You never know what goes on behind closed doors - especially in these families. Here, 19 people share the moment they realized they were born into a criminal family.
1/19. When I was little my parents grew tomatoes, we had several long green houses full of tomato plants behind our house. It wasn't until a few years ago I was talking to my sister and she asked me if I could remember ever eating or even seeing a tomato come from those plants. Ohhhhh.......
2/19. When I was a teenager a group of my uncles pulled me aside and told me that if I went on any dates with boys, and the boys weren't nice to me, they would have them "looked after".
I thought it was a joke and laughingly mentioned it to my parents; my parents just went white and looked at each other and I didn't see the uncles much after that.
3/19. My father was a highly respected businessman, had a great six figure job, and had authority in the workplace. I was a freshman in high school just snooping around the attic for no good reason before I left the house to hang out with some friends. I stumbled across this kind of hidden door so I opened it. There was pounds upon pounds of marijuana and cocaine. I asked my father about it, thinking it was there before we moved in or something. He just said with a stupid grin on his face, "Yeah, I sell that stuff son." My jaw hit the floor.
4/19. I was about 8 years old. ATF agents kicked in the door of my house, put me, my mother, and my grandmother face down on the floor, and then went into her bedroom, threw everything out of her closet, busted a hole in the wall of the back of her closet, removed...something...and then left.
I have no idea, but my grandmother was into something. Seriously, no idea if those guys were even really ATF or not, but there was something there. They took it, and nothing more was ever said about it.
Also, back when you used to have to pay for long distance, there were multiple calls to Germany on the phone bill every month. Asking about them would be met with, "That's grown up business child. Don't stick your nose in unless you want it chopped off."
Every other Saturday, a man would come over and give me eclairs, and then he and my grandmother would go to the kitchen and talk. On several occasions, he would come with gifts for me, but I was never allowed to actually have them.
Usually it was a doll or stuffed animal of some sort, and even though they were supposedly mine, my grandmother would take them into her room, take the stuffing out and put new stuffing in before giving them to me. Questions about the Eclair Man or the toys were also "adult business".
To this day, I don't know what the hell was going on.
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5/19. I probably knew something was up when my friend said he loved my moms new Jaguar and I replied, "Thanks, one of my step-dad's clients couldn't pay his bill so he just gave us his car", and my friend replied, "Dude, I don't think that's how it works".
6/19. My great gramps changed his last name to the one I have now due to a murder he committed way back. All his sons were the scariest old men I've ever been around. My mom has told me some vague stories about how they used to deal with people. Luckily my pops decided to play it straight but he had his psycho moments too. Hell, his own dad sent him to high school with a monkey wrench to deal with a particular bully. Destroyed this kids face I guess. To this day there are folks in town who call my dad "Wrench".
7/19. As a child I spent most of my time with my grandmother. Every day after a soccer game, all of us would go to my house and my grandma would cook up something for all of us. Even when I moved away for university, the guys would still come over and help my grandma do her groceries/ water her garden and help her around the house. Then one day my grandma called me and said that most of the guys are gone because the police were after them for drug trafficking and apparently one of the guys is actually the big boss of the region. All my grandma cared about at that point was how she was going to do grocery shopping from now on.
8/19. For all my life, I barely knew anyone on my dad's side of the family, which was very odd because we're from a relatively large family and all of us lived in the same area (as my parents alluded to at times). I had heard him make comments about his childhood (albeit very rarely) and when I visited his childhood home (of his side of the family, I only knew his mother) there were rooms set up for more than one child.
When I was thirteen, my parents told my brother and I that our uncle killed his youngest son (my cousin) in 2000, and that's why we never saw anyone. Also told us that my brother and I were possibly on a hit list from my uncle because he had expressed intent to kill everyone in the family. Apparently there were extra protections placed on my preschool class at the time because my dad and uncle look very similar and they didn't want him arriving at the school for me.
