
One of the things I honestly miss the most about being a child is how blissfully unaware I was of just how filthy some places are. As a child I never got onto an airplane and wondered what that smell was. I don't recall a single time I walked into a hotel room, a friend's house, a restaurant, etc and ever contemplated how sanitary it was - or wasn't.
And then, somewhere along the lines, my innocent childhood blinders fell off and I could see everything. Everything. The sorts of things you can see when you gain germ-vision are just ... just ... whyyyyy?!
Reddit user Latterwatercress asked:
What was your "They didn't clean this hotel room very well" moment?
Some of these people absolutely did not need to be germophobes to be able to tell their rooms weren't cleaned. I'm not talking about one little bug or a layer of dust. You're about to enter an article full of bodily fluids, sh*t tons of literal sh*t, and at least one potential homicide. Honestly, we're all over here questioning whether any hotel room we stay in ever again will really be "clean."
Yup. Now we're traumatized. Our hats are off to you hotel workers who have to clean up after guests. Apparently the human animal is truly a horrific beast. (Some responses have been edited for clarity and language... especially the poop stories. Obviously.)
Reddit user Latterwatercress asked:
What was your "They didn't clean this hotel room very well" moment?
Some of these people absolutely did not need to be germophobes to be able to tell their rooms weren't cleaned. I'm not talking about one little bug or a layer of dust. You're about to enter an article full of bodily fluids, sh*t tons of literal sh*t, and at least one potential homicide. Honestly, we're all over here questioning whether any hotel room we stay in ever again will really be "clean."
Yup. Now we're traumatized. Our hats are off to you hotel workers who have to clean up after guests. Apparently the human animal is truly a horrific beast. (Some responses have been edited for clarity and language... especially the poop stories. Obviously.)
Hanging Undies
When I stretched out on the bed and looked up at the ceiling fan, there was underwear hanging on the fan blades - both male and female varieties.
They must've been moist, so the previous hotel guests placed them there to dry. In any case, the cleaning staff apparently never noticed the undies hanging from the fan.
Poop or Cigar?
Just a literal log of old sh*t that falls out from the covers. I don't think the staff actually cleaned the bedsheets. Happened when I went on vacation as a kid with my family.
We just checked in to the room and me and my cousins wanted to make a bed sheet fort and when we pulled the covers from the bed and u-ntucked it from the mattress, out rolled the ashy brown log. To be perfectly fair, it could have been an old cigar, but we didn't want anything to do with it either way. My family screamed at the staff for awhile and we left the hotel.
- Wiknetti
Dirty Vegas Room
Las Vegas, summer 2012, we got our room from some online travel site. We go to Vegas, we're in one of the nicest rooms in The Luxor. The morning after we get there, the manager knocks on the door, says something like we shouldn't have been able to book the room or some sh*t? Apparently since it was EDC that meant it was a 'special weekend.' I don't know if this is anywhere close to the true story or not, because my friend is kind of a stupid little ass who never admits fault. Either way, we have to leave.
EDC is huge. We can't find a room. There is a little shitty motel just off of the strip, it's room rental is literally a head shop. It's $80 for the night.
We go in the room, there's one bed, the bed is so stained with semen that it is clearly used exclusively by sex workers and never cleaned. Nothing against sex workers - everything against people who don't clean up after themselves! There are three giant mirrors on the ceiling. The floor is gross, everything looks unkempt - but we have literally 0 other options and it's late.
My friends talked me out of sleeping in the bathroom. But my logic was that at least the hookers at some point used soap in the bathroom.
We all slept on the floor, my friend who was driving us most of the way home didn't even sleep in the room he paid $30 toward. He slept in the car.
The TV was clearly moved so that they could have sex on the stand at some point because I moved it to sleep on something that wasn't the godawful shag carpeting I assume is full of crabs or lice.
We were so screwed with literally no where else to stay, that we slept in room, went back to the Luxor an showered the second we could. I threw away my clothes I slept in.
My friend laughed at me as I tried to figure out a way to sleep without my arms or hands touching the ground, but said that he understood why.
