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Formerly Homeless People Share The Scariest Thing They Ever Saw On The Streets

Formerly Homeless People Share The Scariest Thing They Ever Saw On The Streets
Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash

Being homeless is already no picnic. Living on the street comes with a lot of danger.

Add in some creepy sightings though? And it's a recipe for a horror film.


u/Chess_Kings asked:

Ex-homeless redditors, what was the scariest thing that you ever saw on the streets? [NSFW]

Here were some of those answers.

Cigarette Acrobatics

Not that scary, but one time i was on a park bench just killing time. This homeless dude that everyone called "red" was at another bench. He came up to mine, and asked if i would watch his stuff while he slept for a bit, and i said yes. So he layed down next to me, and after awhile he sat up for a cigarette.

About 3 drags in, he starts coughing and his face turned all purple FAST. Never realized how fast people turn purple from lack of oxygen. He fell over on his side, and i jumped up and gave him a little smack on the back a few times, and i kept yelling at him to get up. I was hesitant to call an ambulance cause of hospital bills that he obviously wouldnt be able to pay, but right as i took my phone out to call (he had been unconscious for like 30 seconds at this point) he starts gasping and gets up.

I asked him if he was ok, and all he says is "f**king COPD" and then takes a drag of the cigarette that he never even dropped the whole time that happened. Blows my mind he didn't drop it lmao

YaBoyDaveee

Frozen (2013)

Cold weather. I thought I was going to die one night I was so cold. I remember waking up thinking "you need to move or you are going to die".

whatPortsDoUHaveOpen

May Have Been Two Murders

For a while I slept in an empty warehouse, I'm in the UK, so it was a huge Victorian building with about six floors. I slept on the third or fourth floor, out of the way of 'casual' intruders (drunks and prostitutes used that space) and one night I heard a load of shouting and a female screaming from the ground floor. Now I was 16, a junkie and about 120lbs, so I wasn't in any position to do much, but I crept down the steps to see what was happening. By the time I got there, the place was empty and the noise had stopped so I went back upstairs.

I found out the next day they found a body in the wasteland outside. Turns out the woman was a prostitute, they assumed her client stabbed her after a struggle and she'd made a run for it before he caught her and finished the job. Always wonder if I'd been able to help, but I'd have probably got stabbed too. :/

L1A1

Was She Sleepwalking?

Was homeless for a summer and an acquaintance through the party scene of the town invited me to crash on her couch

Woke up in the middle of the night to her screaming into her phone about how they are out to get her and are setting the world up for destruction

Pretended like I was still asleep and got outta there the next day real quick

MyNameIsZa2

Oddly Specific

I was stalked by a gang one night on my way "home" from work. I still have no idea how i wasn't mugged. Once i woke up suddenly to a not homeless man holding a huge knife staring at me inside the abandoned buildings basement i was sleeping in. Once he noticed i was awake he asked if i was russian. I said no and he said he was looking for a different girl, gave me 20 dollars and left.

dontniceguyatme

Crack On Crack On Crack

The scariest thing I saw was a man named Tony T. Apparently he had been a addict for years but had to keep a job to support his habit. He had received a huge settlement, over $500k. At which point he decided that he never had to work again. He lived on the streets and smoked drugs all day. The best way to describe him is Tuco from breaking bad. He was generous with his drugs so people would naturally want to be around him. But he was unpredictable and dangerous. I have tons of stories about him being crazy aggressive but the last time I saw him he beat a man with a pipe for dropping a tiny crack rock in the dirt. I tried to stop him and he threatened to turn on me. I walked out, went to a phone and called my sister to come get me. She helped me get my stuff together and I never went back. That was 30 years ago.

pasher71

Why Do It Be This Way

Biggest thing (5'3 115lb) was how often people try to abduct you. That and how often people try to serve you tampered food. The teenagers trying to get clout by assaulting/"pranking" you is another one

Negatoris_Wrecks

The End Of My Timeline

Snow! I'm a big, scary dude so I never had trouble with people picking on me or whatever, in that sense the streets were safe to me, but seeing snow for the first time that year just made me cry and panic. It was too early for snow, I wasn't ready for that type of cold and was hoping to be on my feet again before the winter came. Beautiful thing like snow just messed me up in so many ways.

paipilu

For The Sake Of Your Life

I had been homeless for a couple weeks now and had made friends with this couple, they seemed pretty chill but had a bit of a drinking problem.