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9/19. Growing up I was told my dad was a construction worker that's why he's gone at night. He always counted a lot of money like several piles of hundreds. Once my dad gave me and my siblings like five hundred dollars each. I used to sit in my room for hours because my dad had 'friends' over. Sometimes we got to get pizza when he had friends over. I think I realized something was up when I learned what weed was and how much there was in my house(several gym bags worth at least). Now that I think about it there was a lot that should have tipped me off like, how I was never allowed to answer the door, the expensive gifts, the fights with people I didn't know, his arrest confirmed my suspicions though.
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10/19. My dad came home with a pretty bad hole in his shoulder and told me to dump rubbing alcohol on it. He said he tripped, but the hospital was "too expensive".
That and I didn't recognize the truck he came home in.
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11/19. My family fled from Ukraine right after World War II, across Europe and eventually to the US (my grandfather actually learned to speak English in Great Britain, where he worked in a coal mine). When I was kid, I asked why we came to the US and was simply told it was because of the war.
What I found out several years later goes a bit deeper. My great-grandfather spoke fluent German. When the Nazis made their push into the USSR, our ancestral homeland was one of the regions that they conquered. Once they'd put down stakes in my great-grandfather's village, they took stock of the town and found about him being bilingual. They realized that this was a real windfall--they'd have a local who could serve as an interpreter for the workers in the local factory and the German officer being put in charge of it. He was given the choice to serve in this function or, this being the Nazis, being taken outside and shot.
Given those choices, he served as the officer's interpreter. I wish that I could tell you that he did Hogan's Heroes style stuff, but I really don't know much about that time.
What I do know is that, a few years after the War, he was performing some sort of government-related function (I think he was turning some kind of census), when he was sent to the wrong room. By chance, he found a list of those in the village who were to be "purged," i.e. executed, by the order of the Soviet government. His name was on that list, where he was referred to as a Nazi collaborator.
He went straight home, the family packed their things, and they fled in the night.
12/19. When I realized how weird it was my family didn't have jobs, but we still had cash, our bills were paid, and we had food on the table.
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13/19. My father, whom I see about every 2-3 years used to visit and:
- Would bring ~5-6 green things in huge plastic wrapped squares.
- I was about 10 when he offered me $100 to help him clear out a warehouse with 100's of empty plant pots filled with dirt. The warehouse also had foil covered rooms.
- Then he started bringing in massive white bricks from his truck when he stayed the night.
- Overheard a family friend talk about him breaking someone's legs with a baseball bat because they owed him money, but was too scared to go to the police.
He stopped everything when he got busted and nearly went to prison until his girlfriend at the time took the fall for whatever he was nearly charged with. Now he is worth millions and owns a massive company solely funded by the drugs he used to sell.
14/19. I was born into a gang affiliated family. All of my aunts and uncles have the 3 dots tattoos on their wrist bones and I knew something was off when I asked what it meant and got awkward looks back. Also scary was when I was 3, my mom was watching America's Most Wanted and saw my uncle on the show.
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15/19. My dad got out of his family in a pretty big way, but it still comes around in odd ways. The first inkling that I can remember being aware of that it wasn't all "old history" was when 13 members of his family dropped dead in rapid succession.
The next was the reveal that someone didn't just steal his car, but a week later delivered the stripped frame to his home. They didn't steal it from his home.
The next was when I learned there are three different birth certificates issued for me from the hospital at the time of my birth. one was used for court reasons, another was deliberately falsified at our behest, and the third is the one considered my 'true' birth cert.
The next was when I moved somewhere my dad wasn't too pleased I was moving to. I noticed some odd reactions to my last name around those parts. The distinct feeling of being unwelcome in a relatively large city like that gets ya.
I discovered my name causes certain... issues, when trying to enter Canada. I can, it just takes more time than it ought to.
The most recent reveal was the existence of false birth certs, ssns, passports, etc for myself and my parents. They haven't been used, but they exist; 'just in case'. My brother and sister do not have complimentary false docs since they are from my mom's prior marriage.
