Sometimes, those that grow up rich or sheltered have no idea how the real world works. Sometimes they’re willfully ignorant, and other times, they genuinely have no clue. Whatever the circumstances, these Redditors tell stories of when they met people who needed a real wake-up call.
1. Gimme My Privacy
My dad collects coins because his extremely Hungarian immigrant grandfather convinced him that all banks are determined to steal all his money from him, so he has to have a backup plan.
This in and of itself isn't too extreme; plenty of people choose self-sustenance due to a distrust in government and economics—but the real kicker happened when he tried to roll his coins.
He has to order his coin rolls online because he doesn't want to go to the bank and get coin rolls. That’s because then the bank will know how much money he's hiding from them. I'm not kidding. Anyway, he ordered a bag of coin rolls and waited about a month for them to come before he started getting curious about where they were.
He asked my mom to check the order tracking while he was at work one day, which led to this conversation: “It says here that the package made it to our town two weeks ago, but got sent back. It says you gave no delivery address”. My dad responds, “Yeah, why would I do that? I don't want them to know where I live, they might tell everyone”.
2. All The Free Food!
When I was a kid, I was on the swim team at an athletic club in a primarily rich area, with us being middle/lower class. The athletic club had a grill and I saw people all day going up and getting food just by showing their access card. I asked them what they did, and they said, "Just scan your access card and you get food”.
Of course, in my mind, that meant it was complimentary. So, I started getting all sorts of food and snacks: frozen yogurt, Slurpees, chicken fingers, cheese fries, smoothies, etc.
Come the end of the month, my parents get our membership bill and start freaking out. I didn't hear the beginning of the conversation, and walk in just in time for them to wonder where all these food charges came from.
I, in my naivety, said "I got all that food but it's free right?" They told me it all had to be paid for. When I asked the other kids, they all said, "No way, it's free, I never have to pay”. Turns out their parents were just so loaded they didn't care what the bill was it just got paid and they ate whatever they wanted, however much.
It was around that time I realized just how "out of class" I was compared to them.
3. Book Smarts
man in gray suit jacket holding white ipadPhoto by Usman Yousaf on UnsplashI once had a university professor who was absolutely brilliant knowledge of middle eastern politics, particularly around the Israel-Palestine conflict. He could remember insanely precise historical details going back thousands of years and seemed to understand the subtlest of nuances on both sides of the conflict. His lectures were amazing.
Or they would have been if he had turned off his cell phone. He simply couldn't figure out how to silence his phone, or even turn it on and off. He had let his TA do it for him a couple of times, but then he'd leave with it still off and couldn't figure out how to turn it back on until he came back the next day, so after going through that twice, he decided he would just leave it on.
And it appeared that every telemarketer on earth had his number, because it would ring at least five times an hour at full volume, and he'd just talk over the top of it like it wasn't happening.
He also never answered his email, because he apparently didn't realize that he had one or might need to use it. One day he'd forgotten to bring his little water jug and sent his TA to the vending machine in the middle of a lecture to bring him a bottle of water.
She brought it back and handed it to him, and he turned red in the face trying to get it open, before handing it back to her and declaring that something was wrong with it.
She opened it quickly and easily: he'd been turning the cap the wrong way.
4. Paycheck-To-Paycheck
My company is switching its non-exempt employees from a bi-monthly pay schedule to a bi-weekly pay schedule. Because of the reduction in per-paycheck pay, payroll is offering a one-time advance payment of the third paycheck in the upcoming three-paycheck month so that employees who live on a tight budget can divvy that up for bills or payments or whatever to transition to the impact of their new paycheck being slightly reduced.
You have to notify payroll if you want to take this option. One manager couldn't wrap their head around the existence of people living paycheck-to-paycheck. His ignorance was unbelievable. He asked, "Couldn't they make more money? Couldn't they learn to save?"
Problem solved, duh. Funny thing is his nanny is quitting because they aren't paying her enough, and the cost of living here is too high.
5. First-World Problems
I live in London as a welfare rep for American students. Knowing that American college costs a bundle, and the program to come over costs a load too, these students tend to be the richest and whitest of suburbia. One day, the Wi-Fi went down, and I may as well have told them that there was no drinking water in the U.K.
About 40 students were knocking on my door telling me it wasn't acceptable and that they were calling their 'daddies' to sort it out. They said things like, "My daddy is a lawyer, so if you think you're getting money for this accommodation when I haven't had Wi-Fi you've got another thing coming”.
I tried to calm them down, let them know it would be back on in an hour or two when one of them said the following line: "You can't blame us for being upset, we grew up in 'THE FIRST WORLD”. I was flabbergasted.
Not only did she talk about being from 'the first world' like that is something to be proud of, but her entire argument was that “Everything in my life has always been easy and perfect... how dare you take away the most minor of utilities for three hours?!”
6. Drive Thru Trouble
a close up of a mcdonald's sign on a buildingPhoto by Janet Ganbold on UnsplashI was 15 and working at McDonalds. I was at the back window where you take people’s money. A customer came and blew past the back speaker where you order. That was pretty typical, so I figured it was just a normal mistake. When they get to my window, I see that it is this very old lady.
She smiles at me and holds a grocery bag up with frozen chicken and two liters of soda. She holds out a 20$ bill and asks, "How much for the chicken and soda?"
15-year-old me didn't have the coping skills for this. I stared at her for what felt like forever. Finally, I said, "Uh, I think you're confused". She drove off, with her car halfway over the curb.
7. Counting The Cents
About three years ago, I had a young woman, probably early 20s, come into the cafe I work at. She ordered herself a drink and a pastry of some sort. Her total was around $6. She proceeded to hand me a 1-dollar bill and 6 quarters. I took the money and waited for her to procure more, but she just stood there staring at me. I told her, "I'm sorry, it's $6.87”.
She says, "I know, I gave you 7”. I said, "No, this is only $2.25”. She took the money from my hand and counted each item in front of me like I was an idiot, counting each item as $1. I pointed to the quarters and told her, "Those are quarters, not dollars”. Keep in mind this person was obviously not foreign or anything. She had no accent and seemed completely American.
Her response was, "I know they're quarters, but they're dollars”. She then proceeded to pick up one of the quarters and point to the word "dollar" inscribed on the bottom beneath George's head. At this point I was thinking, this is the single dumbest person I've ever seen, or this is the worst con ever conceived, but she didn't give up. She demanded to speak to a manager. I got the manager, and he told her the same thing.
She started getting visibly upset and holding back tears. She might have been embarrassed.
8. What Hippies Are Hiding
I'm a jeweler/metalsmith and often work at festivals and street fairs to sell my work. My husband and I were hanging out in my tent last summer at a festival and a woman walks in, looking harmless enough.
This may also be a sign of me being a little out of touch with reality as I took in her flowing 10-yard skirt, multiple colored scarves, and wavy brown-gray hair tied back with a leather rope, and assumed she was a sweet old hippie lady.
This assumption made her next few words all the more shocking. She started off simple enough, talking about her own and admiring a few pieces, trying a few things on, and then she noticed I was pregnant. This is when the ridiculousness began.
She asked if I knew that a blood moon was coming soon and that I should stay inside my house for fear of the power of this blood moon sending me into pre-term labor and possibly resulting in a stillbirth.
She then reminded us that this next blood moon was a sign of the apocalypse, and that Jesus would be returning to Earth soon to take all the righteous to heaven.
She said that if this happened before my baby was born that I would wake up miraculously not pregnant anymore, as he would claim all innocents in his name and spirit them away to glory. She then said "And you know, of course, this is all our fault. Humans, not God's”.
She didn't notice through her diatribe that our smiles had become completely frozen, and we were hunching down more and more in our seats. I said, "Okay, well thank you!" She left. I look sideways at all sweet old hippie ladies now.
9. IT Troubleshooting
brown 4-layer bricked buildingPhoto by Sigmund on UnsplashI was a field engineer on the construction of some very large expensive dorms at High Point University. The dorms included a three-story waterfall, sports bar, steak house, arcade, free movie theater, etc. It was very fancy.
We kept a small staff to help the university with the first student move in. The students were really pampered, but this was the worst case I remember.
One girl called for help because the power wasn't working in her dorm room. Our guys got there to troubleshoot and found that none of her stuff was plugged into the outlets! We explained that you have to plug things in for them to work.
She said, "I guess our maid must have always taken care of that”. She did not know how to plug something in! When we showed her, she still stood there expecting us to plug in all her stuff!
10. Absolutely Innocent
Years ago, when I worked fast food, a different fast-food store down the street kept getting vandalized, so they put up cameras, caught the culprits while they were doing it, and called the authorities. The culprits were two tweens. Siblings. They showed mom and dad the footage.
They insisted, "This footage is fake! Our kids are innocent!!" Yeah, because early 90s security camera footage was so easy to realistically falsify... Last we heard, the parents were trying to sue for false accusations. I'm sure the judge shut it down.
11. I Would Never!
There are a lot of older ugly apartment buildings near the house I grew up in. My friend at the time lived a very privileged lifestyle, with $200-300+ weekly weekend dinners with the family, timeshares over the place, skiing and snowboarding trips, etc. Her next comment turned me off completely: “Why would anyone want to live in these apartments? I would never”.
I told her people that who live there don't have a choice...
12. Working From Home
person holding red and white plastic containerPhoto by Meg Boulden on UnsplashMy co-worker's 17-year-old daughter had her first job interview recently. It was at a movie theatre. When she got home, her mom asked how it went. The daughter says, "I told them that I was only interested in a job that would let me work from home. That way, I can get snacks whenever I want”. I would have LOVED to have been a witness to the interviewer's expression at that moment.
13. A Clean Wipe
I remember a while back I read a post about a man who refused to wipe his bum after number two because he believed no man should have anything touch him there... I remember vividly thinking "How out of touch with reality do you have to be to have such a belief?" I am still occasionally haunted by this stranger.
14. The Family Business
I used to work at a machine shop owned and run by a family. All their kids worked there, and they were probably the most selfish, self absorbed, jaded people I've ever met.
So, the owners had a very nice house, which they let one of their children and family live in with them. Their old house was given to another child and her family. A third house was purchased and given to their last child and family.
All of these properties were being paid for by the parents, as well as all of their ~$40,000 salaries and benefits. All of the three children worked there, as well as their spouses. Also, they each had new company cars every two years. Who needs a company car when they work in an office? Also, why do they carpool together and leave some of the new cars at home everyday?
The parents are very nice people and very giving. The children and their families, however, are absolute jerks. Everyday after school all of the grandkids would come in the shop and run around, messing with things, and getting into trouble. This is a machine shop with heavy machinery constantly running! Don't let your kids shoot Nerf guns at each other while I'm running a hydraulic press!