Anyway one night i was sleeping, could here some commotion going on, couldn't make out who it was or what was going on, until my buddy comes and sits on my sleeping bag, blood pumping out of his neck, like full on everytime his heart beat it would splurt out, not under huge pressure but it was pretty bad. I ask him what happened and he said he think his misses had cut his throat with a stanley blade, he was so drunk he was not aware of how bad his injury was, and insisted i did not call an ambulance.

So i called the police they called the ambulance. I see the dude a couple days later, still homeless, scar on his neck. He's ever so grateful the nurse had told him how lucky he was, he was literally a couple millimeters away from dying that night.

mcal9909

Folks Picking On The Most Vulnerable

There is a drainage ditch in my area that the local homeless people tend to bed down in. A few years ago, when I found myself destitute, I spent one night down there. That night I witnessed a molotov get thrown into another dude's spot which led to a huge fire that ran rampant through the area.

Yeah, I bought a tent the next day and started camping in the local mountains.

JustAFrontDeskJockey

People's Craziest 'You Can't Eat At Everyone's House' Experiences

Reddit user 195901 asked: 'What is your “can’t eat at everybody’s house” horror story?'

Person cooking in home kitchen
Conscious Design on Unsplash

We've all heard the phrase, "You can't eat at everybody's house," but some of us have a few examples of our own to live by.

From not properly cleaning the environment to questionable hygiene ourselves, there are countless reasons why a person may not want to eat what you've cooked after watching you prepare it.

Bracing themselves, Redditor 195901 asked:

"What is your 'you can't eat at everybody's house' horror story?"

Fly Spray Sandwiches

"I told my dad my sandwich tasted like fly spray at my grandma's house. He didn’t believe me."

"Two days later, I caught my grandma spraying the benches 'clean' with the two-dollar fly spray you find at the cheap store."

"Dad figured it was safe to make sandwiches straight on the countertop because they looked clean. I dragged him over to see and he apologized and took my sister and me for fish and chips for lunch."

- littlehungrygiraffe

Special Seasoning Deviled Eggs

"My crackpot aunt served us a lovely tray of deviled eggs, complete with very old paprika sprinkled on top. So old, in fact, the many weevils mixed in it were dead."

- PhoneboothLynn

A Disturbing Surprise

"I visited a friend's house who was living with his mother, and she asked if I wanted a coffee and I said I would."

"Upon getting to the bottom of the cup and taking the last few gulps, I found there was a used bandaid stuck to the bottom… I never ate or drank there again."

- MrRailton

In Need of Child Protective Services

"I was babysitting a kid in a pretty dirty house. I was told to wake him up, supervise bathing and changing clothes, and feed him. I was welcome to whatever was in the fridge. Okay. The house and his clothes were filthy."

"Then, when I opened the cabinets, floods of roaches poured out. There were roaches in every opened box and container."

"I took him back to my house and returned him later that day. I hope the boy ended up in a better situation. I found out CPS (Child Protective Services) got involved shortly after."

- Alltheprettydresses

Traumatized by Raisins

"I was gonna complain about raisins in the potato salad but the other comments on here are scary. Oh my god."

- tcumber

"When I was a young kid, I stayed over at a friend's place, and his mom made veal or something with godd**n raisins INSIDE the meat somehow. It was so nasty, I never forgot it."

- User2716057

You WISH That Was Vinegar

"My MIL fished around in the green bin (compost bin) with her bare hands, didn't wash them, WIPED her GARBAGE JUICE HANDS on the tea towel, and then WENT BACK TO PREPPING THE SALAD."

"She also got horrifically offended if I didn't want to eat at her house."

- 116843189

Poor Home Hygiene

"My first boyfriend’s parents invited me for Thanksgiving. I came over a few days before Christmas and all the same dirty dishes from Thanksgiving were still in the kitchen. I passed on coming over for Christmas dinner."

- MinimalistHomestead

Every Surface Covered

"I went to a friend's house after school, he was going to teach a group of us to play D&D (Dungeons and Dragons)."

"We got there and his house was disgusting. I'm not the neatest person but the carpet hadn't been vacuumed in forever, clothes were all over the place, and dirty dishes were stacked everywhere."

"I tried to be polite even though the place reeked, but at some point, he was like, 'Who wants snacks!'"

"He picked up a bowl that was crusted with stuff, splashed in some water, wiped it with a towel that clearly hadn't been washed that decade, and poured chips into it. Then he asked if we wanted to stay for dinner. We did not."

- KnittinAndB***hin

O Holy Expiration Dates

"When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was always celebrated at Grandma's. I always got sick afterward. Like, Merry Christmas, you're going to puke now."

"It wasn't until I was all grown up and helping her out in the last weeks of her life that I learned why. She did not believe in expiration dates on anything!"