My dad has given little resistance to the idea of me changing my last name when it's been mentioned over the years; it's also something I learned a fair number of family members have done already. I think there's a conflict for him; being he and I are the last two of three males with the name alive; so he doesn't outwardly endorse the idea since I'm the youngest and only one likely to have children; If I change my name, the family name dies with me. (Well, our family, there's one other family in the US with the same last name; we've never looked in to any relationship.)
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16/19. When I was a young child my brother, William, got convicted with murder. The police while looking for him woke our family up in the middle of the night kicking our door in and dragging him out. My mother woke me up pissed off because they broke out door. Not that he wouldn't be coming back for about 20 years but that our door was now broken. I remember thinking that night of how much was my family actually into if this could happen without batting an eye.
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17/19. When my mom had to go into prostitution to raise enough money to bail out my dad.
18/19. My dad took off when I was 4, met him again at 15, moved in with him. Turns out he was a massive drug lord using the guise of a "computer repair business". Huge mob ties. Had one of my exes tied up in his trunk after he punched me. Great family man, terrible human being.
19/19. Things were always a bit off. I noticed that my family stood out a lot in comparison to other families. I can't remember the moment when I knew though. I remember being a kid and thinking that my dad was really cool and brave for making it through prison. He was my hero and I looked up to him a lot. Sometime when I was a small kid he had this huge court case and was about to be locked away again, but he wasn't convicted. Throughout the years, he would brag about how he fooled them all. I was also impressed by him. As an adult, I've looked back and this and thought, "Damn, I almost lost my father that day and I didn't even realize".
When I was 12-13 I started getting more suspicious I suppose. What did he do for a living? I lost my parents at 15, and for the first year after that I was all about glorifying them. I still haven't wrapped my head around all of it. A year ago, I found my dad's fake passport.
It must've been expensive - I'm guessing $5000 to make? - and he must've used it for something important but I don't know what.
Real life contains the scariest horrors you could ask for. So aren't we all living in a horror movie, in a way? At least, these people sure freakin' were.
MisterSnowman69 asked: What was a moment in your life that felt like a horror movie scene?
In the words of the legendary Mary Vivian Pierce in the film Pink Flamingos, “Murder merely relieves tension”. I’m sure the following Redditors felt differently.
Nothing scarier than the woods at night.
Went into a real deep woods hike for only the second time in my life.
My gps broke and had to rely on my compass. Got turned around a few times because I couldn't remember the direction I came from, and it was getting dark. Lost the trail way.
But the woods are weirdly silent in the dark and alone.
It was around 2am by the time I found the trailhead.
Darn foxes.
the simpsons react GIFGiphyMy friend and I got lost late on one foggy night in the Italian countryside. There were rats all over and every once in a while we heard someone scream.
I've never been more sure I was about to get murdered than I was that night.
It was probably a red fox that was screaming.
Could've also been a lynx, but they are much rarer in Italy.
At least she wasn’t speaking in tongues.
My mom is quite the sleep talker, but it's usually pretty short and incoherent when it happens. One night as a teenager, I woke up to her scream-yelling the Hail Mary prayer (my bedroom was across the house and upstairs).
Difficult to get back to sleep after that one.
Sometimes scary sh*t ends up just being funny coincidences. Super funny. Right?
Don’t give them any ideas.
I was exploring an abandoned mental asylum and then got the scare of my life when a scary looking person inside one of the rooms was just staring at me without moving. Turns out some joker had left a cardboard cutout there.
And now I have plans this weekend... Just need to find a couple of cardboard cutouts and to break into the local abandoned asylum.
Don’t you hate when that happens?
Evil Dead Horror GIF by Coolidge Corner TheatreGiphyI was driving home on backcountry roads at midnight in heavy fog. Like can't see 10 feet in front of you thick. Suddenly I see an all-white silhouette running in front of the car. Every hair on my body stood up. I immediately think "oh god, oh f*ck, it's a f*cking woman in white, I'm gonna f*cking die"
Nope just a drunk who dove into the ditch.