One day at lunch, I hear two of the spouses and one of the owner's kids yelling at the owner. Like, screaming. Why, you ask? Because he didn't want to purchase season tickets three rows closer than what they had already for our local NFL team. Jaded, spoiled, jerks. Meanwhile, we non-family members are struggling to pay bills and being refused raises.
15. Just Buy A House!
man and woman sitting on chairsPhoto by Kenny Eliason on UnsplashI was involved in a nonprofit for women in my last city maybe two years back. My ex was from a rich area of the state, and the mean income for this area was $31k. A teacher talked about how 500+ kids in her school were homeless, and how seniors would pool their money together to get a hotel for days or weeks at a time.
I remember telling my ex about it, and how awful that’s gotta be to be 17 and living with 10 others in a hotel. His reply deeply disgusted me: “They’re stupid. If they had any brains, they’d buy a house so they could get equity; the hotel is just them throwing their money away and not getting anything from it”.
He was 100% convinced that these 17-year-olds, with no addresses, who are MINORS, could apply for and qualify for a mortgage.
I fussed at him and don’t regret it, because he is so out of touch with reality. Eventually, he went on months later to say he talks down about other people and acts like he’s better than everyone because he is better than everyone.
16. Library Lessons
A friend of mine in college was absolutely shocked when I and several other friends pulled out our childhood and hometown public library cards at dinner one night. She could not fathom that all of our families went to the library regularly when we were growing up and that this is an extremely common experience for a lot of people.
When I asked her what she did when she wanted to read books growing up, she said "My family just bought them all”.
17. You’re Not Them!
On the first day of the Marketing Research class at Wharton, the professor gives everyone a questionnaire asking them a bunch of questions like, what percentage of US parents feed their kids hot dogs at least once a week, what percentage of beer is sold in stores is craft beer, etc. The students did horribly, giving answers like 2% for things that were actually 90%.
The explicit point of the exercise was this: You are not representative of Americans. Unless you're marketing to fellow top-tier MBAs, your instincts are always completely wrong, even after you try to adjust for your biases. You must learn to do and interpret marketing research or change your major to finance.
18. Continental Drift
aerial view of green and brown mountains and lakePhoto by Karsten Winegeart on UnsplashI was 16 years old, in Driver's Ed, and the teacher asks us an extra credit question. "Why are there interstates in Hawaii? You can't drive there from any other state”. A girl in my class raised her hand and asked, "Was it because they were built before Hawaii broke off?"
This girl thought it was a possibility that Hawaii broke off, and drifted to the middle of the Pacific Ocean all in the last 50 years. The actual answer was that Hawaii has interstate because, if a highway is funded by the federal government, it's simply called an interstate.
19. Time For The Talk
When my mom was 18 or 19, she joined the military, and as soon as she was able, she moved off base into a cheap little apartment with another girl the same age that she had met in basic. One day, my mom is alone and cleaning up their place when she notices this smell coming from her roommate’s bedroom. She figures that it's old dishes or food, and goes to check it out. The room is spotless but it reeks.
My mom walks around trying to figure out where the smell is coming from. Finally, she looks under the bed and pulls out this box. It's dozens and dozens of bloody underwear. Her roommate had no clue about pads or tampons, and her mother never told her. She would just change her clothes and toss the nasty underwear under the bed. My mom had to sit down and have a talk with her.
20. Living The Life
This guy I know hit the Powerball for 150 million at age 19. He bought a little house on the river and now sits around drinking and fishing all day, every day. He has no phone, no internet, doesn't get mail, and has no way of getting any news about anything, his girlfriend left him, and the government thought he had passed till the IRS sent someone out to evaluate the property.
His parents passed two years ago, and his sister as well after complications from a hysterectomy last year, so he has no family, no friends, no job, nothing. His only living contact is his dog, the occasional person who comes by his house, and the people at the gas station up the road where he buys his bait and his drinks. He has bricks of cash in his house laying around because he just doesn't care.
He won't ever need as much as he has. I'd give him 10 years till he gets skin cancer as he sits in the sun all day.
21. Back To School
man reading in libraryPhoto by Dollar Gill on UnsplashWe were at a table, six of us, eating. The conversation turned to jobs and employment. One of the guys, a rich kid that had most of his life handed to him, including his tech job at mommy's company, commented that he didn't understand why if someone couldn't find a job, they just didn't go back to school, get a degree, and try some more.
He couldn't understand two things. One, most families cannot support an unemployed adult student for the time it takes to get a degree. Two, the jaw-dropping one, was he thought that all colleges, everywhere, were free. His 'logic' was that students go to college straight from high school and 'they don't have money' so how else could they afford school? We live in the U.S. and this guy was 27 years old!
We had to tell him that school costs money......
22. Losing The Plot
My ex-best friend became engaged to a guy that we had all been friends with before they started dating. He cheated on her with another woman while deployed. He broke off the engagement, and she lost it. I don't know if she was bipolar before this happened, but she became suicidal and went off the deep end.
She would quit taking her meds and go off on these big rants on Facebook about how they were going to be together forever.
She would take pictures of gifts he had given her and post them over and over again. Her profile picture was always of the two of them YEARS later. But here's the crazier part: By this time, the guy was married to another girl, and they had a few kids. She would go off on these rants, calling out anyone who tried to tell her to move on.
She would post rant after rant after rant, 10, 15, 20 times a day. Followed by more pictures of them together. She knew we were friends on Facebook and she would always ask me to send him messages, which I refused to do.
It got so bad that me and a group of girls who had gone to school with her reconnected, and they called her parents. Her parents said they knew that she was bipolar and not taking her meds, but in so many words told us all that "We got this, you can go away now". A few days after that, she just disappeared from FB. I haven't spoken to her in years... I hope she's okay.
23. My Precious Child
My parents have a 60lb Portuguese Water Dog that keeps biting people, like it's up to five now and they refuse to come to terms with the fact that the dog is dangerous, and they don't have the skill or the discipline to keep it in check. It's actually been really tough on the family because everyone is scared of it, and no one can reason with them.
The worst part is the dog hates children, like he flips out when he sees a kid, and recently bit a five-year-old. I'm so mad at them. They replaced their real children with a dog and instead of treating it like an animal, they act like it's their new kid. I've seriously considered alerting the authorities, but I know it'd tear my family apart... The whole thing is truly terrible.
24. Do You Know Who I Am?!
architectural photography of white aircraftPhoto by Chris Leipelt on UnsplashI was leaving a tropical location that is frequented by celebrities and billionaires on my friend’s brand-new Bombardier Global 6000 when we pull into the loading area and see his flight crew in an all-out brawl with four other people.
Apparently, a well-known celebrity had arrived at the airport early for a chartered flight, and upon finding out it wasn't supposed to arrive for a couple of hours, tried to commander my friend’s plane thinking it was owned by the same charter company.
She had her assistants and security go and try to remove our luggage while she boarded and refused to leave. It took about 30 minutes after our arrival to finally convince her minions that they were breaking the law and they finally stopped their attempted conquest.
The celebrity, however, refused to get off the plane and demanded my friend fly her and her entourage of eight to her destination first and then continue on to ours.
They thought based on her star power that my friend would just bow to her demands. It took another 20 minutes to get the celebrity off his plane.
As our party was trying to board, we were subject to a litany of curses and insults from the celebrity and her toadies because we were "nobodies," and her time was apparently more valuable than ours.
About a week later, my friend who owns the plane received a letter from a very well-known and litigious celebrity lawyer threatening legal action if any mention or videos of the incident wound up in the tabloids.
25. Extreme Views
My dad works in the HVAC industry. He went to go fix a seemingly nice little old lady's air conditioning a few weeks ago. She fed him homemade cookies, told him stories of her grandkids, and was overall a really nice lady. Until she started talking about current events.
"Oh, can you make sure the unit is secure? I don't want the blacks to steal it, they've been so rowdy lately”. My dad just said, "Uhh, no one is going to move the unit, ma'am, it's safe,” to which she replied, "Oh, don't underestimate, they managed to get one into the White House! You know that man steals from the house all the time? I saw him selling his own desk on Craigslist!"
Of course, my dad just let her talk, and she rambled along those lines for a while. Then, when he was finished, she thanked him, and as he left in a hurry, she said, "Make sure to pay the Jew tax! They say it's the PST (provincial sales tax), but it's not!"
Just waaaaaay out there.
26. The Middle Of The Party
I was at a New Year’s Eve rave. It was nothing too crazy, but this dude is enjoying his depth and focus complications, clearly out there, then he starts chasing the laser patterns; still pretty normal, all things considered. But then, he goes from chasing the lasers on the table, to the floor.
As he's getting up, he does the most peculiar thing—he begins rubbing my belly. He doesn't see my face, but I can see the telltale signs that he is flipping out about how soft and warm this wall is, totally out of reality. Then he looks up and we make eye contact.
I swear it was five seconds of just eye contact, until he smiles, peace signs, and backs off. It was the moment of eye contact when I realized he actually thought he was touching a wall!
27. Starting The Dream Job
man in green jacket and blue denim jeans sitting on train rail during daytimePhoto by Tharoushan Kandarajah on UnsplashI'm an expat living in Sri Lanka. Love the country, love the people... But some of them can play fast and loose with 'legality' though, which tends to happen in developing countries. Anyways, I have a guy that runs a food stall at the end of my road. Decent guy, and very well spoken... Something always seemed off though.
I finally discovered one day when chatting with him that he believes all Westerners have chips implanted in their brains that make them be controlled by the government and spy on the rest of the world.
The next time I saw him, he told me he was shutting down his food stall. He told me with a straight face that he had been thinking of business ideas. "What one job is guaranteed good money?" he asks. Without waiting for a response, he says "Doctors!"
So, he decided that he'd open a doctor's surgery and charge half the going rate for a doctor visit—despite having no medical training—because it paid better than a food stall owner.
Not only that, the guy actually did it. Within a week, his shop had a big red medical cross on it, and he was seeing very poor patients, diagnosing them with God knows what, and prescribing medicine on a random piece of paper. He was genuinely shocked after a couple of weeks when he was shut down.
28. I’m A Star!
A friend of mine met this girl while doing a play. She was tall, blonde, and almost attractive. She was one of those girls who was obsessed with being hot but just wasn't quite there. Something was off about her face. She was also set on becoming the next big actor or model and convinced that she had what it takes.
She did this unaired, never-released reality show about a swimsuit competition supposedly for the sexiest women in the world, but it was honestly a bunch of fairly average girls all with the same complex.