Belated Honeymoon
Last December, my wife and I took a very belated honeymoon (about 10 years late) to Disneyworld. (She's a big fan, I am... accommodating.) We stayed in the Contemporary and when we got to the room, the cleaning staff had left rags everywhere and had stashed the cart and bag of trash in the bathroom. Nothing horrifying, but I dropped a lot cash for this. I went to the front desk to get somebody to get the trash out of the room and the guy at the front desk said "What? That sucks." I was like, man, get your manager please. Then I got the apology and a free meal on our meal plan.
Poop Pile
When my son was really small he had some medical issues, and he pooped in the bed when we were on vacation.
I felt terrible about it but called the front desk, told them, asked if they could send someone sooner than later to clean it up, and if I had to I'd pay extra. I totally understand that cleaning up feces creates a health hazard. I offered to pay extra if I had to or hire someone to come in and get it done. I really couldn't at the time and needed to concentrate on my son.
They said that wouldn't be needed and this was no problem.
Anyways, went out for the day. Returned end of day, open the door and the place smells much worse than when we left. I approach the bed and it was made, but looked a bit lumpy in the middle... Looking around the room everything else was done, garbage taken out, towels replaced, etc. But pulling back the sheets, there was the whole reason I called the front desk in the first place, still there, horribly.
I don't know if they just didn't tell the person who cleaned the room or what was up and they somehow just missed it, adjusted the bed as was but never pulling back the sheets? I have no idea, but they missed it.
So I called down, alerted them, they felt bad and couldn't explain it, we ended up with a new upgraded room as I'm sure they felt bad. But man I don't know how they missed that on the cleaning even without a heads up.
Not A Murderer
It's a little long, but worth it.
Well... About 20 years ago my girlfriend at the time (now Mrs) were about to leave for a concert out of town early the next morning and carpool with a friend to the show (about 8 hours drive). We decided to get a hotel room to be closer to the people we were riding with.
We went to the front desk of the University Blvd Holiday Inn and got a room (on the cheap). We opened the door and found that the room was absolutely trashed with beer bottles and clothes still littering the room. Obviously, we didn't want a trashed room and went back to the desk where they gave us a different room. The second room was actually clean and we proceeded to celebrate finding a room, then getting some sleep.
We left early the next morning and made it to the show. Afterwards, we opted to make the brief drive from the show to a city on the coast about an hour from the show to meet up with friends for a few days on the beach. We may have extended that stay a couple days, too.
After about 5 days we returned to our city and went about our lives. Several days later one of my friends pages me that my grandmother has been trying to reach me for a few days. So, I called her up. .
I was NOT prepared for her response. She was screaming and carrying on. Well, apparently the police had been actively looking for me as part of several MURDER investigations. See, that first room we went into had more than clothes and malt liquor everywhere. There were a couple stolen guns, wallets from robbery/homicide victims, clothes with blood on them and lots more evidence of plenty of crimes.
The desk clerk had never fixed the registration in the books and had me as the last person in the room. Come to find out that the maintenance person for the hotel had been letting his homies stay at the Inn without permission. One of those cronies was apparently a pretty infamous gang banger. When I went in to sit down with the police, it was pretty quickly figured out that I was NOT who they were looking for and I was let go.
So... they didn't clean the room.
- WayL0st
Loaded And Loaded
I worked at an extended stay hotel for one of the major brands. One day a nice Japanese couple checked in to their room. Wife, husband, young child. About an hour later the husband comes down and begins to explain that he was pulling out the sofa bed for his child, when he realized that somebody had forgotten their bag of used heroin needles and their LOADED GLOCK, under the mattress. He calmly placed the gun and the bag of needles on the front desk as I rushed into the back office to get our GM as I was not equipped to handle the broken English conversation that was about to go down. I called the cops to come claim the weapon and was conveniently tasked with showing the housekeepers how to properly inspect the sofa mattresses. I don't work in hotels anymore.
The Poo Cruise
This was our room on a cruise many years ago.
