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People Explain The Creepiest Experience They've Ever Had

People Explain The Creepiest Experience They've Ever Had

When we think about creepy experiences, we tend to imagine supernatural stuff.

This article is about to remind us that sometimes the creepiest things are very, very rooted in the real world.


Reddit user Salamanda0913 asked:

What is the creepiest thing you have experienced that you still think about to this day?

That's not to say there is no mention of potentially supernatural experiences - but most people responded with moments that were terrifying for them because they were all too real. We're talking about those moments when you realize your "safe place" isn't safe, when you suddenly understand just how close you were to something horrific...

All of us have creepy experiences, but these experiences have stuck with people so much that they felt compelled to share them. Read at your own risk, folks. Some of these might leave you thinking twice about a few things - like how much you actually like the song More Than A Feeling by Boston.

Two Rottweilers And A Mirror

"When I was about 8 or 9, my moms friends took us to see the puppy they were going to buy. The owner offered us to walk the parent-dogs (two Rottweilers, I remember their names til this day). They were super friendly and walked off leash with the two kids of my moms friend, and myself."

"When we arrived in a grassy area surrounded by trees, a tall guy approached us. The man was wearing one of those long, leather trench coats and had a very small mirror."

"He grabbed my shoulder and the dogs went completely nuts. I remember he tried shining light into the dogs eyes with the mirror. The mother dog stayed circling me while I ran to the house and the other dog chased after this guy until he was gone."

"It was terrifying, but what really stands by me is that those dogs didn't know me, from before yet they protected me and my friends as if their lives depended on it."

- quanide

A Visit From Dad

"So, I was about 12 at the time and it was around 2am one day and I was playing an online video game with my friends."

"We're in a call as I hear a door slam.It was quite a loud one, loud enough for me to hear through my headphones."

"I was freaked and just froze in my chair and took off my headphones. Then I heard footsteps. I was sure someone broke in or something, but I was to afraid to get out of my room. Everything was silence after a few seconds, and there was no one in our house. The door was locked as it was before, and it seemed like everything was back to normal, so I tell my friends I'm logging off and I tried to go to sleep. It took me ages before I could fall asleep, but eventually I did."

"The next morning, I tell my mom about what happened."


"Her face went white. She told me she had dreamed about my dad."

"In her dream he came to our house, slammed the door and woke her up with the sound of the slam. She was so excited to see him! She hugged him and kissed him and they went into my room where they saw me playing video games, and my dad told her that I grew up so much and was really happy to see me. He was the one who taught me how to play that video game when I was like 5~ish years old."

"My dad has passed away when I was 6. (Heart failure)"

"It's still creeping me out to this day."

- Lishayy

Old Curtains

"When me and my Mom moved to a new house. She had some re-decorating to do."

"One of the things she wanted to change was to get some new curtains for our bathroom, the curtains in there were torn, dirty, browned and just ugly as sin. So she bought some new curtains."

"As she is quite short, she can't reach our attic, which is where she wanted to store the old curtains (It was rented so we couldn't throw them away) so I put the curtains into a box then put the box into the attic. It was difficult since there is no light and even at 6'2" I had to stretch to reach, but I managed to toss the box onto a pile. The new curtains went up. All is good."

"The next day when I come home from school the horrible, dirty curtains are back up in the bathroom. New curtains are nowhere to be seen. I asked my Mom why she had changed the curtains back over. She was terrified. She hadn't changed them and had no idea how it happened."

"Still bothers me to this day."

- Fiesta_machine

Run, Forest, Run!

Giphy

"My brother had a party in college at his place on campus (they had trailers that were on campus and were a part of housing). There were a bunch of parties that night in that area. I was there for a little bit but was still in high school and had hockey practice in the morning, so had to get home early."

My brother and his buddy were on the porch late at night (like 3-4 AM) when in the distance, in the dark, they saw someone randomly running through the night with a football. My brothers buddy even yelled out "Run Forrest, run!"

""Next morning the police knocked on everyone's door to interview the people who lived in the area. Apparently a 13 year old girl was murdered and the body was found near the campus, but the head was missing. They believed a student may have killed her."

"There was a massive search and a few weeks later, they were looking at the track and field complex behind where my brother lived and they found the head when emptying a port-a-potty at the track... my brother is fairly certain the random guy in the dark running with the football was actually the guy running with the head."

- Seated_Heats

Catfish

"I got catfished by an old man on a dating app. I was in a lonely and quite vulnerable time within my life back then. I was around 20 years old, looking for a good time, and just wanted to be with someone. I was a bit shaken up for maybe a week after it happened, but I eventually got over it and moved on with my life."