But because of that show that nobody has seen, she considers herself a D-list celebrity. She goes to events and takes pics with celebrities to then post and say she was hanging out with them.
She "endorses" products on her Instagram, on which she bought 90% of her 5,000 or so followers. The robots that follow her comment on her pictures with one-word comments all the time, like "sweet!" or "nice!"
She takes a million selfies, and also sometimes takes selfie videos where she addresses her "fans”. One, in particular, stands out where she told her fans she was having a contest to win a hoverboard… She also fancies herself a singer, although she is terrible, and releases videos of her singing into the camera out of key.
She released a single on iTunes that sounds nothing like her because it is autotuned, and it still manages to sound like two goats arguing.
She's also a writer—a term used loosely of course. She wrote an autobiography that she published on Amazon that you can buy for thirty dollars. She also quotes herself on her Instagram in those quote pictures things that girls like.
She even gives herself credit on IMDB for movies and things that she wasn't in, or she was just an extra in so that it looks like she's succeeding. It's like a car crash and I've never meant that more. She is the most delusional person I've ever met. I didn't believe my friend before I met her, and it's amazing.
29. What Am I Doing Wrong…?
I was in high school, I'd say probably about 12 years ago, in the weight room for my gym class. This one kid was quite muscular and not overweight but had the cardio of a walrus. After getting a miserable time on his mile run, I told him it might help if he cut down on his pack a day of smokes.
He had legitimately never even realized that it would not be good for his lungs or cardio, and I was apparently the first to make him realize it despite his being a junior or senior in high school. We all had mandatory health class to teach these things!
30. But I Don’t Get It
white and brown star on brown tree branchPhoto by David Holifield on UnsplashThis past semester, I was studying abroad, and I met people from all over the US. I met two different people, both from Virginia, and they were the nicest people. However, when I told them I was Jewish, they were completely dumbfounded.
They never met a Jew before, let alone be friends with one... I thought, "How strange," but I figured she lived in an extremely rural part of Virginia and goes to school in the South, so Jews are a rarity down there.
I also guessed that she probably has met a Jew before, but never really took note of it or didn't know, because it's not like we identify our religion every time we meet someone new. The most out-of-touch thing I heard in my life came from one of these girls.
I say, "I can't believe none of your friends are Jewish!" "I know! So do you celebrate Christmas?" I tell her, "Nope! I mean, I know some Jews do both holidays, but my family strictly follows Jewish holidays. No Easter, no Lent, etc”. She says again, "So you've never celebrated Christmas?"
"Don't get me wrong,” I say, “I love Christmas time; it's one of the jolliest times of the year. My ex celebrated Christmas and I 'celebrated' with them, but it's not like I go to mass or have a tree”.
She asks again, "So you don't celebrate it?" I say, "Not in my house, nope!" She continues asking me, "But it's Christmas, why don't you celebrate it?" I explain that "Well, Jews don't really believe in the whole ‘Jesus was the Messiah’ sort of thing”. I thought it'd end there...but things just continued to spiral.
She asks again, "But like, you don't celebrate Christmas?" And I say again, "Not in my house!" She continues, "So there's no tree in your house, you don't go to mass?"
...I swear to God, these questions persisted for a solid 10 minutes. I distinctly remember because we were standing outside the Tower of London, and I just thought it was a strange conversation.
I'm more than happy to answer questions about Judaism, what we believe in ,and why it's different, but it just felt like she couldn't wrap her head around this concept that I didn't celebrate Christmas.
Like, it was literally impossible for her to understand that Christmas is just a holiday celebrated everywhere except my house.
31. What Hard Work Gets
I grew up in Silicon Valley. In high school, kids were getting Audis, new Jeeps, "Dad's old bimmer,” etc. I mowed lawns, split firewood, worked six days a week at the hardware store, and saved up so that I could buy a truck when I was 16.
When I finally bought it, my buddies literally didn't believe that I bought it on my own and surely my father must have contributed.
It was only around $5k, but I seriously think that I was the only kid that I knew who bought his own vehicle. I drove by my old high school the other day and saw two Teslas and a few Range Rovers in the student lot.
32. Any Last Words?
My sister freaked out because my parents decided to make their will. She cried and screamed about how they were "ready to die for us" now. Didn't help that my dad has just retired and money's a little tighter than before.
But if I'm correct, I do believe most Americans make their wills when they get married, get a house, and have kids. It's generally not recommended to make your will later in life, but it's possible.
My parents are in their sixties. I'm 22. My sister is 25. I finally had to call my mom to ask her to explain the meaning of a will to my sister.
33. The Super Spoiled
woman wearing gray scoop-neck long-sleeved shirt smilingPhoto by June O on UnsplashI've known a few "Daddy's lil’ girls" in my lifetime that had credit cards that their dad paid. To them, it was free money. They could spend as much as they wanted and never saw a bill because it went straight to dad, and he paid it.
I could see them getting older and through being coddled all their life and having everything from vehicle registration and insurance to electricity bills handled for them thinking all this stuff is free and easy, and never realizing it's because someone was basically doing it all for you.
Some of these girls’ parents lost a lot in the 2008 market crash, and they couldn't comprehend at 26-30 that suddenly they had to do things themselves. The lucky ones married rich, but I know a couple of them that still live with their parents approaching 30 because they just can't function in the real world.
It's sad, but even sadder seeing them on Facebook, still taking multiple vacations a year, posting pics of their expensive shoes and purses and fruity drinks at the bar, and knowing they can only afford this stuff because they don't have any family, mortgage, car note, or responsibility, but only have a semi-decent job as a secretary somewhere.
34. To Believe Or Not To Believe
I love it when I get shamed for using a wheelchair when I can walk. Like, yes, I still have function of my legs, but I'm in immeasurable amounts of pain after using the for too long, even just to stand still! If people ask questions because they're trying to learn, that's fine by me! I know not everyone understands this type of stuff and I don't expect them to!
But heed my warning—Don't stare at me all high and mighty and judge what you think is happening. There's also "it's all in your head". Yes, Lucinda, my mental illnesses may be there, but my body physically not working is not psychosomatic! Also, I had a "friend" one time look me right in the eye and tell me he doesn't believe I'm sick. Like, okay, thanks for being a pal, dude.
35. Please Understand
My fiancé is a doctor, I'm an engineer here and I grew up very blue collar. We still have tons of student debt to pay off before we can reap the benefits of a good salary. Her friend, a doctor who was a resident when she was in med school, was talking to us about the new house she bought, and kept asking us when we planned on moving out of our awful apartment and getting a nice big townhouse.
She couldn't comprehend that unlike her, our parents aren't rich, and they can't buy a house for us in cash, and let us pay them back interest-free. I love her to death, and she's a sweet friend we have known for a long time. She has done so much for us in terms of friendship and emotional support.
But her mom was a successful surgeon, and her dad retired early after selling his successful business.
36. You’re Just Like Me!
man in green black and yellow floral button up shirtPhoto by Taylor Deas-Melesh on UnsplashI studied German in college with a guy who I thought was an alright dude when, one day, while out having some drinks with others in the department, he very seriously started talking about how the best way to get rid of race problems in the US was to partition the nation and separate all the races.
He kept saying stupid stuff like “It won’t be a big deal; it'll be perfectly equal” (ugh). I couldn't believe it when some others around were starting to agree with him as well. I felt like I was in some weird Twilight Zone episode.
The guy thought he was so intelligent and insightful. I never spoke to him again after that, and later found out from a female friend of mine who had gone on a date with him that he had a portrait of Adolf Hitler above his bed.
I'm a big, Swedish-looking guy, so I think he thought I was going to be with him on that. I was not.
37. A True Scientist
There once was an Evangelist that came to preach at my university in the quad. He said he had a bachelor’s degree in computer science and spent 'many years' doing 'Postgraduate study' and therefore was the most qualified to talk about all things science.
He claimed that, with Einstein's E=MC2 equation, Einstein proved that the speed of light changed over time and also that energy produced by the sun and starlight was converted to mass upon hitting the earth.
Therefore, when the speed of light gets faster or slower, the Earth gets larger or smaller respectively. And that's what makes it 'appear' that Plate Tectonics exist.
And when the earth last got smaller that was when Noah's flood occurred. He claimed to have written papers about it that had been published in 'major scientific journals'.
When we asked what journals they were, he said we were too stupid to understand them. When we asked where he got his degree, he claimed that he was too important to have to explain it to university students. When we asked who peer-reviewed his papers, he claimed that God himself did. I don't think you can get much more out of touch with reality than that.
38. The Twilight Zone
I had a friend all throughout high school and some time in college. She was a swimming champion in the making, breaking records left and right. She hurt her foot in some way, keeping her permanently out of the swimming game during her sophomore year of HS. She shortly after got "bit," by a vampire and is to this day convinced that she is a vampire.
I asked her in college to prove it—run fast, sparkle, actually suck another human's blood, turn into a bat, anything—and her uncalled-for response made me shake my head. She blocked me from social media, though I heard through the grapevine that she joined a real-life vampire group and manages a public blog about being a vampire. Shortly after I started talking about it, she texted me and demanded I clarify she's now a Pixie, no longer a vampire because she's part Native American.
39. Jamaican Ploy
woman in black and white striped long sleeve shirtPhoto by Julien L on UnsplashMy mom was scammed by Jamaican scammers. My sister and I had an impromptu intervention after my mom had my dad locked up. My dad found out she had given them thousands in exchange for winning their lottery. He then realized why she had $5000 in cash in her dresser.
She tried blocking the bedroom door from him and the money. When he pushed past her into the bedroom, she called the authorities, and he got taken in.
The next day, my sister and I went over. The scammers would call their house every 10 minutes. She would beg the scammers to give her the money because no one believed her. She was absolutely convinced it was real.
She got so angry with us because we didn’t believe her and because we would get on the phone and yell at the scammers.
She was bent on sending the scammers more money. It was like she was an addict. She had managed to send them $1500 more before we had gotten there. We ended up taking the $3500 that was left, her keys, purse, and phones.
We left someone with her to watch her until we were able to cut off access to bank accounts and my dad was released.
40. Pulling His Weight
My stepfather constantly complains that "Nobody pulls their weight around here, people need to learn responsibility!" Or, well, that's the gist of what he says. He tells us we need to get "real jobs" even though I work as a computer programmer and my brother, a teen, has his first job at a food service store and has future plans.
Problem is, my stepfather's unemployed. The last job he had was as a minimum-wage dishwasher. He got fired nearly two years ago because he kept showing up slammed. His claim to fame is doing the dishes at the house a few times a week, and based on conversations I've overheard, he threw out some old vegetable soup, which he talks about weeks later as if he moved the Earth to do it.