- SundayMorningTrisha

An Immune System to Remember

"My grandma made me a food phobic from a young age. Whether it was ramen with moths floating on top, or chunky milk in my cereal, it just scarred me for life."

"Dinner at her house was always a fight. Not eating her food was not an option. I'm not sure why that was the hill she would always choose to die on, because she was an amazing grandma other than this."

"Expiration dates aren't a thing. If the cheese was moldy, you cut it off... I think living through the great depression and raising kids in poverty changed her mindset on food."

"I mean obviously, she's doing something right because she's 91. She must have the immunity of a superhero."

- tha_stormin_mormon

Neighborly Love

"I used to help an old neighbor out with grocery shopping, I’d drop the bags at her door and she’d give me a check for the amount of groceries. She’d give me homemade cookies once in a while, chocolate chips."

"I didn’t ever eat them because one time I caught sight of her apartment. It was a large studio, a small kitchen, and tv, and a bed/couch. And there were about 20 cans of cat food, half-eaten, and one million flies and small maggots in different stages of growth, dishes with crusty food stuck to them, and a wall of empty beer cans."

"After I saw that, and got a whiff of her apartment, I started helping her with taking garbage out and putting groceries away, cleaning out her fridge, and making sure her cat was healthy."

"A couple of months later, she got the virus, ended up at a rehab facility, and passed within two weeks."

"Some people need help and a little company…"

- SnooPeripherals6557

No Longer Rice

"A girl I was interested in at the time had cats. I came to her house one day to pick her up for a date and he had a large sack of rice open in her pantry with the pantry door open."

"One of the cats hopped out of the sack of rice and she just casually laughed at it like, 'Oh, they are always getting into things.'"

"I came over the following weekend that SAME sack of rice was in the pantry and I could hear one of them tussling around in it again, we stopped dating sometime after that but anytime she offered to cook for me I immediately pivoted to taking her out to eat instead."

- justad**nfool

"Those cats probably used it as litter."

- Anonymanx

"Yeah, that was my fear."

- justad**nfool

Could Have Warned Her

"My mom told me one about going over to her aunt Virginia's house. She, her parents, and her siblings were sat around the kitchen while her aunt cooked, and my mom could not figure out why no one else was having ANY of this incredibly delicious bread that was on the table."

"She was on her third slice when her aunt stepped out to do something else, and my mom was told by her brother to go look in the flour bin."

"It was absolutely filled with miller moth larvae. Aunt Virginia had been losing her eyesight for years."

- smoothiefruit

"It's f**ked of her parents not to warn her not to eat the bread... like, what the f**k, you KNOW the bread isn't safe, so you're not eating it, but you're fine with letting your daughter have three slices?"

- whydontthissitework

Bad to the Point of Malnutrition

"I graduated high school at 6' 10" tall, but weighing only 120 pounds."

"That's not skinny, that's emaciated."

"The food prepared by my bio-mom was so bad that it wasn't providing me with the nutrients or calories I needed to survive. I went off to college where I had to cook for myself (I wasn't allowed to cook at home because my father insisted that "cooking was women's work")."

"Not only did I discover that food didn't have to be burnt to a crisp, flavorless, or boiled until everything was grey. I also discovered that food can be made to taste good, and using things like salt, or pepper, spices, or various condiments can make it taste amazing."

"The "freshman 15" likely saved my life."

"The thing is, I don't think that my biomom was even aware that her food was that disgusting. Whenever we went out for dinner (which was more often than what my father wanted, but he was the one who insisted on going), she did nothing but complain about how the food was undercooked, 'practically raw,' or 'too spicy,' to eat."

"When she went to other people's houses (including her own extended family) she would criticize them for 'doing it wrong' when she watched them cook anything. She would often end up refusing to eat their food because she 'watched them ruin it,' when they cooked it. We never had guests over to eat her cooking. Ever."

- Galaxy_Ranger_Bob

Clean Hands

"We have a chili contest every year at work around Thanksgiving and I've stopped participating in voting for it because I want to know whose I'm eating before taking any. I work with some great people, but I wouldn't eat at or anything from their house. Strangely enough, the guy I absolutely despise I'll gladly eat his chili because he is clean and well kept and I know his house is."

"I also work with a bunch of people who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom in any capacity and we've secretly kept a list so to avoid any potlucks where they take food or to get food before they do."

- SafewordisJohnCandy

We're left with chills after reading these stories.

Where some people might make some mistakes in the kitchen out of just not knowing, like not properly washing rice before cooking it, most of these are just careless mistakes that have disgusting, if not dangerous, results.