"There was this young and really attractive dude, or so I thought, whose profile I came across on the app. We spoke and we exchanged pics and messages. We planned to meet up. He gave me an address and later in the day I took an uber to that address. I was standing around for hours, it was really dark and was getting late in the night. I had previously knocked on the door of the address, then resorted to standing around near the address to see if I'd get a message or response; nothing."

"I sent him so many messages with no responses and I was disappointed, but I didn't give him trouble about it. More so disappointed about the wasted Uber money than I was with him because it wasn't exactly the cheapest ride there and back."

"The next day, on the dating app I was using, he sent me some story about something happening with someone in his family. I don't exactly remember it, but thinking back I'm shocked that I actually believed him when he told me. I felt so stupid. That same day as we're talking, all is forgiven and we chalk it up to "sometimes things just happen."

"We planned to meet up again at a much earlier time. I came to the same address."

"As I'm knocking on the door, I don't get a response and I look around. But this time, I see an old man sitting in a black car across the street from the house and he's just staring at me. He was staring as if I was candy that he just couldn't resist and he just had to have me. I waited around a bit longer. The old man is still there just staring at me and I get a little uncomfortable and worried."

"That's when it hit me, HE was the 'young and really attractive dude' that I'd been talking to this entire time. I didn't know what to do upon the realization, but I wasn't going to confront him. I remember being so angry, followed by deep sadness. I got an uber to go back and I blocked him on the app after sending him a nasty message (don't know if he saw it or not before I blocked him, but I didn't care.)"

"But he didn't stop there, HE FOLLOWED the uber that I was in. I kept a watchful eye out for his car. I was so damn terrified, but was relieved that he ended up losing us on the highway. I never saw him again after that, but I'll never forget the disgusting and snarky look that he had on his face as he was staring at me. Just seemingly so proud of what he did."

"I couldn't think straight for a solid week after that. The wasted money, the emotional trauma, and the pure anger. I learned an important lesson about being safer on dating apps and teaching myself that sometimes we're just vulnerable and we shouldn't get so caught up in that."

- Lanas-Pepsi-Pssy

More Than A Feeling

"I was in the Navy stationed inland because I was in a school. I had a friend drop me off at a store and when I was done started walking back to the base. I noticed this car driving slowly in the road keeping pace with me. Some weird guy was smiling at me. I am also a guy. More Than a Feeling was playing - loud."

"Eventually the car went ahead of me, but then there it was on a side street waiting for me to pass. Again, he drove next to me slowly with the same song playing. This scenario went on for about 7 or 8 blocks, same song playing over and over. I finally made it to a near by mall and went inside."

"I stayed in one place inside the mall to make sure I lost him, I was pretending to talk to someone on a payphone. Suddenly there he was inside the mall peeking around a corner. As soon as he turned around, I ran out of the mall through the closest exit and ran about another 2 blocks to the Navy base."

"I never saw him again but it creeped me out so much that every time I hear More Than a Feeling playing, it reminds me of the experience."

- [username deleted]

Call Some Hippie Chap!

"I had a house in London It was quite old, circa 1835. In the basement the plaster was cracking and falling off of the one wall. We had to remove it to treat it with a damp proof membrane. Removing the plaster to bare brick revealed a bricked up doorway. We opened it up to see what was behind it."

"It was a small room with a rough wooden bed all rotted away only the frame remaining and a upright chair.with the back broken and a kind of tailors dummy stood on a wooden frame. The dummy had the heart, liver, kidneys and other anatomical parts drawn on. They were stabbed multiple times."

"Mildewed newspaper cuttings where on the chair, most too badly rotted away, but the ones in the center could be read. They were ink pictures of women with names like. "Florrie Corrigan the Irish rose" and "Irene Atkins the Clapham nightingale" Some had their faces disfigured or slashed. Some had dripping wounds and cuts drawn on them. Most had a big furry vagina drawn on."

"My wife was fairly freaked and had a hippie chap come and pray / chant in the room to remove bad spirits."

- Lard_Baron

Storage

"So when I was 14 me and my mom moved to a new city. We moved in a flat and the storage was in a separate place in the building. Our storage space was just around a corner. One evening I went to the storage space around 11pm to get some old plushies and when I opened the door and went around the corner I saw an middle aged man dressed up as a clown just creepily standing there in the back, I swear he had this crazy look in his eyes."

