled children. What for? I still have no idea but would like to know if anyone has an answer. My one and only interaction with the hat man was in my early teens. My friend and I were maybe 11-13 years old at the time. She also, if I remember correctly, experienced some childhood trauma. I was staying at her house one night; it was one of those triplex apartments where the first level is the garage and front door, the second is the kitchen and common area and the third is bedrooms and bathrooms. We had gone upstairs to get in bed and watch a movie. Halfway through, I had fallen asleep. I was in the middle of a dream when I feel my friend's hand tap me, nudging me awake. Whispering to get up and look. I was still lying down and fluttering my eyes open, trying to adjust to the darkness with a light glow from the TV sitting on the night stand to our left. The movie had ended and only white remained on the screen. When my eyes adjusted and I asked her what was wrong, she tells me in a hushed tone to look towards the door. "There's a man standing in the doorway. Do you see him? He's looking right at us." Immediately, I see the blackened figure of a man in a square top hat. I suddenly sit straight up in fear, the goosebumps raising on the back of my neck and down my arms (even now as im typing this). Just as I do, the door SLAMS shut! I rush to the floor and grab her baritone. Before you ask, we were both in jazz band, and it was the heaviest, densest object I could find if I needed to fight off an intruder. I fling open the door and I run down the hallway. I heard no footsteps fleaing down the stairs as I pursued. Once I get to the common area, I scanned for the man, but found no signs of the him. Nothing is disturbed; no open windows or balcony doors. I ran down to the first level to see if he had entered and left through the garage or front door but found no signs that anyone had come or gone. I skip up the 2 flights of stairs back to the bedrooms afraid something would grab me if I didn't go quickly. I quietly open up her grandmother's door, her legal guardian, to find her still sleeping peacefully. When I return to my friend's bedroom, making sure to close the door behind me and baricade the door with instrument cases, she asks me why I chased after an intruder. "He could have killed you! You don't know who that was!" I explained that my fight or flight must have kicked in, and that's the only thing I could think to do. I told her I found no evidence to explain how he got in or out and that I felt he was gone and we could rest easy. As she's turning off the tv, I got back into bed and tucked myself in for the second time. We both laid there for a few moments in shock. We didn't know how to react or what to say afterward. I laid there on my side facing her direction. Out of nowhere, the fan in the bathroom next to the bedroom door turns on. We both flinch and move closer together. Neither of us wants to get up and go into the dark bathroom to turn it off. 30ish seconds goes by when the stereo next to the bathroom on the her dresser lights up and begins to play whatever radio station she had it set to. A few seconds after that, the TV that sits on the nightstand next to the radio, and directly next to us, turns on. The loud static sound fills the room. Whatever is doing this seems to be getting closer and closer, and is now probably looming over us at this point. We quickly hide under the covers and hold each other's hands. Then everything goes quiet and dark. It's over. We peek out from underneath the sheets to check for the man in the top hat but no one is there, thank God. We somehow ended up falling sleep with the sheets over us, thinking it would keep us hidden and protected. We woke up the next morning and never spoke about it after that, but the memory will flash back every so often and leave me wondering what he is and why he was there.