Woman moves into house, finds disturbing note in mailbox: “I was scared”

A Michigan woman has shared the unsettling note she found waiting for her in the mailbox of her new home.

There are few things in life more stressful than moving house. In 2021, a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by OnePoll on behalf of North American Van Lines saw respondents rank moving as their most stressful life event (45 percent) just ahead of a breakup or divorce (44 percent), getting married (33 percent) and having a baby (31 percent).

The survey also found that 64 percent of respondents considered their most recent move to be one of the most stressful experiences of their life.

They should probably spare a thought for Madigan, from Flint, Michigan, though. When she moved in March 2023 of last year, she found something in her mailbox that immediately gave her “the creeps.”

It was a handwritten letter, which had been placed in the mailbox with the words “planting a seed” written on the outside of it.

“I thought maybe it was the neighbor or possibly someone on our street welcoming us to the area but when I opened the letter and began to read it I was scared,” Madigan, who asked that her full name be omitted, told Newsweek.

In the letter, the writer [whose name Madigan censored] introduced themselves before going on to explain: “I just wanted to thank you for taking care of my future home thus far!”

It goes on to say: “I thank God that you were able to bless my home with your presence. I know that you’ve already accepted an offer on the home and are still accepting offers. Though I am not in a financial position to purchase the home today, God has shown me this is where me and my boys are supposed to be.”

The note saw the writer go on to say that “any chance I got the boys and I come and pray over the home and the land. We’ve touched the home and prayed for it, just thanking Gold for his continued promises.”

They added: “If you sell before I am able to purchase, we will definitely respect the new owners and thank God from a distance.”

Madigan said that while the note was “clearly meant for the previous owner,” that didn’t stop her from feeling unsettled at what it said.

“The line about bringing her children to the house to pray over it and touch the soil is just downright unsettling and for her to call it her ‘future house’ is audacious,” Madigan said.

“I thought maybe we were about to have someone stalking our property or even doing something crazy to sabotage our home because of the obsession she seemed to have over it.”

Though the woman writing the letter included her name, which allowed Madigan to look her up and at least “see what her and her family looked like so I could keep an eye out” it didn’t leave her feeling any less alarmed.

“I decided to keep it for evidence,” she said. “I was scared we were going to have someone stalking us or harassing us. I even considered immediately filing a police report and the only thing that comforted me in that letter is when she said she would ‘respect the new owners.'”

Though they were “vigilant for any suspicious activity” in the first few weeks after they moved in, Madigan said things have largely calmed down since then.

That hasn’t stopped her from revisiting the note, and even sharing it to Reddit under the handle u/Exciting_Economist66. She’s even read it to friends and family “to see their reactions.”

“The way she speaks about God this and God that, she’s a zealot. Her religious scrupulousness truly frightened me at a core level,” Madigan said. Though she would never respond, Madigan does have an idea of what she would say to the woman if she ever got a chance.

“If I had one thing to say it would be to let her know that we have no intentions of ever moving and that she needs to let go of any emotion she holds for this house,” she revealed.