"I bolted out there as fast as I could. I told my mom and she called the police. When they arrived the man was still standing in the corner and he didn't fight back when the police arrested him. Apparently he used a lot of drugs and was just spacing out. They never told me how he got in the storage space, but they changed the lock after that incident."

- hisoka_hoe

The Dog Sees

Giphy

"My grandma had Alzheimers and maybe dementia when she lived with us. Her room was also like right down the hallway from mine, so it was really common for me to be woken up in the night to her laughing, screaming, or talking. One night things where different, I could hear her talking and someone responding."

"I got up to take a close look and I noticed my dog looked like something was wrong, which was weird to me. I went up to the door to hear things better. She was paralyzed on her right side so I though this was just my mom coming to help her with something, but the responding voice was a male voice. My dad didn't live with us and I don't have any brothers, nor did this sound like her own voice at all."

"My first thought was that it was my uncle but why would my uncle be at my house? If he was then there was something wrong with my grandma because he would only come this late when there was an emergency. I also would have heard him coming through the front door. I put myself against the wall in a way that I could see into my grandmas room but anyone in the room couldn't see me unless they where at the room door. I couldn't see anyone or anything except my grandmas feet."

"I got close enough to make out what they were saying now, but what made this weirder is that my grandma wasn't speaking English and neither was the person she was talking to. They where speaking Farsi, her native language. This was the conversation I heard."

"Voice- They have been treating you well?"

"Grandma- Yes they have been treating me very well"

"Voice- Who is the guy in the hallway?"

"Grandma- That is my grandson, he's a good kid.

"Voice- I think the dog sees me."

"At this point I freaked out and made my way back to my room. I thought I was in a nightmare or something and I wanted to wake up. My first though was that I could pinch myself, that didn't work so I tried to poke myself with my knife. I did it pretty hard because it left a mark in my hand that stayed for a few days. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't.

"I watched the sun light come up through my window with this very uneasy feeling that I was being watched. My grandma lived for another 5 years with us and a few more minor weird things happened but this one always stuck with me."

- The_Saweed

Nosebleed

"I've told this before on here but years ago, me and my family went camping. At this campground, you could rent golf carts as it was rather large and had a lot of trails. So it's late and me and my sister (probably aged 13 (me) and 16(sis) around the time) are driving down one of the trails, our parents and other siblings back at the camp site, and we come to a fork in the path. To the right, is the obviously clear trail, to the left it looks like a trail but there's still quite a bit of brush. We take the left trail."

"After about a minute or two down the trail we both started getting a very uneasy feeling. Like that chilling feeling of when something completely shocks you. Out of nowhere, we both hear the unmistakable voice of our mother say "Honey, why is your nose bleeding?"

"My sister whipped the cart around and we sped back to the main trail. When we got back to the trail my sister's nose dripped 3-4 drops of blood and stopped. We went back to our camp site and called it a night."

"To this day neither of us have any kind of logical explanation as to what possibly happened."

- CarsenAF

The Light

"Went out to a secluded camping spot years ago. A buddy had this secret site up in the mountains that he used in high school. Literally middle of nowhere in the mountains, about an hour off main roads with no gps. We got out, lit up a joint and started setting up, when I saw a single light through the trees about 100 yards away. It was moving as if it was a headlamp of some sort. When I pointed it out, my high buddy shouted hello towards it and the movement stopped abruptly with no reply."

"I wasn't that nervous until my friend who's spot this was said he'd never saw another soul in this area for all the years he'd camped there."

"We called out again, but the light remained motionless. We were all getting a creepy feeling, why it wasn't moving anymore and I casually/jokingly commented that if it was me and I wished us harm, I'd have strapped the headlight to a tree and then snuck around behind us...

"Literally at that moment a branch snapped about 30 feet to our left. We immediately threw everything back into the truck without a word and hightailed it out of there without looking back."

- iamjacksragingupvote

Something From The Forest

"I was about 17 or 18 at the time and me and my friends (2M 2F) and I decided to go camping. One of my friends knew a guy who had this large territory with a nice house by the lake and the guy was away that day, so he let us use the property. He had a dog as well, who he left at the property since he knew we were gonna be coming to keep him some company. The entrance to the property was fenced off, but the rest was just surrounded by forests and a lake. We decided to set up our tents in a small open field next to the forest."

"Fast forward a few hours to after some of the classic camping activities."

"We went to bed around 1-2 am and the girls were staying in one tent while me and my friend stayed in the other. Me and my friend BOTH woke up at the same time around 3-4am since we heard some twigs and branches breaking as something was slowly approaching our tent. The footsteps were really heavy so it could not have been the dog."