First evening of a three day cruise. I'm fifteen. My brothers are younger. My mum is the only adult on the trip. Because I'm a teenager, like hell I'm going to spend time with my family. I find a guy my age and sing karaoke with him.
When it gets late I get back to the cabin. My mum is suffering from mild sea sickness. Brothers are asleep. I'm left with a top bunk. Great. I climb up, without turning on any lights so as not to wake my brothers. I spread open the blanket and...
It looks like poo. It can't be poo. I turn on the small mounted reading light, and yeah it's poo. Mostly dry. Three distinct piles on my snow white sheets.
I climb down. Mum doesn't believe me at first. When she goes to see for herself she tells me she's too sea sick to go to the reception, so I can take her bed and she will sleep in the chair.
It's f*cking poo! If they missed that, what else did they miss? But it's late, I'm so so so tired, I'm an awkward fifteen year old. Last thing I'm going to do is talk to someone. I resign myself to sleeping in the chair and prop my feet against the vanity desk. Now the light is on, because mum had to see the poo for herself.
As I lay in the chair staring at the ceiling I see poo. In the ceiling. I start to laugh. It's too absurd. I turn on all the lights and there are brown stripes in the ceiling! That's not all! If I look closely, it's also in the carpet. Faint, because they got most of it out, but it's there.
Mum says we'll sort this out in the morning.
I'm too angry to sleep!
I go to the information/reception alone. (Before cell phones, and it didn't occur to me to use the cabin phone.) I have to wait, the man at the desk is helping a drunk passenger. When it's my turn, he doesn't believe me. I get angry, which makes him believe me even less. He's condescending towards me. He goes on to say how every cabin is cleaned between trips and nothing like that has ever happened.
Well it happened now. To me. I threaten to throw all the soiled linen into the hallway and he finally agrees to come with me. We have to wait a bit for another staff member to take over the desk, and he's scoffing and puffing. He really doesn't want to do this.
I show him the poo in the bed and on the ceiling and floor, and now that I'm looking at the backside on the chair it's smeared into it as well.
The man is reeeeeaaaallly dismissive. He calls the cleaners, who come and change our sheets while me, mum and my sleepy brothers wait in the hallway.
They find poo in the shower as well.
They clean up the cabin, and the receptionist briefly blames the previous cleaning crew, but that's all we get in the way of apologies.
We don't get an apology, we don't get a new room, we don't get complimentary nothing. We go to sleep in the same room.
Except me, because I'm angry, shaky and full of adrenaline from having argued with an adult.
Youth Group
I've worked in the hotel industry for many years in corporate sales.
A few years ago I got a call from a Director of Sales at a hotel who was upset at one of the groups we had booked into her hotel. It was a youth - religious group (read cheap, low-rates, and pretty un-supervised).
Many of these groups like to bring in their own food and coolers and snacks to keep meal costs down. Totally fine.
What's NOT fine is deciding to make grilled cheese sandwiches with the iron & ironing board.
So of course this group checks out on a Sunday, and in check all of the business travelers on Sunday night... and they wake up Monday morning to freshly press their suits & dress shirts for their important business meetings, only to have the irons leave giant iron sized grease stains all over their suits as they get ready to go to a conference or important meetings.
So this hotel not only had to replace over 100 irons & ironing board covers - but comp rooms & pay for dry cleaning (or in some cases reimburse) for a ton of expensive business clothes.
Needless to say, that "youth group" wasn't invited to stay with our hotels ever again.
The Absolute Weirdest Compliments People Have Ever Received
Reddit user callmejari asked: 'What's the weirdest compliment you have received?'
Giving compliments is pretty easy, although most of us don't do it often enough.
Accepting compliments can be much harder.
Too many of us immediately shift into disclaimers to explain why we don't deserve the praise.
But we just need to say thank you—even if the compliment is a little odd.
Reddit user callmejari asked:
"What's the weirdest compliment you have received?"
Zzzzz...
"Someone once told me that my voice was so soothing, it could put a crying baby sloth to sleep."
~ Marena-Cris-18
What About My Sneeze?
"'Your cough sounds nice' Was just a random girl on the train."