I had to lend my mom and brother a good amount to cover their rent when my brother made the mistake of giving his portion to my stepdad, who subsequently went out the next day and bought a load of drinks.
41. Complete Addiction
I've got a buddy who probably has a video game addiction and has had it for most of his life. We are both mid to late 20s now. His game of choice for the past few years has been DOTA 2. The championships for this game, if you are unaware, host the largest e-sports prize pools in history (7 figures). This guy thinks he has a chance to make it and compete as a pro.
The chances of that happening for anyone are incredibly slim. But the part of this, is he is only ranked in the top 70%-ish of people on the entire online ladder ranking system. On top of that, he only plays one of the 150+ heroes.
Apparently, you absolutely need to be able to play at least most of them efficiently since you can't play the same one every game. He is giving up his life basically to try this. He acts irrationally towards his friends who question his ability or goals and slowly but surely is alienating himself.
He takes no responsibility for this trend and blames other people for it. He has put off school for a time to play DOTA; he had one semester left until graduating and deferred, I'd be surprised if he actually finishes it. He hardly ever works, only barely enough to pay his tiny bit of rent split between four other roommates.
It's an unbelievable situation.
42. My Birthday Battle
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Review! | Oh man, it's f… | Flickrwww.flickr.com
It was the opening night of Batman v. Superman, before anyone knew how bad it was, and my friends and I decided to celebrate my birthday and get advance IMAX tickets. We reserved our seats, and they were decent seats, and we got into the theater with our popcorn and drinks and firmly sat in our seats.
There was still some time before the movie started, so we started talking. Then a woman with a little boy interrupted our conversation to talk to me. Sensing her tone, I could already tell things were going to get a little tense.
"Excuse me, can you swap seats with my son? He's only six and doesn't like sticking his head up far”. Now, I bought these tickets two weeks in advance, and this was for my birthday, so I looked her and her son right in the eye and said "No”. The woman got mad and told me I'm selfish and entitled.
I told her "I reserved these seats two weeks ago. It's my birthday. And just because he's six does not entitle him to my reserved seats”.
I saw her complaining to the usher and pointing at me five minutes later. The usher just shrugged.
43. Missed Opportunities
Me and three flatmates started working on a game together during our second year of university. What was originally just for an end-of-year project started to gain a huge amount of momentum, at least for a student game.
We entered an international student games competition and were one of the three winning teams from across the entire world. The three winning teams were nominated for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) Games award.
We showed the game at the Leftfield Collection at EGX, a UK game convention that had 80,000 attendees that year. We were one of 20 submissions accepted, narrowed down from over 200. PC Gamer, a magazine I used to pretend to be able to read when I snuck into my brother's room as a kid, previewed our game.
Our game was a page away from a preview of XCOM 2. Seeing our game talked about in print—and next to a franchise I revered—was crazy.
We had interest from several publishers, but one that stood out asked us over Skype how much we wanted. As in, they just asked how much money we needed to make the game into a finished product.
They didn't set us a time frame, or request any control over the product. They just asked us: "How much do you want?" All the time and risk I had put into this project seemed like it was going to come back tenfold.
It was going to fast-track us all to the careers we wanted. We could set up our studio. Our own funded studio. All the contacts we had made since the beginning of the project told us that university didn't matter—not for games. If you can make and finish a game, do it. It's more valuable than any piece of paper you can get from your classes.
So, what did we do? We stopped making the game. My team no longer "found it fun" to work on the game. The rest of the team set it aside so they could "focus on their projects".
For an entire year I've, had to live with the same people, each day trying to forget, or in any way move on from what we threw away. About a month ago me and one of the team members were outside a pub for a friend's birthday. We hadn't talked in a while.
He said to me, "it was just a student project. That's all it was ever meant to be".
44. Right In The Face
When I was on vacation in Aruba, I saw this group of little kids throwing around a football and one of the kids ended up hitting a man in the face with the football. The kid ran over to go to retrieve the ball, and started to walk away from the man without saying a word.
The man then utters in response, "Are you not going to apologize? You could've broken my teeth!"
The kid then responded, "My daddy's an orthodontist; if I broke your teeth, he would just fix them," and just walked away.
45. A Sudden Trip
smiling woman in shallow focus photographyPhoto by Edward Cisneros on UnsplashWhen I was still a kid, my now estranged mom used to be one of the most logical and understanding people I knew. When I was just a teenager, it was just the two of us, and we were trying our best to get out of her brother's house and have our own place. We lived on the east coast.
Then one day, out of the blue, my mom came home from work and told me in all seriousness that Jesus had come to her in her thoughts and told her we needed to move to the west coast, and we needed to leave on December 15th of that year.
I wasn't religious, but I had never once judged or expressed doubt about her faith. That wasn't and never will be my place. But this was worth an eyebrow raise—she expected me to throw everything I owned in a storage locker, pack a suitcase, throw my emotional support dog in the hatchback of her SUV, and drive across the country with no money or planning in advance.
I actually went along with this at first, ended up homeless over the course of two years, and actually lost my dog in the turbulence of everything. She always insisted that everything going wrong was my fault and that God wouldn't lie to her. That was several years ago now, and she and I are no longer in contact.
I've since moved north with my best friend and was forced to start my life completely over going into adulthood, and she ended up right back in her brother's house where we started.
46. Isn’t This The Best?
My husband's friend insisted on taking us to the 'best, most authentic' Chinese restaurant in town. I'm Chinese. He's a Jewish guy who has never been to any Chinese-speaking country. The food wasn't good, nor was it authentic. He had the suggest look on his face when he sat back and quirked his eyebrow at me as if expecting me to heap praise onto him. Anyway, I didn't.
The best part is that they aren't friends anymore, so now I don't have to pretend that crab rangoons are the peak of Chinese cuisine.
47. High Art
My ex is a photography major, but his photography is mediocre at best. One day, he angrily rants and rants to me about how the people in his city are so rude. He elaborates and says something along the lines of “I was taking pictures of all these homeless people, and they got so mad at me for no reason!!
I told them I’m a photography major and they just kept yelling at me to delete the pictures and asking why I am taking pictures! Like, ugh, it just looked cool, and they were being so stupid about it!!!”
On top of that, he truly thought that poverty was aesthetic, wanted to “become homeless and train hop,” while in the same breath complaining about the car bought especially for him, or how his study abroad in Japan might get postponed… I hate that guy with a passion, in hindsight.
48. A Baseless Breakdown
brown and white concrete building under blue sky during daytimePhoto by School My Kids on UnsplashMy sister went to a private high school in a very nice area with very rich kids. One day, my sister sees one of her friends crying and quickly runs over to her to ask what is wrong. Her friend, through sobs, manages to say, “Everything is just so unfairrrrrrr, I can't even believe my life!!!” My sister is so concerned because this girl seems on the verge of a breakdown.
After calming her down for a bit, my sister asks again what is bothering the friend, thinking maybe something happened, or her parents are getting divorced...
“Well, you know my birthday is coming up, and so is my sister's... and well, sobbing some more, my parents are getting us both brand new range rovers, and because she is older, she is getting the black one, but I wanted that one!!!” The only thing my sister could do was say, “I am so sorry for you” and walk away.
We still do feel bad for her... She’s so detached.
49. The Smallest Thing
My grandma was out walking her dog and stopped to talk to another lady who was a neighbor. Her dog peed on the edge of the lady’s lawn, and she freaked out and told my grandma she needed to 'pick' up the pee so my grandma just told her she would bring paper towels next time and left.
The lady got so mad she wouldn't talk to my grandparents for weeks, even after being neighbors for about nine years, and said my grandma needed to apologize.
The lady came out one day and told my grandpa that she didn't need his services anymore—he had mowed their lawn every week—and that they were going to pay another guy to do it. They never paid my grandpa; he had been doing it for free for two years.
50. A Real Emergency
I'm a 911 operator and once had a man call 911 because the internet at the hotel he was staying at got disconnected. I told him it was not an emergency issue, and that he would have to talk to the hotel staff and/or just wait for it to reboot. He did NOT like hearing that. He responded, "Not an emergency issue? This is criminal. If I unplugged someone's life support, isn't that a crime?"
Certain locations really damper on a good time.
For instance, it's not fun to do it in cramped spaces.
Looking at you, airplane bathrooms and backseat of cars.
Many cannot be bothered to maneuver in some odd location.
Beds. Beds are sexy.
Always were, always will be.
Redditor sasukelikescarrots wanted to hear about the places we should all avoid when getting it on, so they asked:
"What do you think are some overrated places to have sex?"
Elevators.
One... I'm claustrophobic.
Two... there is not enough time.
Fatal Attraction lied to us y'all.
The Worst
The Beach Summer GIF by Kel CripeGiphy"The beach is the worst."
thotsnprayers68
"I hate sand so much so I agree with you."
Millionsmoney
Let Alone Two
"Airplane bathroom. Too cramped, and smells gross. Keep your Mile High Club pendant."
REUBG58
"I was thinking this too. I am also willing to bet that 99% of people who claim to be in the Mile High Club are lying through their teeth. Seriously, there's barely any space in those lavatories for one person, let alone two, and it's a little hard to get aroused when you're worrying about turbulence and people waiting to use the toilet knocking on the door."
Fresh-Hedgehog1895
Just Why?
"Public toilets... Why would you even..."
Reznik81
"The only reason I can think of is being a kid of an overprotective parent in high school and you want to desperately get it on with your boyfriend. Public restrooms are the only option sometimes. (Experience)."
I-couldbeadog
Too Wet
"The pool and the shower."
GrilledStuffedDragon
"I hate the shower. I think it was a comedian who said, 'I’ve never been having sex and thought you know what would make this better… If one of us was freezing.'"
"I personally like the shower cause my partner likes to be in the water and I like being cold so it works out cause sex gets me pretty warm anywho."
BOOboUraisin23
"The shower is for foreplay, not sex. Pretty much every time we shower together it’s a given that it will lead to sexy time, whether we were planning on it or not/in the mood or not…. intimacy and touching, etc.,?…. we just B-line for the bedroom. But sex IN the shower?… no."
Jibber_Fight
And a Happy Meal?
happy ronald mcdonald GIF by McDonald's CZ/SKGiphy"McDonalds ball pit…"
ami2weird4u
"They have a cleaning machine that can clean all the balls and it's all sanitary. I think that could be a really good time"
copper_basket
Have some decorum people.
I'd go to Burger King.
Check Please
Applebees GIFGiphy"The men's room at Applebee's during Happy Hour on a Tuesday."