"You could tell that whoever or whatever it was, was very careful about approaching and tried placing their steps carefully so we wouldn't hear the twigs snapping, At this point me and my friend were absolutely terrified. Right before it reached the tent, the dog started barking in the distance and came SPRINTING to our tent."

"We heard the mysterious thing run away into the forest and about 5-10 seconds later I poked my head out of the tent and tried to see anything running away, but I only saw the dog coming out of the forest back to us. In the morning we asked the girls if they had heard anything and they said no. God bless dogs. Might've saved us."

- TonijsB

Time Loops

"My friend experienced these prolonged deja vu experiences that would last days at a time. He referred to them as time loops, and they worried him heavily. I suspected it was just deja vu, being a misfire in the brain that just feels like you've already experienced something when you in fact hadn't."

"One day we were talking about it, and as we did I walked towards my piano to play for a while. As I did so he said plainly "Hold me closer tiny dancer"

"I hadn't yet pushed a key but that was what I wanted to play. I decided then not to and went towards the tv that had switched to commercial. We sat and as soon as we did, a commercial came on that played Tiny Dancer."

"He seemed worried and so did I. There were a bunch of similar instances that occurred after this one. He died in 2017, and we never did figure out what that was."

- envy_313

Static

Giphy

"After watching "The Ring" in theaters for the first time around 13 years of age, I was incredibly freaked out. Later that night I was up late watching Even Stevens reruns because I couldn't sleep. I shit you not, all of a sudden my tv went to the black and white fuzzy screen like in the movie, with the same noise. I quickly ran to unplug the tv and turn on the light (and my change underwear). This had never happened on this tv before, and never happened again."

- Tvaughan37

Real Estate Photos

""This happened when I was younger, I'd say 13 or 14. I was going for my usual walk around the neighborhood when a man in a pickup truck stopped at the corner in front of me, he rolled his window down, pulled out a camera, and took a picture of me."

"Royally creeped out, I rushed back home, sneaking through a back yard hoping he wouldn't see me. I went into the garage to tell my parents (they were having a garage sale). They didn't think much of it and told me to go inside if I was so worried about it.

"The dude did show up again. This time he was taking pictures of the house across the street from us. The house was for sale so I assumed he was a real estate agent or something... but why would a real estate agent need pictures of a little girl?"

- MoonDoggos

Legs, legs,legs

"Once I went to a conference with my sister. She is much much younger than me, but we look very alike. There was a "photographer" there who approached us and took a couple of shots. I didn't mind, he looked ok. But then, he became really annoying, photographing us at any point, going after us wherever we went."

"At some point, I casually asked to look at the pictures he took from the day, in case i can use one or two. And holy crap. All I see is just a few pictures of attendees at the conference and the two of us from all the angles: our legs photographed from behind, me separately, my sister separately, legs, legs, legs, top. I got so spooked and started to delete everything as far as I could go and just tried to avoid him as much as possible."

"My sister was 14 at the time."

- Holi_Canoly

Voices

"I have an old amp for my guitar in my room. It's pretty messed up and kind of broken. Sometimes the amp will hiss and pop until you shake the input jack to just the right spot."

"A couple of times while I was home alone and was playing guitar, I'd hear voices, which freaked me out. I would do a quick run around the house to make sure it was empty and return, by then, the amp would be hissing and popping once more. Another time when I heard the voices of sounded like it was coming from the corner of my room where the amp is, so I put my ear up to the amp and what do I hear: a commercial for some sort of medicine."

"Turns out my amp sometimes can pick up radio signals. Moral of the story, check your electronics."

- FlaredCell

The Top Of The Stairs

"This happened back when I was 9 years old. My parents were going out to dinner with friends for the night and hired a babysitter to watch over me while they were gone. We'll call her "Sarah" for the purposes of this story. She was in the 8th grade at the time and just so happened to be the daughter of my 3rd grade teacher. (I was in 4th grade when this happened.) We were in my basement with most of the lights off watching a taped documentary about the 9/11 attacks, which had occurred only about a month or so before this. At some point Sarah said she had to use the bathroom so I paused the tape. While I was waiting for her, I decided to get us a couple of those push-popsicles from the freezer located in the large unfinished storage room in our basement."

"The entrance to the storage room was located immediately at the bottom of the steps leading upstairs, so you had to walk right past them in order to get in. For some reason it didn't hit me right away, but as soon as I opened the door to the freezer I remember getting this extremely eerie feeling that I saw something out of the corner of my eye at the top of the steps. As I walked out of the storage room I looked up at the top of the stairs leading to the basement."