"Still throws me off 2 years later."
~ ThatGothDinosaur
Hope It’s Not SpongeBob
"A 5-year-old kid told me he liked me because I looked like a cartoon."
~ Sea_Ganache620
Unfulfilled Potential
"I have nice wide birthing hips."
"I'm a guy."
~ kudzufarmer
"You got the foundation for it, you're just missing the plumbing."
~ ARoundForEveryone
Wrong Hemisphere, But Thanks
"When I was 16 working the drive thru—'You’re the prettiest Arabic girl I’ve ever seen'."
"I’m Mexican. But thank you ma’am."
~ 3sp00py5me
Was His Name Vlad?
"'You've got beautiful veins'."
"By the guy that injected my contrast before an MRI."
~ Reblax837
It Keeps My Teeth In Place
"Some random NYC man told me I had a nice chin once. I still think about him."
~ pssht07070707
Never Skip Leg Day
"I was told by a woman walking behind me on stairs that I had great calves."
"It was kind of weird at the time."
~ Sider-Pride
Not The BBQ Ones
"'I like your ribs'."
"From random girl at a pool party during a music festival."
~ Particular-Natural12
Cleaning Up On Aisle 5
"I delivered bread to grocery stores in the 90’s and when I decided to change routes, the young lady who had always checked me in told me she’d really miss the sound of my voice."
~ OGGBTFRND
Bloody Offal
"One time I was at the doctor for some lower back pain getting an ultra sound and the tech looked me dead in the eye and said 'You have really nice kidneys. They're very plump.'"
"Best strange compliment I ever received."
~ FlashRage
A compliment is a compliment, right?
What's the weirdest compliment you've received?
Reasons People's Friends Remain Single That They Don't Have The Heart To Tell Them
We can all agree that, as fun as it's supposed to be, the dating scene can be really, really hard.
Here's the secret: as hard as the dating scene can be to navigate, some of the trouble lies with us. We may not to be able to find a long-term partner or a date at all because of something that we're doing.
But when a friend is in this situation, it can be really hard to tell them the brutal truth about their dating history.
Redditor teekzer asked:
"What is causing your friend to remain single that you don't have the heart to tell them?"
Chasing Deadends
"He keeps hanging on to the past and spending all his time hanging out with ex-girlfriends who are unavailable, or women who like him but he doesn’t romantically like."
- SqueakySnapdragon
Baby Talk
"I always wondered why she couldn't get a date because she is gorgeous until I saw her flirting with someone."
"The first night they met, flirted, and swapped numbers. Then, she was immediately clingy, talking in a baby voice to him, and making baby noises."
- robocop_robocop
Body Odor
"I can smell them. Everyone can smell them."
- not-read-gud
"You should find a way to tell them, it might hurt but they'll appreciate it."
- iciclesnbdayclothes
The Nice Guy Mindset
"He really is not as nice of a person as he thinks he is."
- Rusti3dp
"The ones who claim this rarely are."
- SummerOfMayhem
Impossible Standards
"The people they like aren’t real. They are idealized, cartoonish caricatures. Now my friend himself has a lot to offer in my opinion, but he is looking for a person who doesn’t exist. Hard to find something that’s not there."
- Sufficient-Spell9935
"I have a friend who started dating his flatmate after being really into her for a while, and then after a week or two said something like, 'Dating you doesn't feel as good as I thought it would,' TO HER."
"He basically torpedoed his own potential relationship because of his own ideal fantasy, and to be honest, I don't know if he actually realized he'd created an unrealistic standard in his own head."
"He's been single for the last decade, his mental health has only got worse in the time I've known him despite therapy, and I think he's probably so detached from 'appropriate dating behavior' at this point that he could be single for the rest of his life."
- fish993
Questionable Humor
"Brother-in-law, not friend. But he makes the same jokes about poop and farts all the time. Like, constantly."
"Yes, some women like potty humor, but they usually also want it to be funny."
"He is also very negative; finds insult or something wrong with any situation."
- EatYourCheckers
Living in Fantasy Land
"He lies to himself about almost everything. He lives in fantasy land."