Thiccaca
"Oddly specific."
some1sbuddy
Bad Idea
"Car sex."
Shrikeangel
"I spent my teens and early 20s having sex in cars. About a year ago (I'm almost 40) the wife and I are out and in the mood so let's have sex in the car like we used to. Bad idea, how the f**k did we used to have sex all the time back there, now it's uncomfortable and I got a cramp in my leg."
Psyco_diver
"Yes. The handful of times I’ve tried this, it’s always been so cramped and you need to keep repositioning or someone bumps their head. I guess it could be fine if you had one of those huge American tanks, but cars here in Australia never have that much room inside."
StellarSandDweller
Oh Lord
"Churches and graveyards. I've done it in both, and it's not really that great."
filly_fanatic
"Never in my life have I thought either of those locations sounded like a fun place to have sex. I guess if you have a kink for getting caught then it's as good as any because there's this perception of it being sacrosanct, but it just seems at best uncomfortable and at worst going to get me on a registry somewhere.
"hopeishigh
The Waves
"Waterbeds. One of my GF's had one, and I *hated* it. It's impossible to get traction or the proper angle."
disturbednadir
"Good call. There’s nothing to push off of. Nowhere to plant knees either. A true s**t show."
SocialMediaSoooToxic
"I knew there was a reason why I forgot about my waterbed! Thanks for reminding me about that abomination!"
TinyCamp7743
Wow. I mean. Y'all have really gone out and experimented fully.
Congrats.
Sometimes real-life experiences can be just as bone-chilling and inexplicable as a horror movie. From creepy run-ins with strangers to ghost-like haunting encounters in the middle of the night, these Redditors share their terrifying ordeals of wanting to run for their lives. Whatever their story, it's something they'll never forget.
A Narrow Escape
I’m a criminal defense investigator. I had a manslaughter case involving two brothers. The one accused of the manslaughters was very autistic, and his brother was a schizophrenic. The schizophrenic brother lived in a potato shack in the middle of the desert.
I needed to talk to him several times throughout the course of the investigation, and since he didn’t have a phone or electricity, I had to drive several hours out to his house and yell his name from the fence line until he came out of the shack. Weird, right? It gets even worse.
This investigation lasted for several years, and over time I developed a rapport with the schizophrenic brother, and I got to liking him. He would talk your ear off about aliens with golden eyes and the underground tunnels that connect all the Walmarts in the country, but he was pretty entertaining, and part of me wonders how much of it was for "show".
Eventually, the schizophrenic brother got a girlfriend who's not only a tweaker, but also mistook his schizophrenia for narcotic-induced psychosis. When she was in prison, I talked to her a few times when she wasn't intoxicated, and she was surprisingly charming and insightful. But things took a horrifying turn when she got out.
The last time I went to see the schizophrenic brother, it was a dark winter night. His tweaker girlfriend was there. She was lurking in the shadows and stared daggers at me the entire time I was talking to him. After our meeting, I started walking back to my truck to leave.
A minute later, he came running out and told me that he wanted to show me something in his shack. He had never invited me inside there before, and I was not thrilled by the prospect. The whole thing felt off to me, so I told him I had to get going, and started the truck.
The look of relief on his face when I declined to go inside convinced me that his girlfriend was waiting behind the door with a hammer or something. A few months later, I learned that she had shot him in his sleep and stashed his body in an old refrigerator. She had since plead guilty to manslaughter.
A Burning Realization
My partner and I were fighting a house fire. After realizing that our feet—through concrete-soled boots—became really hot, we decked the heck out of there.
Hot feet means that you’re standing above a fire. As fire burns upward, it weakens the floor beneath you. So we were about to plummet into a basement fire.
A Hair-Raising Moment
I was hiking with some buddies near the top of a mountain in Colorado. Suddenly, some bad weather started to roll in. But we were only 15 minutes away from the summit, so I went ahead while the others went back down.
As I was just about to reach the top, I felt static in the air and the hair on my head started to stand up. I immediately started to panic because I thought I was about to get struck by lightning. Naturally, I started to run down the mountain without ever getting to the top. I’m not sure if I was going to get struck but I sure as heck wasn’t sticking around to find out.
One Step Away From Disaster
While exploring an abandoned high rise with my friend, he suddenly grabs me from behind by the collar. After swearing at him, "What the bejeezus"?! he then ordered me to look down and I saw that I was about to step into an elevator shaft. The drop was about 20 floors to a concrete bottom with broken metal rods sticking out. We then went home. He saved my life that day.
Gruesome Discovery
person sitting near bonfire surrounded by treesPhoto by Jonathan Forage on UnsplashI was solo camping in the woods during a phase where I wanted to be a survival expert. I hiked out, miles away from any roads or buildings, built a shelter and then hiked back the way I came.
Less than a mile away from my camp, I found something utterly terrifying. It was a slaughtered coyote, decapitated, gutted, and laid out like a sacrifice or something. The eyes were gouged out and it was strung across a big, flat rock—a rock which I used as a marker on the way in, so I knew it hadn't been there a day before.
I ran out of there as fast as I could, probably 10 miles back to my house. I still have no idea who would have done that, but I knew I didn't want to run into them in the woods alone.
Too Close For Comfort
My wife and I were camping on the Oregon coast and jogged through a guy's campsite that he'd set up on the trail down to the beach. On the way back to our campsite, I jogged a little bit ahead of my wife and she was really upset that I didn't stay with her. She said the guy looked really creepy.
We got back to Eugene and got a call from the state law enforcement officer asking if we saw anything strange (we were registered with the campground so they had our contact details). We gave an update of the guy camping above the beach and asked why they were calling us. They said someone had drowned an off duty female officer in a tidal pool, cut their tent lines, and took her car.
It turned out to be a homicidal maniac who'd been slaughtering people while traveling across the country. They caught him in southern California a few weeks later.
We definitely got the "dodged a bullet" feeling.
This Isn't A Drill
There was a lockdown at my school that wasn't a drill. It ended up being a false alarm since the guy who was armed never ran into the school, just running in proximity to the school.
But it sure was scary and I think what made it scarier was knowing that you couldn't escape. You couldn't leave without the risk of getting shot. You just had to stay in the classroom and pray that the shooter was dumb enough to believe that the room was empty after the teacher turned off the lights and closed the blinds.
You literally had nowhere to go or to hide.
Playing With Fire
One night, I was walking home from work, along a busy street. A man drove up beside me and told me that he was a firefighter. He said that a storm was approaching and I should get into his car. I said, "No, thanks" and kept walking. He kept insisting. Finally, I was about to walk past a hotel but he pulled partway into the hotel parking lot, enough to block my path.
Thankfully, the hotel guard saw how uncomfortable I looked. As soon as the hotel guard took a step towards us, the guy peeled out and sped away. That just confirmed that he was not a firefighter and I would have been in danger had I gone with him. Scary.
A Barking Mad Encounter
As a trucker, I've learned to find some creative ways to park. One night, I was at some random back road in the middle of nowhere in Texas. I found what I call a 'make-a-spot' area. I was alone with my dog. I decided to park for a 30 minute break.
When my dog got out to relieve herself, I realized that trouble was heading our way. My dog started getting really agitated—growling and snarling. I saw that off in the field next to my truck, there was a red light about six to eight feet in the air. And it was moving around very slowly.
It was deathly silent except for my dog who was barking maniacally. As the light got closer, she went totally ballistic. So I decided that I had seen enough and headed back to the truck. At this time, we were about 20 feet away from the trailer.
When we reached the truck, I heard a large crash coming from the brush. My dog became even more difficult to control and my adrenaline told me to run!
I opened the passenger door, tossed my dog into the truck, climbed in, and just when I slammed the door shut, something crashed into my truck. I have no idea what it was, but it made the whole trailer rock side to side.
I drove away as fast as I could without even putting my seat belt on. I drove for about 30 miles and only when I reached a gas station in a small town did I feel like I exhaled.
A few days later, I was walking up to my truck and noticed that the entire side of the sleeper of the truck was bent a little inwards. You could only see it when the sun hit the side at a particular angle, but the bend was definitely there.
A Sight To Remember
Insomnia | Alyssa L. Miller | Flickrwww.flickr.com
When I was a teenager, I was woken up in the middle of the night by some chaos going on in my house. I came out of my room and was shocked by what I saw. There was my dad, tearing through the house wearing nothing but his Red Wings jersey. He was holding his semi-automatic and headed towards the front door.
My mom swept me out of the way and locked us in my sister's room. Apparently, someone tried to break into my window but didn't realize that my parents' window was right beside mine. My dad woke up, grabbed his piece, and chased the dude down the street.
He was completely unclothed, running with a weapon at 3 am. He was screaming, "I'm going to find you, you schmuck"! I'm pretty sure every neighbor called emergency by that time.
Eventually, law enforcement officers came, with their helicopter–the whole nine yards. What they told us chilled me to the bone. It turns out the dude was a wanted felon. He had stood outside my window long enough to have puffed half a pack of smokes. The only reason he didn’t get into the house was because we had storm windows.
That's what he was trying to pry off when my dad woke up. They did eventually find him hiding in a neighbor's shed. At the time all this happened, my dad was in his 30s and was 6'2". He was a construction worker with a shaved head and a goatee. He was very menacing looking when he wanted to be.
Thank god no one had security cameras at the time because the image of this angry, unclothed man, running down the middle of the road in work boots, already kept the neighbors' tongues wagging for MONTHS. This happened in the mid 90s.
Preying On Fear
My wife and I were on a search mission for some missing fern pickers. We were volunteers with the local search and rescue team. We decided to stay in the search area that night and had built a pretty nice fire. It was about 2 am and we were sitting there hoping the missing folks would wander into camp.
I heard animals around us throughout the night. No surprises there as we were in the middle of the woods. I was used to animals stalking around outside my camp. I knew there were two animals, one on either side of us. It was at about that point when we heard a bird-sounding chirp. It came from about the same area I figured one of the animals were. Then I heard another, from the opposite side.
I immediately realized we were being watched and stalked by at least two cougars. We quickly climbed into the back of my truck. It had a camper shell and was outfitted for truck camping.
Heart-Stopping Moment
My father-in-law suffered a heart attack on my back deck while we were working on something together. My wife and kids were out at the time. It was just the two of us and he actually passed in my arms.
I was talking to the emergency operator and could hear the sirens approaching. I also knew that my wife and kids would be returning home shortly and I would have to explain to them what had happened while they were gone.
I continued doing CPR on him but he hadn't taken a breath in two minutes and had no discernible pulse. I still can't believe what happened next.
