A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet. Or...stranger danger. Honestly, the world views strangers in several different ways, but either one of the extremes results in an unforgettable story.
u/Feathersandinks asked:
Is there a stranger you've never forgotten about, what was it about them?
Here were some of the answers.
Play Til You Win!
When I was about 5 years old I was at a restaurant with my family and they had one of those claw prize machine games. My mom gave me a dollar to play and I was fixated on a little teddy bear stuffed animal prize. Naturally I was horrible at the game and had to walk away defeated. I returned to the dinner table and had we had our dinner. Apparently in that time an old man went up to the machine and kept playing for that teddy until he got it. He walked over with the prize and handed it to me. It was such a kind gesture.
However, at the time I was freaked out a man I didn't know was trying to hand me something. My mom ended up taking it from him and gave it to me in the car because all I did was just stare at him and sit frozen like a statue. Kids can be *ssholes. I hope he somehow knew how much I did end up appreciating the bear. I still think about it 25 years later and cringe at my reaction.
iCouldnt
I was 17, and had been living in a facility for several years. I was outbound on a flight to the east coast to go see one of my brothers graduate from high school. It was the first time I'd left the facility since being committed.
While I'm waiting in line to board, a handsome, early 30's guy in front of me in a business suit is cracking jokes via a bluetooth headset. I'm watching him thinking, "damn, tech has come so far... I have missed so much." and sort of daydreaming about the kind of life he must have. He looks (in retrospect) like a cross between Steven Colbert and Chris Trager from P&R. Handsome, slightly aged, smile for days.
To my surprise, we end up sitting next to each other on the flight. As we're getting settled, he's cracking up watching something on his computer. I'm curious, but don't want to be nosy. He's laughing so hard he keeps having to sigh to get the breaths out of him after each fit of laughter. Just as I'm about to put my headphones in, he leans towards me and asks, a little puckishly, "Do you like satire? Do you want to see something really f*cking funny?"
I'm a little taken aback. I'm sitting there with my CD player (we weren't allowed to have mp3 players where I was living), feeling so painfully out of date and out of place next to his guy, and I'm only a teenager, why is this successful business man who could be talking to anybody he wanted, talking to me? "Uhh yeah man, I like funny stuff. Whatcha got?" I respond.
He pulls out and fancy pants apple computer (which I'd never seen before, due to being away from tech for so long) and shows me [this video] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ).
We both just lose it. We are laughing so loud, he is slapping his knees, I am crying.
We aren't allowed to watch youtube where I'm at, so all of this is so new to me. I love this type of deadpan humour, and it's ahead of its time for being from the mid 2000's.
After it's over, I have this incredible desire to watch it again, to relive that moment, where I have laughed harder than I have in my entire life, with this total stranger, but realizing the moment has passed. He then turns to me, smile just stretching out his beautiful face, and says, "Okay okay I'm sorry but can we please watch that again?"
I just groan, "UGH, YES?? PLEASE?" So we watch it again! It's even better the second time around. We're quoting it as it happens, through breathless laughter, and people around us are starting to lean in and figure out what's so funny. We may have made a minor scene, but folks around us were smiling inquisitively. Laughter, and smiling, is contagious. This is the happiest I've been in years.
When the video is over, the guy turns to me and asks if I have an ipod. I look down at my CD player and bashfully say "no, not yet.. I don't really have any money for that anyway."
"Well, do you want one?" he asks, "I have about.. 16 in my backpack. My company got our business card information printed on the back of these nano ipods since we have a contract with them. Now, don't get too excited, they're only 16gb (at the time, 32gb was the largest there was for the nano, he explained) bur it should still be a bit of an upgrade from that CD player you got there!"
I'm sitting there kind of freaking out, thinking there's no way this is real. He's going to forget, or he's just trying to be nice, or it's all some sort of joke. I've learned not to trust anything until it's in front of me. False promises are like currency where I've been living. Nothing nice comes for free. Just enjoy the moment.
The rest of the flight was fun. For 4 hours, we'd take turns so naturally at talking with one another, then doing our respective things for an hour, then talking again. The flow with this guy was insane. And I forgot, completely, that I wasn't an equal to this guy. He made me feel like I was just another work colleague or friend. He asks me about my goals in life, the music I'm into. And none of this is predatory "older man" type stuff. He's just a genuinely friendly guy who genuinely wants to share his happiness with whoever is around him, and it happens to be me.
Once we deboarded the plane, he stops me at the gate and said, "Hey wait up! Don't think I forgot about that ipod, little lady! Here ya go!" and hands me this brand spanking new, electric blue ipod nano.