"He thinks he's in the gym five days a week, eats great, climbs mountains, goes camping, and makes loads of money."
"In reality, he's at the pub five days a week, over eats like s??t, went on one hike in January, can't hold a job, and lives paycheck to paycheck..."
"If you were to confront him with this reality, it wouldn't even get through to him."
- Fit_Yogurtcloset_291
Mismatched Attraction
"The type of guys she claims she likes isn't what she's actually attracted to."
"She keeps saying how much she loves shy introverted sensitive guys but when she finds one and dates him suddenly, she's like, 'He's not outgoing enough, doesn't speak his mind enough, and is too shy!'"
"I kind of think she has this 'I can fix him' syndrome and doesn't really acknowledge it. Like, she's attracted to the idea of a typical shy guy but thinks once they're in a relationship they'll suddenly be more open and turn into the guy she actually wants. That's not how it works!"
- Disig
Poor Self-Esteem
"She is so lovely. So kind, so generous, and so beautiful. But her crippling lack of self-esteem is so huge, it's visible from space, and her anxiety (and I'm 99% sure her undiagnosed ADHD) means that when she's at all nervous, she talks at 100 miles an hour in several directions at once."
"It's like being handed eight happy Labrador puppies to try and hold in your arms. I so badly want her to be happy and feel fulfilled but even I find it tiring sometimes."
- butwhatsmyname
The Negative Attitude
"I have two of these."
"One is the most talented, smartest, wonderful person I know and I wish I could pull the gremlins out of their brain so they could be happy."
"The other is self-fulfilling proficiency f**king up their life. He's not unlovable, or ugly, or uncared for, but walking through the world expecting rejection at all turns and living in a fog of negativity is what makes him unattractive to be around."
"So-and-so isn't hotter than you, that's not the reason they're getting more friends and lovers, but they are more positive and interested than you, and people are attracted to that company."
- cool_username_iguess
Just Pure Arrogance
"For my husband’s friend, it’s the selfish arrogance. I want what I want, and the subtext was that he never cared about what his girlfriend wanted."
"He would only go places he wanted to go, which never included her friends or family. He wanted to spend all his money on 'collectibles' related to sci-fi movies, DVDs, figurines etc."
"Engagement rings were a waste of money, investing, or buying a house ditto, no compromises were possible, he said NO, and no discussions were entertained."
"His opinion on every topic was the correct one, and he was not interested in your opinion, or listening to extra facts he did not know that might change his mind."
"He was once young and good-looking, and he thought he could find someone else when she walked when he was 32. They had dated for close to a decade. During the relationship, he had started to stack on the weight and losing his hair and he was not able to find a replacement."
"Now he is 49 and hasn’t had a girlfriend since. He still has not bought a house and they cost double what they did when they were dating, and his rent has tripled. He does have a copy of all his favorite movies in every format: VHS, DVD, AND BlueRay, a whole bedroom is dedicated to storing them, if you can get in there. His house is a hoarder's paradise."
"He says the reason no one wants him is because he is fat and bald, and it does not help, but it’s not the major turnoff."
"As for his ex, I don't really know what happened to her. She left all of us behind when they broke up. I did hear she got married, but no updates after that. She is a sweetheart, I wish all the good things for her."
- vicki153
Impossible to Move Forward
"Summarizing two types of my single friends:"
"Super successful, smart, funny, and good-looking. They also tend to go for folks who leave them on read for days. Their insecurities are their worst enemies and I think are the biggest factor of them chasing after partners who don’t want to be partners."
"Other friends don’t know how to commit to anything, including a job. It almost feels like a 'it’ll happen when it happens' type of ideology and so they don’t even try to make things happen? They act like things will happen on their own? So they’ll meet a person and then that’s it. Meet cute dead in the water."
- thunderkitty_
Too Desperate
"Desperation. From laughing way too hard at mediocre jokes to bringing up marriage on the first date, she reeks of it."
"We have all tried talking to her about it to no avail. The sad thing is that if she was just her regular funny, smart, relaxed self, then men would be falling over themselves trying to get her number."