Seconds later, he takes a massive breath and comes back to life. The ambulance arrived and rushed him to the hospital. He miraculously made a full recovery.
Those two minutes where I was certain he was gone and I'd have to deal with my wife and kids arriving and seeing it...absolutely chilled me to the bone.
Face Of Fear
Back when I was in college, I used to drive up the Oregon coast on the weekends. When I got tired, I would just sleep in my car. During one of these trips, I woke up from a nap while sleeping in the driver's seat. Something just didn't feel quite right.
It was just dusk and the light was fading pretty quickly. I yawned and stretched, and as I turned my head to the side, I caught a face ducking down below the rear passenger window. I hit the lock button just to make sure that the doors were locked but in my panic I accidentally unlocked the doors briefly.
I scrambled around and managed to lock them again. I stared at the window for a few minutes, knowing that someone was crouching just out of sight. Eventually, when I started the car, I thought I heard a scuffing sound. Whoever it was didn't reappear, but that was enough for me.
I cleared out of there as fast as I could, pulling back onto Highway 101. When I glanced back, I saw a bald figure in a red t-shirt with something wrapped around his face. He booked it into the woods from the side of the road.
That was the end of that weekend trip. I drove the two hours back to my dorm room with white-knuckled hands locked on the steering wheel. I had to pull over a few miles down the road to deal with the adrenaline shakes.
Bone-Chilling Finds
I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains, on a trail I knew pretty well. I was leading a group of 20 or so middle school-aged kids from the camp where I worked. As I turned a corner on the trail, I saw a jaw bone belonging to a deer.
It was pretty cool, so I showed it to the kids. There wasn't any flesh on it, so I assumed it was pretty old. A hundred feet further down the trail, I found another, a femur maybe. This one looked a little fresher. Further down again, I found yet another bone.
At this point, I was getting a little nervous, so I explained to the kids that we should probably turn around and head back. My students all groaned because they wanted to see more interesting stuff, but I herded them down the trail and back to camp.
Two days later, we got a call at the camp that someone had been mauled in the area by a mountain lion. Apparently, a mountain lion had set itself up in the caves on the cliffside and had gotten angry when someone got too close.
I'm glad we left the area when we did, even if my students would have loved to have seen more slaughtered stuff.
Deal Gone Wrong
man driving a car wearing wrist watchPhoto by why kei on UnsplashOne night, a couple of years back, I was driving an Uber and had just picked up four guys from a club. As I was listening to them talk, I realized that two of the guys had met the other two at the club and were on their way to get coke from one of their cousins.
There was an odd vibe and some of the conversation didn't seem to make any sense, but I was hyper aware that these intoxicated dumbasses were heading with two strangers to a drug deal—and I was the one driving them to it!
I did not want narcotics in my car, and I was very aware that we might be on the way to an ambush. If we started heading anywhere remote or sketchy I had to figure out how to end the ride.
The two wannabe dealers kept trying to get in touch with their cousin via cellphone. I dropped them off at an apartment just off a main street. After both of them left the car to go into the building, I just said to the two other guys, "Should we leave", and we did.
I still don't know if it was just a ploy for a free ride, or if the "dealers" were too inebriated or dumb to pull off a basic coke deal, or if it was something nefarious that didn't finish. I shall never know.
Close Your Eyes
It was July 27, 2002. I was at the Sknyliv air show with my dad. I had just turned five years old the day before. It’s one of my most vivid memories from my childhood—and the worst memory of my life.
When disaster struck, the pilot managed to land 10 meters away from me and my dad. He was on his knees, his parachute dangling in the wind and I remember him repeating, "What have I done"? over and over. I didn’t understand much of what happened. My dad only said for me to "Close your eyes, we have to go".
Years later, my dad told me that we would have gone further into the crowd but I refused because my shoelaces were untied. Him kneeling to tie my shoes was the only thing that saved us.
It wasn’t bone-chilling at the time but when I imagine what my dad witnessed that day, I get goosebumps.
Time To Move
I was 27-years old and dating a girl who lived in a crappy part of Hollywood, Florida with her young kid. The dad ended up going to prison for assault. The place she could afford was totally run down, with all sorts of addicts and strange folks living in the units around her.
She hated the place but she couldn't move in with me because I was just renting a room where I lived. It was still better than living with her parents. After my shift ended at 9 pm, I picked up some food then went to her apartment. I had no idea I was walking into my worst nightmare.
We were there for about an hour, just sitting on the couch watching her kid playing with a box when the banging started on the door. She looked terrified and thought it was her ex. I was freaked out too, because of all the stories I had heard about him.
The guy started cursing and hitting something against the door—hard. We didn't even want to look out the window or through the peephole in case he was armed. We called emergency but the operator was having a tough time hearing us.
Then we heard another woman screaming and cursing. He had the wrong door. We heard them start fighting, then things smashing, and more screaming. It sounded like she was spitting and we heard punches. We weren't sure who was getting hurt but it was loud.
The emergency operator finally told us that help was on the way, but this horror show was far from over. My girlfriend's kid got scared and started screaming. That's when the man outside started banging on the door again. He thought his kid was with us and shouted that he was going to hurt us for taking his kid.
My girlfriend completely broke down at this point and started crying. About 10 minutes later, law enforcement officers arrived. They apprehended both the man and woman and took our statements.
My girlfriend moved out a of couple days later and we ended up renting another crappy apartment but in a much better area.
Close Encounter Of The Strangest Kind
When I was eight years old, I lived in a trailer park. Most of my neighbors were fine but there were some sketchy folks around.
One day, I was really bored and asked my parents if I could walk up the street to my friend's house. He didn't live very far away but his house was still out of sight of my parents's trailer. Since it was the middle of the day, and we knew a lot of people on our street, my parents said yes.
So here I am, an eight-year-old little girl walking alone to my friend's house. Just as I got out of sight, I saw a strange man walking towards me straight ahead. I immediately became guarded because I was alone and also had never seen this dude before.
I kept hoping he would veer off somewhere away from me but instead, he kept coming towards me. I noticed his eyes were locked on me and he was smiling. I got the creeps but I was pretty close to my friend's house by now. That's when I made a bone-chilling realization.
I looked around and saw that nobody else was outside to witness if anything were to happen.
When he finally got close enough to me, he said, "Hey, do you think you could take your shoes off? Please, I want to see your feet". And I said, "Huh? What"? So he asked again to see my feet!!! That's when I turned around and sprinted as fast as I could back to my trailer. I was terrified.
Dangerous Rendezvous
When I was about four years old, I was playing alone in my front yard. My parents were both inside the house keeping an eye on me, but you couldn't see them watching me from the outside. We lived in a very rural area where maybe five cars would drive by a day.
I remember a man pulling up in front of our house where I was playing. He rolled down his car window to call me over. Even at that age, I knew I wasn’t supposed to get too close to this guy.
I took a few steps forward and he said, "Hey, can you tell me how to get to such and such place"? I’m FOUR. So I’m like, "Huh"? And he repeated himself, "I was just wondering if you could give me directions to this place".
The next thing I know, my dad storms out of the front door asking what on earth this dude wanted. The man mumbled something about needing directions and sped away.
Tracks With Eyes
railroad surrounded by trees at daytimePhoto by Tom Barrett on UnsplashMy friend and I were walking on some train tracks while talking about mundane stuff. There were ditches on either side of the tracks. As we were walking, I glanced down and made eye contact with a guy who immediately started climbing up from the ditch, towards us.
I told her to run and we both got the heck out of there. We decided that we weren't going to do that again.
Vibes Don't Lie
My family and I were recently traveling all over Costa Rica. We love nature but we fear and respect it at the same time. We knew that there were crocodiles on the west side in Bahia Ballena. By talking to the locals, wherever we traveled, we learned of the dangers in the areas. Often, it was snakes we needed to be concerned with.
That day, we went to the east Caribbean side to Playa Negra. We unloaded our things on the beach near a ravine. I kept looking at the ravine and had a very unsettling feeling. I knew that crocodiles can look like logs and remain still until they are under attack. I kept staring but couldn't see anything.
For whatever reason, I just couldn't get myself to relax. I told my husband and we both became hyper aware. I checked the internet to see if there were any crocodiles in the area. The search results said that none had been spotted in nearly 10 years.
I then went on my Facebook group and everyone said not to worry about anything and that only in extreme drought do crocodiles show up in this place. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't calm down. We have a toddler so I was extremely cautious and nervous.
Finally, I apologized to my family about ruining their beach day but told them we couldn't stay. We ended up leaving and decided to do another activity. Two days later, we discovered why I'd been so afraid—and it was tragic.
We were at a restaurant and it was all over the news. A little kid about eight years old was seriously injured by a crocodile at the same area where I had those strange feelings. I almost passed out. I couldn't tell you if it was the exact spot since it was a rather large beach.
But it didn't matter. It could've been my family. I'm not easily frightened by things but when my vibes and intuition tell me to listen up, I don't try to rationalize it. I just listen. My husband totally trusted me and didn't complain, which makes me so happy. He's just such a good man.
Always listen to your gut even if you can't completely logically back up your reasons.
We Aren't Alone
About eight years ago, a friend and I were exploring an abandoned factory in North Philadelphia. When we got to about the third floor, I discovered a booby trap in the stairwell. It was a tripwire that swung an axe down from the ceiling.
Suddenly, we heard someone from up above shout, "YO"!
Time to go.
I've never covered as much ground so quickly as I did that day. I think we got two or three blocks away before we realized that we were riding each other's bikes.
Did You See That?
My mom's best friend owns a farm about a half hour from where I grew up. We would spend nearly every weekend there to help with the upkeep and to care for our horses.
As the sun was setting this one day, you could just feel the weather changing. The clouds were rolling in, the wind, the humidity, and the greenish tint outside all indicated that a storm was brewing.
Right after supper, it started to rain really hard. There was lots of wind and lightening, too. As I looked out the window, I thought I saw something strange above the barn on the far side of the yard. I was petrified. It looked like rotation in the clouds—and it started to lower down.
I pointed this out to my dad. He said that it was just rain bouncing off the roof of the barn. We both looked out for a moment and clearly saw it suck back up into the clouds. I got goosebumps. We looked at each other for a second in disbelief, then he shrugged, and went back into the living room. Meanwhile, I sheltered in the bathroom.
The next day, we saw in the news that an F-4 tornado ripped through a small town about 24 miles from where we were. I got chills when I saw the news reports.
Hissing Galore
We were tearing down an old outbuilding/office on my in-law's farm. While trying to save as much of the lumber as we could to reuse for a chicken coop, we pulled a large piece of plywood off one of the walls and discovered that the insulation was crawling with hundreds of snakes. These snakes immediately started slithering out of the wall towards us in a writhing horde.