Collection of VHS tapes
Bruno Guerrero/Unsplash

What makes us all unique is our passions and the things we love, whether it's singing in the shower, reading books, or listening to specific music artists.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are judged for our various tastes and interests thanks to social media, and it makes us consciously selective about sharing the things we love on the internet.

Curious to hear about people's personal desires under anonymity, Redditor sweet_chick283 asked:

"What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?"

These aren't really chores for the following Redditors.

Good Clean Fun

"Mopping, im a janitor and generally hate my work... but damn mopping is so good."

– MrDDog06

"When you have a great rhythm going it is something special. I get the same feeling while I vacuum, but won’t let my wife know I enjoy it."

– Bogus_34

Act Of Unwrinkling

"Ironing clothes. A dozen of them. Can’t explain how it relaxes me. I told one person and they looked at me like I’m crazy."

– eerie_white_glow

"My mum misses the days when dad would be out on a Friday night, my brother out with friends and me upstairs quietly playing PS1. She would pour herself a Bacardi & Coke and do the ironing while watching her TV shows."

"I'm sure she doesn't really miss it now that we've moved out and they've retired but it was her wind-down after a busy working week so I can see how people can find it relaxing."

– xdq

Our solo actions can spark joy.

Big Brother Is Watching

"pretending to be on the Truman show and whenever im in my house i act all inconspicuous so they dont know that i know that they’re watching me."

– Bec_121

"C’mon man, you’re not supposed to let him know. You signed a contract when signing up for live views. I’m reporting you."

– doeswaspsmakehoney

The Multi-Tasker

"Playing video games naked at home while eating cheese."

– thickening_agent

Releasing The Kraken

"I love the feeling when you've eaten good fibre and let out a solid long train log in the toilet. That feeling is heavenly."

– therapoootic

"Even better when it’s a clean wipe and not a poo crayon."

– TheWarmestHugz

Ultimate Comfort

"My (male 41) weekend routine is coming home from work, make hot chocolate, start a fire, dress in a ugly pink nightgown made for old ladies and watch forensic files."

– crazyloomis

Some people are obsessed with collecting things.

So Kawai

"Sanrio stationery stores. All those different multicolor pens, a thousand kinds of erasers, spiral bound notebooks galore... my kids sadly have absolutely no appreciation for this wonderland..."

– HavingNotAttained

It's A Staple

"Office supplies have a weird, special place in my heart ever since I was a kid. They don't even have to be 'cute' necessarily."

"Japan's legendary stationery stores is unironically a reason I want to go."

– _CozyLavender_

Not Caring Anymore

"The older I get the shorter that list gets. Not because I love less things, but because I don't care about hiding it."

– Bi-Beast

"YES!! I'm 53 now. I'm working my first job in public since 2006. Today is Halloween and we're allowed to dress up so I am sitting here waiting to go to work dressed as a VERY bad Wednesday Addams. My bf said I'd 'look stupid' because no one else will probably dress up and I'm like, 'WHO CARES!' My makeup looks horrible and not like I practiced, but I DO NOT CARE! I'm having fun with it anyhow and I don't care if my coworkers dress up or not. I'm bein' ME! :)"

– deanie1970

Honorable mentions start here.

The Savior

"Picking up worms from the street and sidewalks when it rains and moving them into the dirt so they don’t burn in the sun, every time it rains I do this."

– sky_kitten89

Hero Of The Moment

"Yoooo I scoot SO many snails and worms. I work as a tech/mechanic at an automotive shop, I had a peoject car towed to my house the other day and it was covered in snails. I saw them when the tow guy/coworker was unloading and I was like, 'oh! It comes with free snails!' and began moving them. He laughed then realized and said, '... Oh, you're serious. Uh... Okay.'"

"I don't care who knows it. These little things barely can look out for themselves, why shouldn't we if we can take a moment to help? I don't care what happens next, it probably doesn't matter overall but I can help this moment."

– chris14020

Why should some of the hidden desires mentioned above have to be secret?

Redditors opening up about some of these would make them a hit at parties–no shaming.

As a matter of fact, I'll totally be down for a Forensic Files viewing party where we all make hot chocolate, light the fireplace, and cozy up together in our respective pink ugly nightgowns for old ladies.

historical reenactors
Sigmund on Unsplash

We've probably all heard some variation of the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Real life isn't just strange, it can also be downright ridiculous.

History is riddled with moments of absurdity.

So ridiculous that people have a hard time believing real life is, well, really real.

Keep reading...Show less