- Julia_Sugarbaker123
A Want List
"Her standards are excessively too high. She brings nothing to a relationship. She's a walking contradiction, all of which is why she is single."
"I think it's great to have standards and high standards but hers is just a checklist of wants."
- Theunpolitical
Height Insecurities
"He’s convinced women won’t like him because he’s short. I keep telling him I know plenty of guys just as short as him in great relationships, I’ve dated guys as short as him in the past. He just refuses to believe it."
- MichaSound
"I dated a guy who was four feet, nine inches, and I'm five feet, four inches. He had such an amazing strong personality that you never noticed his height."
"I did find kissing standing up weird; the motions are so different when it's swapped."
"The relationship ended for other reasons than his height."
- lonelyronin1
Alternatively, Open to Feedback
"I had a friend who finally did just ask. He came up to the girls in our group and just let us have an open conversation. I'm sure it was awkward and uncomfortable for him, but we gently laid out some issues. He cut his hair, got some new clothes, and (the big one) started therapy."
"A couple of years later, guess who's got a wife and a wonderful child?"
- Stars-in-the-night
It's so disheartening to see the people we care about unable to have something that they would find so fulfilling like a long-term relationship.
But it's even worse when the reasons behind it are things they could work on, if we only had the guts to tell them or if they were open to hearing it.
People Share The Craziest Things That Are Somehow Legal In Certain Countries
As foreigners who travel, it's easy to be overcome by culture shock while taking in the sights of different countries.
But we may behave in ways that are completely normal for us back home but are not acceptable in the places we're visiting.
Which makes sense.
There are rules and restrictions we should be aware of before we arrive in a foreign country.
Redditor fittingpenguin solicited input from strangers online to weigh in on conflicting international rules by asking:
"What’s the craziest yet still legal thing in your country?
You probably didn't know these were actual rules.
No Complaining
"A direct ancestor/descendant or spouse of an individual cannot file a theft complaint against that individual except if it's essential documents, like an ID."
– ObjectiveMountain900
Who's The Baby Daddy?
"I always thought the paternity test one was worse for France. Your not allowed to perform one even if you've good suspicion the child may not be yours and you could be liable to child support for another person's kid."
– SoloWingPixy88
Bees Take The Lead
"In Germany, you are allowed to enter private property to follow your honey bee swarm if the swarm is escaping and looking for a new hive."
– lizaahunn
"this is actually the case in lots of countries, where I am they can legally enter your yard to come to get them."
– WRA1THLORD
Things get very specific and downright shocking.
Gotta Be Pitch-Perfect
"In Belgium, anybody can sing or play an instrument in the Streets. In the city of Leuven however, you can be fined if you play your instrument off-key."
– Zuid-Dietscher
"To be fair to Leuven, with all the students running around doing it, I don't blame them."
– Blasmere
Careful The Things You Say
"Someone can be found guilty of defamation even if what that person said or wrote is 100 percent true."
– EHonda92m
"Japan. e.g. if you expose someone for having an affair, that person can sue you for defamation. I suppose it's an expectation of privacy. The only exception is if it's in the "public interest" to know this information."
– TheOvy
Everyone's Playground
"You can freely walk, bike or ski in the nature on any private property. As long as it's not counted as a breach of domestic peace or you are not ruining their crop field or something. For example, even though you see a sign 'private property' in the forest. You are free to go pick mushrooms and berries there. Or you can even fish there freely (only with basic worm fishing rod though) if there's a lake on the property. You can even set up a tent on someone's private property for a short time (1-2 nights) as long as you aren't littering or disturbing anyone for example being noisy or on the way. The country is Finland, and these things are in the Finnish constitution as 'every man's/everyone's rights.'"
– RamuPamu1
What happens if you break the law? There doesn't seem to be consequences here.
Prison Break
"I don't know if it's really crazy, I personally think it's good and reasonable, but here in germany it's not punishable to escape from prison."