"I didn't see anything, but I remained standing there looking up at the same spot for a few more seconds. It was dark up there due to the lights being off, but there was still enough light to see what happened next."

"I saw a head slowly poke its way out of the left side of the door frame at the top of the steps. The expression on the face looking down at me was something so disturbing and so terrifying there's no way I can fully convey it with words. Their eyes were opened so wide with their upper lip sort of tucked under itself exposing their top teeth with their mouth partially opened, creating this horrifyingly insane face that I can never get out of my mind. I know it's such a cliche, but I really did feel completely frozen with terror."

"After a few seconds, still with only their head poking out of the side of the door frame, they screamed at me so f*cking loud with this high pitched (almost feminine) scream. I was so terrified I felt like I was going to pass out."

"Then I heard the bathroom door fly open and hit the wall from the other side of the basement. Sarah began frantically calling my name and started running over to me. The head looking down at me was gone. I told her what happened and we turned on all the lights in the basement. Sarah grabbed the phone and called the police."

"My basement had a sliding glass door and several windows which all had thin blinds. But a person outside would still be able to see the silhouette of someone standing in front of them if the lights were on. So we sat with our backs up against the back wall so nobody would be able to see us from the backyard."

"While Sarah was on the phone with the police we could fear footsteps and crunching leafs coming from outside. Then we heard what sounded like a person with sweaty hands putting her hands on the sliding glass door and rubbing them up and down creating that squeaky "rubbing on glass" noise. Then they started making these moaning noises in an unmistakably sexual way."

"I looked at Sarah and she was beginning to breakdown and cry while still trying not to make too much noise. It seemed like forever until we heard the sound of heavy boots coming from upstairs, then the sound of a walkie-talkie. We heard someone yell "(such and such) county police!". We yelled that we were downstairs and two police officers came down."

"We must have look absolutely terrified, because they looked at us like they'd seen a ghost. As we all walked back upstairs together there were several other police officers there. One of them was on his hands and knees at the stop of the steps putting his noise towards a puddle of liquid on the floor as if to smell it, and I heard him say "urine". This fucking lunatic pissed himself on my floor."

"The police took our statements and stayed with us until my parents arrived. They searched our entire house top to bottom as well as our entire neighborhood and the nearby area, but they never caught the person, and that's what scares me the most. To this day I'm left with more questions than answers. It was all just so fucking bizarre. I'm now 27 years old, and to this day I still can't help but feel severely traumatized by this experience. I still talk to Sarah from time to time, and she tells me she feels the same way."

- Lefty092

Red Square

Giphy

"Once, I was visiting a friend at her university. We spent the day chilling and hanging out, then for the night, she had invited a couple of her friends from other dorms to meet me and have a drink. I had bought a bottle of vodka, so we were all happily drinking that. Once we were nicely drunk, we realized we had a problem. We had run out of vodka. We scoured the kitchen all together, everywhere- in cupboards, in fridges, on the surfaces..... before the others had the idea of going back to their dorm to pick up an old bottle they had from the night before."

"They brought it in, and it was called Red Square vodka (I remember making a point that I'd never seem that brand of vodka before). We drank a bunch of it, and half was left when we started winding down. After a while, we all decided to go to sleep, as we were all very drunk and very tired."

"The two friends left, leaving their vodka. I grabbed it off the table, ran after them, and gave it to them, before returning. Me and my mate cleaned up, and sat talking for 10 or so minutes. Suddenly, just when I was about to go to sleep, I look at the table, and see the bottle of vodka. Red square, with the exact amount of vodka we had left, in the exact spot it had been before I picked it up to give it to them. I pointed it out, and we sat there in shock."

"There was no way we hadn't seen it. We had scoured the entire room before going to get that bottle, and had sat in the room for hours after, and there it was, smack in the middle of the table. The same bottle. We called up the others to confirm that I had in fact given them back the bottle they brought. I had. And yet, it was sitting here, right informer of me. The same brand, the same amount, the same place."

"Sometimes I wonder about that. As soon as I do, everything I think I understand is called into question."

- _AnonOp

These are some deeply creepy stories.

Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Infamous Internet Rumors That Ended Up Being True

Reddit user strakerak asked: 'What started out as an internet rumor that ended up being infamously true?'

boy playing at laptop inside room
Photo by Ludovic Toinel on Unsplash

In 2017, I returned to my office after my lunch break to hear my supervisors discussing Tom Petty. This seemed like a random topic to me until one of my supervisors told me Tom Petty had passed away. He was a huge fan of Petty and spent the next hour or so combing through the internet to get more information.