Gotta love paranoia.
When I was about 12, my parents went out for dinner leaving me home alone. We lived out in the country, on a private road with only three other houses, surrounded by cow fields and wooded areas.
I went into the the kitchen and glanced out the window towards the trees and there in the fading light I could see a person walking slowly through the woods. They were wearing all black, moving slowly and appeared to pause behind trees. My heart started pounding so hard in my ears I couldn't hear anything else and I was weak and shaky from fear. I froze and just watched them. Would they come to the house? Where were they going?
This was before cell phones but I suddenly remembered my mom had left the number of the restaurant by the living room phone. Slowly, I made my way towards the living room, trying to watch this stranger in the woods.
Just as I entered the living room, all the lights in the entire house went out. By this time it was nearly dark outside. I started openly sobbing and in the dark I heard a weird boom like noise. That was it, I ran to my parents room, hid under their bed and sobbed. That's where my mom found me hours later (it felt like).
Well, turns out the stranger in the woods was a stupid cow that had busted through a fence, the lights going out was from an accident a few miles away (hit the power line) and the boom was the pilot light in the gas stove. Man, I have never been that scared in my life though!
I have a lot of questions.
A naked man who was covered in blood chased me across a park at 2 in the morning. I was totally alone. He just wanted money for a bus (????) and luckily nothing bad happened but I thought I was going to die.
But of course, the genuine horrors do exist. And they aren’t scary in a fun horror movie way, they’re actually terrifying because they can happen to anyone.
A scary few seconds.
car chase GIF by Mayans M.C.GiphyI am a "baby" in a car seat in between cousins in backseat. Dad is driving. This is in the 80s and it is my aunt's insistence that I am in this seat even though I am like 5.
A sleeping semi driver is coming over into our lane and there is a cliff on other side. Basically my dad did some amazing driving but semi blew us up. I am uninjured sitting in the seat swinging my legs while everyone is unconscious. They all wake groaning. Dad doesnt wake up.
Long story short just minor scrapes and dad has broken leg. But the crunch of metal and those few seconds/minute of being the only "alive" person was quite fear inducing.
Glad they’re all ok now.
Two days after my now boyfriend told me he liked me he fell from a zip line and broke his back. Almost died. 6 months later he got into a car wreck from a drunk driver - almost died. 6 months after that, he passed out and had to have emergency brain surgery, again, almost died. I now have severe anxiety/separation anxiety/and ptsd. That whole year was a f*cking nightmare
Edit: we're both okay now, the brain injury was almost a year ago. But TBIs take a while to heal so he still has side effects. Thankfully our relationship is still strong; he's physically getting better and I'm healing emotionally too. Lucky for him, the trauma of the injuries has caused him to forget the majority of the pain and memories of those incidents.
ALWAYS wear a helmet.
Driving home from work at 23, listening to my favorite song.
I pull up to a red light, and see this guy on a motorcycle coming up next to me in the other lane. I rolled down my window to compliment his bike when he stops. He doesn't, and runs the red light. He hits a car going at least 55mph. His motorcycle shatters apart, he goes flying, hits the hood of another car, and lands on the ground and rolls into the curb (no helmet). The car he hit with his motorcycle was totaled. I had to step over his body to talk to the police. He was still alive when they got there. I regret not holding his hand. It was just a normal day, and all of a sudden it felt like the rug was pulled from out beneath me. He was only 18.
Edit: The song was Sunny by Boney M., for those curious
What did we learn today, kids? Foxes scream like humans, shadowy figures are usually cows or drunken rednecks, and once again, PLEASE WEAR A HELMET WHEN YOU RIDE ANY KIND OF BIKE.