This thing is like gold to me. It is so beautiful, I can't stop turning it over and over in my hands. I feel like I might cry. I don't know what to say. He's just smiling at me and says, "I can tell you're a really smart kid. Crazy smart. That must drive you insane sometimes, I'll bet. But you're gonna make it, and you're going to do great things. I can see that. I hope you don't forget it. Sorry again that's only a 16g. I'd have given you mine if I didn't need the music that's on it right now. Anyway, good luck!"
And then he's gone.
I will never forget him. He did a wonderful thing for me that day. I still tell that story time to time. I can't remember the name of the company but I will never forget that guy. He did a small thing for me in his eyes--but in my eyes, he gave me a profound gift. Kindness.
And a smile that lasted for days.
A Whole New Kind Of Fomo
Guy walked up to me, put a quarter in my hand, and said make a decision. I had nothing to decide on so I flipped it and said "heads I go out for lunch". I caught it and before I could see it he took the coin off my hand, said "you should have decided to keep the quarter" and walked off.
To this day I feel as though I failed some sort of secret organizations entry test.
Young Kids Mafia
I was flying home from a business trip and my flight got canceled for weather reasons. There were direct flights that didn't have to pass through the weather but I wasn't on one of those.
I went to the flight desk and tried to rescheduled, it was my son's birthday the next day, either his first or second. So I was begging with the woman at the desk to help me get home for it. They told me I was likely not even to get a flight home THE NEXT DAY and I was going to miss it entirely because of demand, etc.
I was begging, I was offering to pay more (didn't matter, all booked), have them switch me to a different airline (no other airlines from this airport can get you there - not sure I believed that), offered to do 2 or 3 hops overnight whatever it took. She just kept steam rolling me.
A guy in the line heard me, stepped up, said he was whoever he was and would give me his ticket on the next direct flight. He was some VIP and listening to the conversation was like night and day. The second they stone walled him he just told them to get the manager, then they basically did whatever he said.
I tried to thank him and he wouldn't take anything from me. Just told me he knew what it was like when he had young kids and I should enjoy it while I can.
It was one of the the greatest things anyone ever did for me.
Here Come The Tears
After my grandmother died, I went to the cemetery with some of her favorite flowers on the day that would've been her birthday.
As I arranged the flowers at the grave, a kindly lady stopped by and remarked about their beauty.
She noticed from the engraved monument that it was my grandmother's birthday, and said, "If I were your grandmother, I'd be proud to have a grandson like you."
She just left at that point, and I stood there amazed that someone would care enough to go out of their way to share something so special - so comforting - with a stranger.
Lifesaver
So, was grocery shopping and chatting with this person behind me. I have Epilepsy (seizures) that have been becoming more frequent. All I remember was talking and then waking up and just surrounded by him and paramedics. When I got to the ER, I was told the gentleman had caught me BEFORE I hit my head on the hard tile and held me on my side the whole time. I want so badly to thank him for that or else it could've been much worse for me. I could have bitten my tongue, hit my head, swallowed vomit or foam if I had foamed at the mouth and chocked on it. But I didn't, because he basically saved me. So thank you, kind sir.
Impostor Syndrome
I'm working on my computer in the study lounge in college when I notice my friend sneaking up on me through the reflection of my computer screen, trying to scare me. I let it happen, letting him creep closer. At the last second, before he is about to scare me, I spin around in order to scare HIM.
We both scream in shock!
It's not my friend at all. It's a random guy who was sneaking up on me, because he thought I was someone else, while I let it happen because I thought HE was someone else.
After the initial shock, we collapse laughing for a good long while, he is very apologetic, and then he goes on his way while I continue working. The memory still makes me smile and I still know what he looks like (not at all like my friend, turns out computer reflections are very deceiving).
A Calming, Yet Unsettling, Presence
A few years ago I was at a bar on the beach with two friends of mine. It was the last day of our two-week summer vacation and the sun was setting on the sea, so it was a pretty magical moment already.
This skinny man with long, curly grey hair, light blue eyes, almost grey, shorts and a short-sleeve Hawaiian shirt walks up next to us and orders a drink at the bar. He turns around to face us with a deeply relaxing, almost therapeutic smile and in a very soft, whispered voice, without having introduced himself or anything, confides in us: "You know why I'm so happy and free of worries? Because I've accepted that I'm mortal. I'm at peace with my inevitable death. When I truly realized that, I became perpetually serene."
I found it particularly moving because I was in a bit of a rough period of my life and also because I had kind of wondered within myself that this man looked so calm, so it was like he knew what I had thought when I saw that smile if his. Then he just grabbed his drink, gave us a smiling nod and walked away on the beach.
Pre-Society
I think I was about 8 or 9. My parents would always go to the mall during the weekends and I thought it was boring so I'd always bring my Gameboy Advance to play Pokemon throughout the day. We were once waiting in a bank for some errands so I just sat somewhere inside and played Pokemon until they were finished. Next to me was an elderly American man who just kept staring at my Gameboy and proceeded to talk to me about it.