He came back into the room my other supervisor and I were working in and announced that Tom Petty wasn't dead after all. News outlets had jumped the gun to announce his death, but he was actually still alive.

The next day, I came in to find out that Tom Petty was dead; the news may have been premature, but true.

This is a classic example of the rumor being started on the internet. Sometimes, like with the news of Tom Petty's death, the rumor can run wild and appear everywhere. Other times, the rumor can be seen by just a few people and dismissed. However, a lot of times, these rumors turn out to be true.

Redditors know a lot of internet rumors that turned out to be true, and are eager to share.

It all started when Redditor strakerak asked:

"What started out as an internet rumor that ended up being infamously true?"

The King Of Pop

"Michael Jackson writing the music for Sonic 3."

"He actually did, but was never credited on the game because it would breach his contract with his record label."

– -WigglyLine-

"He did the same when he appeared on The Simpsons. He appeared under a pseudonym, and the Producers said it was an impersonator."

"Only years later they confirmed it really was Michael."

"His singing voice was actually done by an impersonator, though."

– given2fly_

The Truth Comes Out

"In 1998, US Men’s National Team captain John Harkes was shockingly cut from the team right before the World Cup. The coach claimed it was because Harkes wouldn’t fit into his new preferred formation, but rumors flew on the early internet that it was actually because he had slept with his teammate Eric Wynalda’s wife. The rumor was so well-known in soccer circles that Harkes expressly denied it in his autobiography the next year."

"Fast forward 12 years to 2010 and Wynalda admits it’s true. The coach then came out and admitted it was why he dropped Harkes, but that he’d planned to keep the secret as long as Wynalda did."

– guyfromsoccer

Video Evidence

"The Tim Burton Hansel and Gretel that aired once on halloween in the 80's."

"I heard for years that it was fake but I knew it was real because my dad recorded everything in the 80s and he recorded that. We let a good friend of ours borrow it and switch it over from VHS to DVD and soon after that it made its way on to the internet , and there it is now. I know it's our copy because the tracking in the beginning is screwed up. Still have the VHS."

– Frozenthickness

"There was a similar story with a Nickelodeon movie called Cry Baby Lane. It was supposed to be so scary that Nickelodeon got complaints and denied its existence for years. Someone uploaded a taped copy to youtube about a decade ago."

– PattiAllen

The Movie Business

"That North Korea hacked Sony Pictures because of The Interview movie."

"I worked in the movie business at the time and the account managers at Sony all basically needed to get new identities as all of their personal information got leaked online."

OldMastodon5363

"My partner worked on that movie and the production bought all the crew 1 year of an identity theft tracking service."

CMV_Viremia

Keep Away From The Ears Of Kids

"Some banned episodes or scenes of cartoons."

"For example, I remember there was a Dexter’s Lab cartoon where he clones evil versions of DeDe and himself and they swear like every other word (censored of course), and people debated whether it even existed cause they only aired it like once. Now it’s pretty accessible online."

– Spledidlife

Yes, It's True

"Echelon, a massive electronic espionage system by the US and allies to intercept all electronic messages, especially emails."

"In the mid-nineties it was a topic on conspiracy BBS boards. A lot of people in my bubble at the time (mainly uni students in Europe) were including fake threats to the US in the their email signatures as a way to "protest" and "fill the system with false alarms" (obviously useless)."

"Then, in 1999-2000 came out to be true and a lot of security service agencies from UK and other US allies started to admit they were part of the espionage network."

– latflickr

How The Mighty Fell

"John Edward’s love child."

– ACam574

"A reminder that he was cheating on his wife while she was hospitalized for cancer treatment."

– Fanclock314

Ugh...

"Carrie Fisher's heart attack. Some a**hole who was on the same flight was livetweeting the whole medical emergency and justified it by insisting she was just making sure the family was informed."

– everylastlight

It Actually Happened

"Every year around her birthday there was a rumor that Betty White died. When I heard she died, I scoffed, saying that dumb rumor is back.... then saw it on the news. I was in shock."

– Known-Committee8679

"The fact that Betty died literally right before she turned 100 is such a Betty White way to go out."

– Paganigsegg

Big Actor, Small Roles

"I distinctly remember some rumors about the reason why Bruce Willis was taking so many roles in sh*tty movies before it was announced he has dementia."