Scary sh*t surrounds us. But where there is horror, there are heroes. So next time you think you see a scary figure in the woods, know that Bruce Campbell is probably right around the corner
Hypocrisy is everywhere; it's like a disease. And sadly everyone does it. Some of us indulge in smaller doses than others. But some people live their life by it. Like how can you support civil servants, like police, firefighters, etc... yet try to find ways to hide money in order to not pay taxes? Tell me... I'll wait.
Manga...
Hungry Night Court GIF by LaffGiphyItalian moms that say you're too fat then say I'm making grandma cry by not finishing my pasta.
Asian moms too! Not only that if you try to not eat, they make to go containers for you. Oh, sorry I have to leave, RUNS AT LEAST HAVE SOME FRUIT.
Phonies...
Celebrities positioning themselves as champions for social justice while launching a clothing line with no comment on the labor conditions their garments are made in.
Sexy Times...
The Porn Industry
Why is prostitution considered a crime, but it becomes perfectly legal once a camera is put beside them?
I think the first amendment helps with that one. There's been many a supreme-court case about whether porn is protected speech.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...
You can get away with WAY more crap, in general, when you're attractive.
But we all kind of aspire to attractiveness and it's not like it's attractive people's fault, exactly. So what is there to be done?
So true. Money and beauty are treated like virtues and they aren't. They're luck of the draw. It probably helps you to be a better person if people assume that you are gentle and clever just by looking at your face or wallet.
KIDS
GIF by MOODMANGiphyPeople screaming at you if you don't want Kids and Kids are the greatest thing in the World and then turn around and whine how expensive they are and how annoying yadda yadda.
Yeah see... humans are a mess. And too often then not, personal conviction and dignity are just a myth, or a punchline. Double standards have always been a way of life. And many of us have begrudgingly learned to navigate.
Fashion
Fashion Model GIF by NYFW: The ShowsGiphyIf a skinny person wears something out of the ordinary, it's a fashion statement and awesome. It can even just be something like a crop top or overalls.
But God forbid a fat person wear the same thing.
Distractions
The hypocrisy hypocrisy. People love to call it out but rarely notice it on themselves and if they notice it then it's something completely different or a distraction.
That's the worst. I hate that I have to hate that. But if I don't hate it, then the hate will just continue. So, really, my hate comes from my love of an end to hate. So anyone who hates my hate hates love. And we must hate anyone who hates love!
My Morality
My own personal hypocrisy; When I was a lot less well off financially, delivering pizzas trying to get through college, I kept a cup of coins in my car. When a homeless person would approach me for spare change, I gave them the cup. Most of the time it was nearly full, so there was probably 20-30 dollars in there.
Now that I have a good salaried job, even if I've got a few bucks in my wallet, I tend to not even make eye contact anymore. I know it's awful, I know it makes me crappy, but the last 4-5 years have made me a jaded craphead towards people in general. I used to be so hopeful and I wanted to help everyone, and tried to live a life that reflected that.
Now, while my general and political morality is pretty much the same, my personal morality has gotten more grey. I'd jaded, I hate people, I assume the worst of people I used to assume the best of. I don't really care about the strangers around me like I used to, but I still expect everyone else to.
Placing Blame
Victim mentality.
It's so freaking frustrating when it becomes entrenched. "You did this, it's your fault" "you should've known to do x, its your fault" Yeah bro your problems aren't my problems and if all you do is make excuses and blame me for them, it's not going to be my fault when you don't develop as a person and accomplish your dreams. I'm sure they'll find someone to blame though.
In D.C.
Donald Trump Reaction GIF by Election 2016GiphyPoliticians work part time, are given free housing, education, and health care, and exempt from the everyday violence we experience, but refuse to lift a finger to help us.
At this points most people running for a position in the government are only in it for the benefits of being a politician and the amount of money they can embezzle. Well in my country at least.
Just speak a truth and live it. Yes, it maybe hard. But what part of life isn't? Hypocrisy is just lying. Plain and simple. And it's a sin to lie.
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