"Of course in reality they might charge you with other things like property damage or assault etc. if you damage something or someone on the way out but the act of breaking out itself can't prolong your sentence because the need to be free is a fundamental human desire."
– PetrosiliusZwackel
The Warden's Story
"I watched a doc on European prisons some years back and in a Croatian prison they talked to the warden. He told a story about a man who escaped. A week or so after the escape the prison received a package containing the man’s prison uniform."
"Since he had committed no crimes while escaping (just walked out the doors) and while an escapee, the only thing they could have charged him with was stealing his prison uniform. But since he returned it, there was nothing to charge and he just had to finish out his original sentence."
– CornyCornheiser
Leaving Civilly Is Not A Crime
"Basically, the normal rules of society apply. If you punch a guard to get past them, that's still a crime. If they leave you unattended with the door open or you sneak out under a lorry, that isn't a crime. They can still catch you and return you, but you can't be charged with attempted or successful escape, just any crimes committed in the process."
– Death_God_Ryuk
It's The Soldiers' Call
"Also Germany, soldiers are allowed to disobey orders if they think it violates human dignity. There are other nations with similar rules or even obligations regarding human rights and violation of geneva convention, but protecting even their own dignity is unique (I think)"
– f_cysco
This doesn't have legal consequences but slurping noodles at the dinner table is perfectly acceptable in Japan.
As a matter of fact, the Japanese encourage it.
The Japanese believe that eating noodles while they're piping hot is the best way to enjoy them.
Also, what is perceived as rude etiquette in other countries is actually a sign of validation that the cook prepared the dish well.
Every now and again, we might experience something that makes us stop dead in our tracks or gives us the shivers.
More often than not, there is a logical explanation for what happened, often resulting in our laughing about it down the line.
An electrical power surge caused the lights to flicker, that haunting noise we heard was just a nearby car radio, or that unexplained cold blast of air was simply owing to our standing too close to the air conditioning vent.
But sometimes, we experience something we simply cannot explain, and still lie awake at night trying to figure it out.
Redditor GifGuyRob was curious to hear people's mystifying experiences to which they still can't offer an explanation, leading them to ask:
"What is the weirdest thing you have seen that you can’t really explain?"
Card Tricks... Without The Cards.
"I was hanging out on the sidewalk in front of a drugstore when some dude walked by, stopped, looked at me, and asked me to think of a card, any card."
"Then he said 'you’re picturing the five of clubs!'"
"I was amazed."
"That’s the card I was thinking of."
”'Holy sh*t, that’s right!' I said."
"The dude just winked and walked away."
"That’s the best magic trick I’ve ever seen, and it was some rando on the street that I never saw again."
"I have no clue how he did it, other than some form of subliminal planting of the image in my mind, but that’s unreliable."
"It was a card trick that involved no cards at all."
"That was the most inexplicable thing I’ve ever seen."- I_Framed_OJ
Cosmic Injustice...
"In a hospital, the nicer the patient, the worse the prognosis."
"If they work charities and are really polite, definitely aggressive cancer."
"If they are rude a**holes, they will live long no matter how sick they are."- Koorsboom
Paranormal Activity
"I once saw a clipboard fly off of the hook it hung on and land around 3 feet away."
"The room was totally still beforehand, no breeze or earthquake or anything."
"Just hanging up where it always was, then flung across the room for no reason at all."
"Most boring poltergeist ever."- Reiseoftheginger
Lucky Pennies...
"I was living in my last apartment back in the 90s."
"I walked down the hall, turned to go to the bathroom, and got hit in the back with a penny."
"Nobody else was in the apartment."- kmsc84
Wrong Floor...
"Family was on holiday at a resort in Vietnam."
"My sister and I took an elevator in the hotel and it stopped and opened up on the top floor, where nothing was built."
"Just bricks laying about, a wheelbarrow, no fence or wall around the edge of the building, and there was a single small tree growing out of the ground in front of the elevator doors a few feet out."
"There was also this impenetrable fog that was floating around, obscuring the sight of what would be the rest of the resort below and it was quite windy."
"We both agreed it was weird and looked dangerous to be up here - we clearly weren't meant to have access to the top floor since it wasn't fully constructed."