– KampferMann

"RedLetterMedia did a deep dive on his recent movie activity to try and work out why exactly he was taking part in basically scam-movies. They noticed he had an earpiece in one of the scenes and joked that the director was feeding him lines. I remember they even disclaimed over the rumours at the time, and possible made a follow-up vid when it was revealed to the public."

– CardinalCreepia

What To Do Next?

"That the writer of LOST were making it up as they went."

"Turned out to be absolutely true."

– homarjr

That last one was kind of obvious!

Do you have any to add? Let us know in the comment below.

Person holding large stack of books
Photo by Jay Lamm on Unsplash

Whether you're naturally interested in fun facts and trivia or not, it's always nice to know a few that you can pull out of your pocket at a moment's notice as a nice conversation starter.

But there are some fun facts out there that are so weird, people become more preoccupied with how the teller found out that information rather than the information itself.

Redditor Dry_Bus_935 asked:

"What is your 'don't ask me how I know' random fact?"

Nuclear Fail Safe

"You have quite a lot of time, certainly more than ten seconds, to turn back on the main pumps of a nuclear reactor once you have accidentally turned them off."

- egorf

"I'm not surprised. The amount of fail safes, redundancies, and emergency scenario planning for nuclear power plants is insane."

"I toured a nuclear plant and wrote my high school senior thesis on the plans put in place to ensure the Fukushima disaster would not happen at that plant."

"I'm sure the secondary pumps are plenty capable of handling the reactor until the main pumps are repaired or just turned back on."

- Borderlandsman

Happy Cat

"If your cat chews on fresh eucalyptus, they might start hallucinating and fall over repeatedly, leading to a $400 emergency vet bill just to be told she’s just kinda high."

- oddidealstronghold

"And, that's part of why koalas love it. Little stoners."

- littlebluefoxy

Archaeology: Do Not Lick

"Old human bones are very porous, so if you lick them, they’ll stick to your tongue."

- clanculcarius

Sharing is Caring

"A pigeon will only eat a Starburst if you chew it up a little bit first. Just to clarify: chew the Starburst, not the pigeon."

- OhTheHueManatee

"Instructions unclear. Pigeon unhappy."

- Wild-Lychee-3312

Intriguing Anatomy

"Everyone is here with the creepy crime stuff, and I'm just like, 'A soft fur rat has 22 nipples.'"

- horroscoblue

"Okay, so either they have really small nipples, their nipples overlap, or they have nipples in places where there shouldn't be nipples."

"(I've never written the word 'nipples' so many times in a singular sentence before.)"

- GdeGraaf

'Don't Ask Me,' Indeed!

"Turmeric can be used as clothes dye. It is capable of permanently dyeing cotton cloth even after it has passed through the digestive tract of an adult male."

- SlefeMcDichael

"You s**t your pants, didn't you?"

- PMmecrossstitch

"I'd prefer not to answer that question."

- SlefeMcDichael

High-Risk Survival Skills

"If you ever trying to survive in the Arctic, don’t eat polar bear liver. It is so high in vitamin A, it will kill you."

- WrongWayCorrigan-361

"It's also surrounded by a lethal amount of angry polar bear."

- horanc2

Real-Life Spies

"TV shows and movies go out of their way to make military/intelligence officers look bada**."

"But real-life 'spies,' by design and training, are boring. They have regular houses and standard second-hand cars, they dress down, and they have vague, boring job titles (accounts receivable) as cover, and they do not draw attention to themselves. Most come from specialized academia."

- Ok_Worth_1093

Haunting Reality

"Your muscles can keep twitching for several hours after you die."

- JustDave62

"Also, beards can appear to grow. This is however not because the beard itself grows but because the skin shrinks."

- RRautamaa

"I worked at a morgue for over eight years. If you grasp the hand of a dead body to move the arm, the hand will grasp back, but that's just muscles and tendons reacting to the tension."

- goneferalinid

The Sneakiness of Drowning

"When a drowning victim is revived, get them to a hospital as soon as possible. Drowning is the leading cause of death of kids from the age of one to seven and is ruled as accidental drowning when it comes to secondary drowning or dry drowning."

"Basically, your lungs are full of water despite being revived. Your lungs will absorb the liquid, but not before your body acidifies from high levels of carbon dioxide. The only chance to survive is to have the lungs pumped with oxygen via CPAP machine and time."

"Also, drowning is extremely quiet. You don’t hear the victim go under. And if you see flailing, do not attempt to save the victim otherwise you’ll become another drowning victim. Throw them a lifeline and hope their amygdala realizes that a rope or something is floating near them and grabs on it."