Now me being the naive kid, I just started to talk about the game and the pokemon that I had and how the game is played. English wasn't my first language but I could manage myself enough to have a conversation. He talked to me about his young days and then talked about how the landscape of my country was when he moved in from NY in the 60s.
He talked to me about how before the mall ever existed there was long deep green vegetation as far as his eyes could see. My 9-year-old brain was mind-blown about the way he was describing a lot of things before something was constructed in them. It made me really appreciate nature in my country because at some point in my life I will be the one describing them to another generation.
When my parents came to get me after their errand, the elderly man complimented to my parents how good my english was for my age. My parent responded back smiling in broken english, "He speaks better english than any of us in the family."
I just graduated college and I still ask myself what has become of him.
Maine Squeeze
My family encountered a young mother and her baby at the beach bus stop in Maine one warm summer evening. The bus had driven right by her while she was tending the child at the bench, waiting for the bus. She waved, yelled, everything. By the time we crossed the parking lot and got to her to see what was wrong (had she been attacked?) she was in tears, full new-mom meltdown. Stroller, baby bag, lunch cooler all packed and ready, and the bus didn't even pause.
The bus was her only transportation, rain was imminent all the way up the coast, and they lived an hour away. The panic was palpable and she needed to just calm down. So we called an Uber for her, which got her to the next bus station where she could then use her bus ticket home. The uber driver texted me and had made sure she got on the bus. I still think of her and the little boy and hope they are well. Being a single mom is no picnic, and even when you think you've done everything right, prepared for all contingencies, one thing going wrong just guts you. Be well, Maine Mama!
Small Help
When I was in college I didn't have a car. One evening I was leaving the grocery store, thinking about how I bought too many heavy things as I struggled with the load, I was seriously starting to think I had too much to carry for the km walk home. It was snowing too. All of a sudden someone runs up from behind me and grabs the bags out of my left hand. It was this polite guy, about my age, he offered to help carry my bags with me until our paths split. He carried my bags most of the way and we parted ways,.
That was 18 years or so ago but I have never forgotten that kind gesture from a stranger. I was really struggling with mental health at the time and basically felt disconnected from the world. This interaction changed my perception of the world.
Catch A Falling Star And Put It In Your Pocket
I love this story:
So remember that big meteor shower a few years ago? Yeah, I missed it because I was working. I tried to lay out on my patio late to see if I could see anything, but I live in a major city so the light pollution was too much. I saw maybe one or two little pin-points shoot across the sky.
The next day I'm leaving work, and this one girl and I are standing at the crosswalk. Out of the corner of my eye I see this bright light.
A HUGE shooting star just streaks throughout the sky. It was so bright that it was blue. There were sparkles like fireworks. It lasted for several seconds and crossed the entire horizon.
"WOAH DID YOU SEE THAT!?"
"Was that a shooting star??"
"That was incredible!"
"I've never seen anything like that in my entire life!"
This girl and I, just the two of us, shared this awesome moment of seeing this incredible shooting star.
And we'll never see each other ever again.
So she's my shooting star friend :)
Hopefully, in her mind, I'm hers, as well.
Not Always The Best Time In A Car
When I was younger, maybe around 12 (20 years ago), my family was taking a road trip to visit my older sister in another province and my dad had to stay home and work. We got kind of lost and my mom turned off he highway onto a narrow side road to get her bearings. She tried to pull a u-turn on a small driveway (with a locked gate and guard dog/ no trespassing signs) but misjudged the space and had to back into the drive halfway through the turn. She misjudged that too and the rear passenger wheel went off the road and was hanging over the steep ditch that was beside the driveway, and the front wheels were now slightly in the air so we were stuck. My little sisters in the back of the van were freaking out and my mom was starting to panic about what to do (no cell phone, no idea where we really were, and a very inhospitable looking gate that we were stuck in front of). She got us all out of the van (possibly afraid it would fall back into the ditch) and my sisters were just crying on this little patch of driveway.
All of a sudden this old pickup truck comes driving up the road from the opposite way we came (so driving towards the highway) and pulls up next to us. "Hey you guys stuck? Here let me!" A big golden retriever hops out of the box of his truck and runs up to my sisters and just lays in front them and they all forget all their worries and they start petting this friendly dog and the guy hitched up a winch to van and pulled us out in about 2 minutes. He gave my mom directions back to where we wanted to go, hopped back in the truck with his dog and drove back the way he came as if his sole purpose from driving out to the highway from this random country road was to save trapped travellers.
Off we went without another issue and I always think of that guy as being the perfect person at the right place at the right time for what we needed.
Cute With A Tangy Name
I never once spoke to this kid.
My freshman year of high school, he sat behind me during the standardized test. Never saw him again until my junior year. Not even in the hallways.