"We went back down to the ground floor and noticed that it was actually a sunny and clear day all round."
"We wondered where that fog and wind went to."
"So we decided to go back to the unfinished rooftop level to check again, but when we did it was perfectly fine and fully built."
"We couldn't explain it and couldn't find that half-built top floor again afterwards."- lifesnotperfect
Not-So-Little Piggy
"My friends and I flashed a powerful light across a river and saw what appeared to be an absolutely massive boar."
"It then stood up on its hind legs and it simply did not compute."
"Immediate fear everyone ran."
"I was a kid but I have a very good memory and several friends that are positive they saw it as well."
"Idk."- 444jxrdan444
Unexplained Exit
"I went from driving on one highway to another highway in pouring rain."
"Still headed in the right direction, and about 10 miles in total displacement."
"But I consciously chose one and was on it until I saw road signs telling me I was one the other."
"I just went numb."
"No loss of time or any other abnormality."
"If I didn’t have to actually make a distinct effort to choose the route I wanted, I can see how it might have been a simple mistake."
"But I was on the road I chose (geography etc) until I wasn’t."
"Like something picked me up and put me down instantaneously and I didn’t notice until how long?"- Stayvein
Creature Of The Night
"Actually, one that was recently solved thanks to the internet!"
"We used to have parakeets in an outside aviary."
"One night I was woken up by the budgies screaming and there was... some odd animal attacking it."
"It had a pointed, cone shaped head, no visible ears and a long tail that was not foxlike."
"But it wasn't a possum."
"It was thin and moved like a cat -- it jumped and moved lithely."
"I tapped on the sliding glass door and it stopped, cocked its head, and came over to look at me."
"We were looking eye-to-eye and for the life of me I still couldn't figure out a face."
"Now I was really into nature in my area, really into reading books and sh*t because I wanted to be a forest ranger, and I still couldn't identify this animal."
"Everyone who I told said it was a bad dream but it was real."
"Anyway, years later it was still the weirdest thing that happened to me."
"The internet had come along and I finally had my answer: I saw a Fisher!"
"It's a super rare animal in my area -- like 500 left, max."
"Kind of like a weasel, but heavier."
"They do have ears, btw."
"I assume it was hidden by fur."- Z0ooool
Cabin In The Woods
"When I was about 13 or 14 years old myself and two friends found a house in the middle of the woods that just didn't make sense."
"We were all neighbors, and along all three of our houses was a very large wooded area."
"It runs a few miles back and becomes a state forest."
"We had run around these woods plenty of times and even had areas we'd recognize as we went."
"This particular day we followed this ravine that was sometimes a stream, but was dry at this time."
"That part is important, because we followed that same ravine several times after that and never could find the house again."
"When I say the house didn't make sense, I mean it. It was a white trailer."
"I'd say a double-wide."
"There was white underpinning along the bottom."
"It was a poor country area, so that's not uncommon."
"But it was unusually clean."
"Like, brand new, perfectly white."
"But that's still not the weird part."
"It didn't have doors."
"Or windows."
"Or a driveway."
"We were in the middle of the woods."
"The entire walk through the woods is full of bushes, thorns, spiderwebs, bugs, vines, logs."
"Woods stuff."
"But this was a clearing of flat grass like someone mowed this area."
"We weren't afraid or anything while we were there."
"There really wasn't anything remarkable about it, and that's honestly what makes it so weird to think about to this day."
"We just walked around it for a bit, said it was kinda weird, and we went back on our adventure."
"Eventually we all just went home."
"I'm still friends with both of the other kids."
"We're in our 30s and I'm even going to a wedding for one of them this weekend."
"We've talked about it since, and the story still just doesn't add up."
"My parents still live in that house, and we spent years after that day exploring the woods all the time."
"Never found it again."- Lemonbeeee
Sometimes our eyes might be playing tricks on us.
Other times, we know for certain what we're seeing is real, but simply can't explain what we're seeing.
Either way, there is little more disconcerting in this world than uncertainty.