We had seen rattlesnakes on the property before so I didn't wait a second longer. Never in my life had I moved as quickly as I did at that moment. I pretty much teleported into the back of my father-in-law's pickup. One minute I was standing in the way of hundreds of agitated snakes and the next, I was wondering if I could fit through the little rear window of a Ford F150.
Chills In The Night
man riding on white horse during daytimePhoto by Taylor Brandon on UnsplashI work as a private contractor and was working an overnight security gig in the middle of a large ranch near the border of South Texas.
My partner and I had been patrolling for hours without anything happening. We stopped for a few minutes to talk to each other when suddenly, we heard some cracking in the brush. Then we saw something that made our blood run cold.
There was an infrared light moving through the brush, freeze, then vanish. Obviously, we couldn't leave the job site, so we sat in painful silence for hours with rifles on the brush line. We never saw or heard anything else. It sent chills throughout our bodies.
Theoretically, no one else should have been running equipment like that in our area, and yet—here we were all huddled up.
Run For Your Life
I was 10 years old and living on Main Street in a small town. There were just a long row of shops on either side of the road. It was midday and I was only two blocks away from home.
An old red pick up with a 20-year old driver, and four other 20-year-olds drove by. They gestured over to me, but before I could respond, all four men hopped out at once, and darted for me. I had a 30 foot head start, and sprinted for my life.
I ran until I found a small crack, about 7 inches wide, between two buildings. I managed to squeeze in between the buildings just as the men caught up to me. One of them reached into the crack and touched my shirt but he couldn't get a good grasp of me. They were all too big to fit in the crack so they went around to the other side to get me.
By then, I had broken the line of sight and sprinted to a nearby place to hide. I stayed in a bush for over an hour—terrified. I don’t know what they wanted from me, and I’m glad I didn’t have to find out. I never felt safe again, and always thought they would come to my home to get me.
Beastly Encounter
My best friend and I were heading down a mountain after hiking about 20 km from scouting bighorn sheep. It was a couple of days before opening day of hunting season. We were hiking along the bank of a dried up riverbed and heading back to the truck when his dog suddenly stopped cold in his tracks.
We thought he had just heard a squirrel or some other little animal, so we ignored it and kept walking.
All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, a black bear got to about 25 feet from us and BOLTED off into the bush so fast that he was probably over 100 feet away before I would have even been able to get the bear spray out of the holster on my belt. I was startled and petrified.
I just want to point out that if you and a bear startle each other, and he decides to attack, you are 100% doomed. I have never seen something so big move so fast in my life.
Stranger In The Night
It was the summer of 2019 and I was house sitting for my dad while he was away for work. The house is in the middle of nowhere and isn't easily found on Google maps. When friends come to visit, I would usually have to drive to the top of the nearest paved road then lead them down to my dad’s place.
One night, after having a few drinks with friends, I was dropped off at the side of the house by a friend who lived close by. It was easier for him to do that so that he could simply turn around and drive off. I walked up the stairs and got into the house with my key through the side door that led to the kitchen.
The kitchen overlooked the front garden but the front door was nestled into a small porch and wasn’t visible from where I was at the time. I was making tea in the kitchen when I came face to face with my worst fear.
I saw movement in the front garden. I immediately turned off the lights. That's when I saw a man trying to look into the kitchen windows from the garden. He walked around to the back of the house, and cupped his hands to the wall-to-ceiling glass doors, trying to look in.
I wasn’t completely clear-headed that night but remember thinking that this was all a dream—in reality, it was a living nightmare. The man couldn’t see me in the dark but I was hiding behind the wall that separated the kitchen from the dining room/lounge area. Stupidly, I had left one of the glass doors closest to the front door unlocked. He started to enter through that unlocked door.
It was completely pitch black. He didn't realize that I was about 10 feet away from him. I had already called the friend who had dropped me off as I knew he would still be nearby whereas law enforcement officers would have taken at least 30 minutes to get to the house. I also knew that my friend's parents were ex-militia and kept artillery in a safe in his truck.
I remember just wanting to RUN and get the heck out of the house as soon as possible. But if I ran, I’d be alone in the middle of nowhere with a deranged man chasing after me. The situation felt like something out of a movie and not real at all. I was acting on adrenaline.
As the guy walked further into the house, I stepped out and pulled a blade on him—again, I was intoxicated and realized that it was a very stupid thing to have done. He tried incoherently to make conversation but I got him out of the door just as my friend pulled up with his piece.
The dude bolted to his car that was parked in an area concealed by trees on the property. It turns out he was the gardener. He had been keeping tabs on me. He knew that I was alone and house sitting for my dad while he was out of town. This guy was VERY high on opiates—he admitted this while I had the blade out.
Apparently, he had been waiting on the front porch for me to come home. Except that night, I used the side door, something I rarely ever did. If I hadn’t used the side door that night, I have no idea what would have happened.
I also have no idea what would have happened if my friend hadn’t come back when I called him, because the guy started getting aggressive and tried to come at me right when my friend got arrived.
We like to joke about it now, but it was the worst scenario I have ever experienced where I wanted to just run and get the heck away.
Trust Your Instincts
I was in medical school at the time. I was upstairs in the lab with a friend, practicing our surgical skills. The building had two staircases: a main enclosed staircase that led to the lobby and classrooms and another one that was outside that was only ever used in fire drills. It wasn't a fire escape but an older entrance that led into the lab classroom.
When it was time to leave, I grabbed the door handle to the main stairs that led into the lobby but was immediately filled with absolute fear and anxiety. My intuition kept saying, "Get out! Not that way"! For the first time in three years, I said. "Let's take the outdoor stairs...". My friend had literally no idea there even WAS another exit.
The next day, we discovered that at the exact time we were taking the outside stairs, a disgruntled classmate pulled a weapon on the staff and students in the lobby at the base of the main stairs. He was kicked out of the program due to poor grades and simply snapped.
My friend still talks about the incident and tells people to always trust their instincts.
Stranger Danger
boy leaning on black wallPhoto by Luke Pennystan on UnsplashWhen I was eight or nine years old, I was playing outside when a guy pulled up and called me over to his car. He pulled out a map and asked if I could hop inside and help give him some directions. My mom had put the fear of being hurt by strangers into me early so I screamed at the guy and he sped away really quickly.
I ran inside and told my mom what had happened. It was flat-out scary. I'm so glad she was smart enough to instill us with the dangers of following a stranger. I may have become another missing child had I gotten close enough for him to get a hand on.
Baffling Occurrence
Many years ago, I was working at the Cincinnati airport as a ramp agent for the now-defunct Comair Airlines. I was working to depart a plane by myself, so I was hustling around to get the baggage door closed, signaling the pilot on engine startup procedures, and I still had to unplug the power cart and marshal the plane out.
The power cart was a diesel generator, parked behind the starboard wing. The cable plugged into a jack on the plane’s belly. The pilot signaled me to disengage it, so I acknowledged him, and ran from my position in front of the nose, out toward the wingtip, and back in, following the trailing edge of the wing.
The exhaust from the turboprop engine was several hundred degrees, so you had to duck under the jet blast to reach the jack. I shut off the power cart, reached the jack, unplugged it and threw the cable clear, latched the door and then started running back toward the nose to get the plane rolling. Hurry, hurry, hurry…
I ran only a few steps when my left leg just didn’t drop. Instead, it extended. It did so for such a distance and time that I literally looked down at it, thinking, "What the heck…"? My foot finally planted on the ground, my knee locked, and I felt the impact in my teeth. My stride was interrupted, and I had literally been turned 90 degrees, and was now running directly away from the plane.
That’s when I realized that my next step would have taken me through the propeller. That was the closest I had ever come to fainting. I have no idea what caused that change in stride, but I was certainly glad of it.
Sizzling Encounter
I was maybe 11 or 12 years old when I witnessed something incredible—and terrifying. I love storms. There just happened to be a crazy thunderstorm that night and I decided I wanted to watch it from the doorway of our house. I got the bright idea to open the metal screen door to get a better look. So I was standing between the doorway, holding a chunk of the metal door.
Then suddenly, I see a flash of light, hear a sizzling sound, and then the loudest, closest BANG I've ever heard in my life! I let go of the door and ran back inside. I didn't get a scratch, but the hair on my arms were standing straight up and I had a huge adrenaline rush.
I don't stand in doorways to watch storms anymore.
Never To Be Forgotten
I was in the lobby of the World Trade Center on Sept 11th when the plane hit. Although I didn't know a plane had hit the building at the time, I experienced what sounded like a building bending and metal tearing. Then suddenly, all of the doors in the lobby blew open and burning hot air lashed into my face. It sounded like Hades was coming down those stairs. Turns out I was right.
Scared Witless
I must've been around 10 or 12 years old when this happened. I was walking back home one afternoon, around 3 or 4 pm, after strolling around the neighborhood, which was usually very safe, friendly, and quiet. I was on the opposite side of the block, walking past the houses behind ours.
There was a park that connected the entire block which meant you could cut through the houses to get home. I was only a few houses away at that point. I went through the park, a park I had played at my entire childhood, without paying much attention to my surroundings, when about halfway through, this older guy who wore a hoodie whom I didn't know called out to me.
"Dude, come over here for one sec", he said. "Um, what do you want"? I asked. "Come here, I just wanna ask you something", he yelled back. "Ok, ask me from over there", I replied. "No, no, come over, please", he returned. "No, tell me from over there", I responded.
At that point, another dude who was sitting next to him on the bench started to get upset. I heard a, "That's it" from him and they both stood up quickly and started making their way towards me. I can't recall how far they chased after me, but my instincts just told me to run like heck and I did.
To this day I still don't know if they were going to mug me, if they were just taunting me or what was happening but it definitely scared the wits out of me.
Straight Out Of A Horror Flick
empty room with bed framesPhoto by Hoshino Ai on UnsplashMy 17-year-old friends and I used to sneak into this abandoned mental institute. We navigated our way through a lot of it over the course of three or four trips.
This place was creepy—like it came straight out of a horror flick. The one time we went into the basement was it for me. One room looked like a freezer area. We had to walk through the thick plastic that shielded the doorway to get into the room.
Someone flicked a switch and it actually turned on this loud machine. We all jumped and screamed like 12-year old girls. Never again.
Spine-Chilling Sounds Of The Night
After the movie ended around 11 pm, my friend and I walked out of the theater towards our car. The theater we had gone to was pretty empty with just a few other stores around. For some reason, we walked out of the wrong doors and ended up on the other side of the mall. It was a good ten minute walk from our car.