- Dfiggsmeister

Not Everyone's Favorite Chocolate

"Hershey’s chocolate has the strong smell of vomit or feces to some people (me), and that’s because they use butyric acid as a preservative. Butyric acid is the compound that makes vomit smell so bad."

"Edit: Digging further into it, there are some claims that they may not be “adding” the butyric acid, but rather it is occurring from essentially spoiling the milk in their milk chocolate. Either way, the butyric acid and putrid smell remains a part of their product."

- hefewiseman1

"That explains the weird aftertaste I always get! I don’t smell it but their chocolate always has this super unpleasant sharp/acidic aftertaste that I find repulsive. I assume this is why!!"

- PomegranateNo975

Do Not Lick the Asbestos

"Asbestos tastes like chalk. And if you lick it, it has the texture of extremely gritty sandpaper. Which is actually the feeling of microscopic asbestos needles piercing your flesh!"

- TooYoungToBeThisOld1

Mapping Out the War

"Beginning in 1911 in anticipation of the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, two statesmen, one from England and one from France, began visiting locations in France that they believed would be the settings for a number of major battles that would occur during the great war."

"Long bike rides through these future battle zones in the countryside and weeks spent building a foundation for a French-Anglo codebook that would later prove important in helping win the war."

- fjordperfect123

Avoiding Lawsuits > Protecting Patients

"Doctors, or surgeons more specifically, that make too many mistakes during surgery, ie, leaving instruments in patients, frequently gets ‘quietly traded’ to other hospitals where they continue their path of destruction with the patients not being aware of their past record. Hospitals tend to keep quiet about the matter to avoid lawsuits."

- Kittytigris

Bonus Points: Do This While Having Lunch in Your Car

"If you overfill a fast food gravy cup and then put a lid on, it will create a pressurized gravy stream that sprays all over your face and uniform while your coworker looks on in horror."

- thechaosjester776

This subReddit thread was so a roller-coaster of random facts, we've surely all walked away learning something.

But the biggest takeaway might just be: Maybe don't lick so many things.

Shocked woman covering her mouth
vaitheeswaran Nataraj/Unsplash

When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.

But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.

Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.

It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.

Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:

"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"

These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.

Bleeding Out

"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."

"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."

– DongLaiCha

Tragic News

"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."

– accountnameredacted

Bottom Of The Barrel

"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."

– Crotch-Monster

A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.

Like Father, Like Son

"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."

– psycospaz

Busted

"Flashing blue lights."

– FiddleOfGold

"This sobered me up just thinking about it."

– redmaple_syrup

Losing Sight

"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."

– MissHibernia

Quitting The Bottle

"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."

– omgtater

These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.

Unplanned House Guests

"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."

– Oneinsevenbillion75

Serious Health Warning

"Elevated liver enzymes."

"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."

"So I opted for recovery, instead."

"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."

– Far_Meal8674

The Joyride

"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."

– foxfood9116

The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?

How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.

But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.

Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.

Woman holding multiple shopping bags
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.

Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.

These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.

From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.

Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:

"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"

"Tale As Old As Time..."

"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","

"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."

"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."

"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."

"Lol!"

"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom

"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."

"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."

"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."

"I think he was a germaphobe."

"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."

"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."

"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.

"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."

"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."

"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000

Money Burn GIF by nog Giphy

Who Wore It Better?

"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."

"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."

"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."

"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'

"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"

"No."- mertsey627

Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...

"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."

"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."

"It was very low key."

"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."

"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."

"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."

"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."

"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa

south park wedding GIF Giphy

See You In Court!

"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."

'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."

"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."

"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."

"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."

"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin

It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!

"I work in a public library."

"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."

"A popular book that just came out."

"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."

"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten

A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!

"My own."

"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"

"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."

"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"

"Unacceptable!"

"This shall not stand!"

"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."

"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."

"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."

"I got over it."- DeathGrover

homer simpson episode 23 GIF Giphy

Holy Matrimony!

"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."

"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."

"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."

"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."

"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."

"It's just a party."

"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree

When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...

"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore

In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...

"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."

"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."

"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."

"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."

"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."

"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."

"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."

"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."

"We don’t offer wrapping services."

"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."

'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae

Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso Giphy

Happiest Place On Earth!

"I used to work for Disney."

"That in itself should tell you everything."

"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."

"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."

"Suddenly got worse huh?"

"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."

"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."

"I'm not kidding."

"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."

"My wife worked booking."

"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."

"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."

"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."

"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."

"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."

"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong

Disney World GIF Giphy

The horror!

Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!

It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...

Said absolutely no one.