As we were walking through the empty parking lot, it was pretty silent until we heard the most bone-chilling scream from about 100 yards away. It was definitely a woman screaming and it was one long, continuous scream—which honestly made it worse. The scream sounded like she had walked in on the loss of a child, or something terrible.
My friend and I immediately turned to each other with the same shocked look. We booked it out of there and called the law enforcement officers. We never did learn of anything happening that night, but I will always remember that scream. To make it worse, we had just watched the movie NOPE.
Just In Time
I was ice fishing on a lake up north with my buddy. It wasn't a big lake, but it was known for good fishing. We were fishing for a while but didn't catch anything when suddenly we heard a loud craaaaack.
The ice started to split from one side of the lake to the other. We had to get to shore ASAP! One side of the shore had already split into two giant slabs and were sinking. Water started running over the top of the slabs.
We had to get to shore NOW. I yelled at my buddy to run.
By the time we got to shore, the one slab of ice began breaking up with the other close behind. The ice quickly sank and disappeared from sight. Luckily, we made it to solid ground just in time, and lived to fish another day.
Fright Of My Life
There was supposedly a haunted house that a bunch of us high schoolers would visit occasionally. It was about a half mile down a gravel road on what used to be a farm.
There were two ways to get to the house: down a gravel road from the main road or down a long meandering path that led to a closed road in a neighborhood that backed up to the farm.
One time, a large group of us decided to head out to the area. We chose the longer path since there were more places to park for the six cars we had with us. My best friend had his foot in a walking boot due to an injury he had.
Anyways, after our usual bout of screwing around, we decided to leave. Everyone left rather quickly but I chose to stay behind and walk with my friend who was moving much slower. I soon came to regret that decision.
About half way back to our car, we looked over to our right and about 20-30 yards away in the field, we saw four guys holding artillery—just standing in the field. There was a bright moon that night so we saw them clearly. We both stopped, crouched down and whispered, "What the heck"?!
We peeked up over the high grass and they were just standing there pointing their artillery at us. We just bolted. Suddenly, my friend with the injured foot was able to run incredibly fast too. It was so freaky.
When we caught up to the others, they said they hadn’t seen a thing. We're still not sure what the heck happened out there and what was going on.
Terrifying Exploration
It was a nice summer's day. I went urban exploring with my mate in a storm drain. We only intended to explore the first couple of hundred feet but decided to keep going.
After a while, we could hear a lot of water echoing in the distance. Suddenly, I noticed the water level getting higher with a bit more flow. My mate tried to convince me that it was just a diverted river. I wasn't having any of it and made us head back as quickly as possible.
Suddenly, a freak rain storm, which became torrential, made things more difficult for us. Several times, I wasn't sure if we were going to make it out. Luckily we managed to escape. It was absolutely terrifying.
Let's Get Out Of Here
File:BG Waffle House.jpg - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
My friend and I met at Waffle House for lunch. A guy came into the restaurant looking for a piece of paper that he had accidentally left on a table. The waitress didn't know where the paper was located and might have thrown it away.
The guy got upset saying the paper was important and he was going home to get his pistol stored under his mattress. My friend and I quickly paid our check and got the heck out of the restaurant!
Horrifying Confrontation
When I was about 11 years old, this house down the street from my grandparents' house had a reputation for being haunted.
One day, I was walking to the shop to get supplies for my grandparents and I saw the owner of the house outside. He was about my dad's age and started talking to me. I really wanted to be the first of my friends to go in the haunted house, and I was asking a million questions about ghosts and stuff.
He told me that I could come inside if I wanted to. I said I had to go do my errands but he was pretty convincing and promised he wouldn't tell anyone. So we went up his driveway and into his haunted house. When we got inside, things took a dark turn. I heard him lock the door. I became hyper anxious and said that I had changed my mind about staying.
He had blocked me from the door and tried to change my mind by calling me a scaredy cat and stuff. I don't remember exactly what happened for him to let me out, but he did, and I ran for my life. I sat at the shop for ages just shaking and feeling nauseous without even knowing what I was scared of.
It turned out that the house wasn't haunted. The guy, however, was a monster who liked to do awful things to kids. His house burned down while he was in prison.
The Hunter Or The Hunted?
My late friend was an avid hunter and outdoorsman. He was literally born in the wrong era. He should have been a mountain man. Every year, he would go hunting in this sweet spot where he'd get the biggest bucks I'd ever seen. He loved this spot so much that he would never disclose the location to anyone.
Well, one day, as we were all hanging around, he mentioned that he had a new hunting spot. This was totally out of the ordinary for him. So we asked him why he decided to switch. He told us that when he got to his usual hunting spot, he set up camp and set out to scout the area. As he was walking, he smelled something that he had never smelled before.
This guy lives in a cabin in the woods and knows this area like the back of his hand. For him to smell something unusual is a big deal. But he simply shrugged it off and kept hiking around. He said he kept feeling like he was being watched or stalked, like what you'd expect a deer to feel as it's being hunted.
He then decided to head back to his camp and called it a night. When he got to his truck, he found prints he had never seen before all around his truck and camp. He left and never went back. The look on his face as he told the story was like none I had ever seen on him before.
He later found a new spot that he disclosed to us right before he passed. I'll be hunting there with my dad next season.
Eerie Greeting
Last year, a month before graduating from high school, I had a really creepy encounter. I was walking to school when an old man yelled at me from across the street. He kept yelling his name to me. He eventually caught up to me and told me that he was looking for a lady to marry.
He asked for my name and then asked if he could see me later. I naturally said no, but he kept persisting. I told him that I was still in high school. But it only got worse from there. Rather than backing off, he asked for my age. I told him that I was 18.
He kept asking to see me later. I eventually just said, "Sure", just to get him off my back. I walked away, and my school bus picked me up.
I later learned that he had a reputation for doing this. I also learned that when he was intoxicated, he once broke into a couple's house and wore the woman's pants.
Prowler On The Loose
I lived in south Everett, WA, for a couple years. Once I was walking home from the bus stop to my apartment, which took me behind a Home Depot. Suddenly, a van started following me. I heard the side door slide open and when I looked behind me, I saw only the top half of a man hanging out of the door looking at me.
I darted towards my apartment, running as far as I could. That's when the van started to speed up. It was at that exact moment, a guy started pulling out of the driveway of my apartment complex. He saw me running for my life, and stopped his car. The van immediately turned around and sped off.
The guy asked if I was okay. I asked if he could stay and wait for me to walk safely into my apartment, which was the building next to his. He did, thank goodness. I started carrying mace and a very large blade the next day.
Lucky Escape
a red and white bus driving down a snow covered streetPhoto by Brian Jones on UnsplashOne night, a co-worker got off the bus in Scarborough, Ontario, when a guy stepped out from behind the bus shelter and started calling to her to wait up. He ran up to her, but she screamed, "I don't know you", and ran into a convenience store.
The guy hung around outside for a few minutes, then walked over to a vehicle, got in and drove off. She waited for a neighbor in her apartment complex to come over and walk her home.
She filed a report and it turned out she had narrowly escaped Paul Bernardo, then known for his crimes against women in Scarborough, and later known as a homicidal maniac alongside his wife Karla Homolka.
A Terrifying Affair
A 500 lb hog got loose at the state fair and started charging right at me. I have never run so fast in my life.
Close Call
I was living in Baltimore some years back and was driving home through a rough area of the city. I was sitting at a stop light behind a car when another car pulled up next to me on the right. I didn't think anything of this until the light turned green and neither of the cars moved. Then I saw another car zipping up behind me. I then looked to my left and saw two guys running towards me.
I am so thankful that I left a good deal of space between me and the car in front. I hooked it around the car and sped off. I'm pretty sure I was going to be a victim of a carjacking or maybe something worse. I'm so glad they ill-timed their plan and I gave myself that extra space. The lesson here is to always keep your head on a swivel in Baltimore.
Creepy Sleepover
I was sleeping over at a friend's house when I got up in the night to get some water in the kitchen. That's when her father hugged me from behind. I was 14. I never went to their house again.
Signs From Above
When I was a kid, I used to be a Jehovah’s Witness. One day, I was with my mom and a few others going house to house, and preaching to strangers. My mom and I walked up this slanted driveway with trees around each side. The others waited for us in the car. They couldn’t see us from where they had parked on the street.
We knocked on the door and everything seemed normal. Just as the man answered the door, something incredibly strange happened. My ears started to ring and buzz like crazy. It felt like someone threw a helmet on my head and my body was screaming for me to leave.
The man listened to my mom’s spiel. He then said he was interested in hearing more, and invited us inside. Meanwhile, the feelings I had got more intense. The air felt thicker and prevented me from moving. My mom looked at me and she said I looked pale and distant.
She told him that I seemed to be ill and that we had to leave. As soon as we stepped away and I saw the car, I was completely fine. My mom decided to take me home anyway. We lived just two blocks away.
A few days later, we read in the paper about how the same man we had spoken to when I had those strange feelings, was apprehended for slaying several women. I think one of them was as young as 16 years old—just a child. I was 12 years old at the time.
My mom, a dutiful believer at the time, was convinced that the angels had stepped in to protect us and kept us safe that day.
Dangerous Attraction
When I was 16 or 17 years old, I was texting with a friend's older brother whom I had only met once in person at a ball game. He was about 19 or 20 years old and was a local paramedic. He was very sweet on me. At that age, I didn’t know any better and just loved the idea that an older guy was so smitten with me.
One day, he randomly showed up at the little country side cafe where I worked. He insisted that I take his letterman jacket even though it was in the heat of summer. It was weird but he was insistent so I took it. That was a big mistake.
We kept texting and things got weirder. He started getting possessive. I got scared and basically ghosted him. I never told him where I lived. Not even a few days later, I was home alone—way out in the middle of nowhere—with my younger stepsister when I heard banging on the door.
We live in an old, run-down, single-wide trailer so nothing was really "home invader proof". It was him. He was yelling for me to come out right away. Thenthings got even more terrifying. He started beating and kicking the door—hard. The whole trailer was shaking. He started throwing stuff at the windows and screaming.
I got my mom's pistol, hid my step sister in the closet and called the authorities. It felt like an eternity waiting for help. He didn’t stop until I heard tires on the gravel pull up. An officer came inside the trailer and said the boy claimed I took his letterman jacket and class ring and he was just there to get his stuff back.
The ring was apparently in the jacket pocket but I didn’t know that. I gave the jacket to the officer. I don’t know what happened to the guy but needless to say there were no further contacts. I still don’t know how he knew where I lived.