Then every day in between three classes there he was, heading in the opposite direction of me. We passed each other every day for that whole year.
Then never saw him again.
Until graduation.
He sat next to me.
Like, i recognized this guy as the guy who scratched the metal of his pencil on the desk anxiously behind me during the test, with the pretty eyes and swoops hair, for three years. And then he was just the cute guy I passed in the hall every day.
And I didn't even see him at graduation rehearsals. I didn't see the dude until the day of graduation and he was sitting next to me.
Didn't even know his name until the principal said it so he could walk across the stage.
Poor guy was named after a soy sauce. Not really but his name was Kirkland.
The Curious Incident Of The Pizza And The Streaker
I was on a porch in Lexington drinking bourbon with a few of my buddies. It was an autumn night--certainly long pants and hoodie weather, but not all the way into coat territory yet. It was kinda the ghetto and streetlights were few and far between, however in the distance, we could see a man running up the street for all he was worth. As he got closer, it became apparent that he was about our age and wearing nothing but his shoes and his boxer shorts, and that he was carrying a pizza box. This man did not break from his sprint for an instant--we watched him tear up the last hundred yards or so at full, breakneck speed.
"Ay!" my friend Ricky shouted as the young man ran past us. "You alright, buddy?" They guy turned, full deer in the headlights expression, and then walked casually up to our porch.
"You guys want a pizza?" he asked, offering up the box he was carrying. Ricky took the box, opened it, and sure enough--there was an entire untouched pizza.
"Uhhh...thanks, man," Ricky replied. "You want like a shot of bourbon or some pants or anything?"
"No, no, I'm fine," the guy waved dismissively. "You guys have a great night!" And at that, he once again took off sprinting down the street. I watched him go for a minute before turning back to Ricky, who now had his face full of pizza.
"Dude," Ricky commented. "This is really good. It's like...still hot."
I've thought about this for years, and I still have absolutely no explanation for who this semi-nude, pizza-delivering mystery sprinter might be. Wherever you are--thanks, man. That was some seriously good pizza.
Sometimes The Only Upside
I had several ruptured aneurysms in my lung last year and was hospitalized for less than a week.
They put me in a big room, with four other beds.
Suddenly I hear loud laughter in the hallway coming towards my room. The curtains around my bed are closed, but I can tell it's an elderly man and his daughters are with him. He shouts "Any ladies in here?" "Yes." I reply. He grins loudly and says something like, he is a lucky boy, surrounded by pretty ladies, nurses and a ~lady~ room mate.
This man had severe dementia, and his daughters told that he was reliving his best years as a happy and healthy teenager. He was biking a few weeks ago, fell, and had to have hip surgery. He then forgot, biked and played soccer with some strangers in the park. He then fell again, and had to have the surgery all over. But he was so happy, and really made my stay wonderful.
Well, his daughters leave, and he asks if he can draw the curtains. He would love to see his ~lovely lady neighbour~. I tell him, okay. He draws the curtain and sees my nasal cannula, and my IV. He just laughs and tells me, that I probably couldn't play soccer with all that gear. And tells me I look very graceful. He was so lovely. He made me smile and laugh.
Before he came, I felt so lonely sad and was hurting. I had been puking a lot from vertigo and hadn't been able to eat.
The nurses return with dinner, and he asks if we could eat together. He just kept talking about soccer and how he couldn't wait to get out and play. We both had trouble eating and we both vomited after. I think he heard me cry, and he just joked about the food being terrible.
We hugged goodbye when I left a few days after and he said we should play soccer some time.
He really made my stay something else. Bless this man. He was the happiest man I have ever met. :')
There is a world full of mysteries to explore right at our very feet.
Do we engage with it on a level that might make us more uncomfortable? Well, if we really want to learn everything there is to know about our planet earth, we have to engage in the unsettling facts. They appear across every discipline.
The Easier Way Out
<p>During the French Revolution, where the guillotine was introduced, the people to be executed fought to be first, as the blade would dull after multiple uses and wouldn't cut a head clean off at the first attempt.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Back2Bach/" target="_blank">Back2Bach</a></p><p>And the last execution by guillotine in France was the same year Star Wars came out.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CaptainPrower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CaptainPrower</a></p>At LEAST One?!
<p>You have probably unknowingly encountered, or walked past at least one murderer in your lifetime.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/theprettyunicorn/" target="_blank">theprettyunicorn</a></p><p>For sure encountered. Worked night shift at a convenience store, guy pulled in to put gas came in the store used the atm and left. 3 min later swarm of cops surrounded the store. He had just murdered his family a couple states over and cops got a hit when he used the atm machine.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Cool1Mach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cool1Mach</a></p>WELP
<p>For a long time it was believed that babies were too underdeveloped to be able to feel pain, and as such, did not need anesthetic for any kind of surgeries.</p><p>Up into the 1980's.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/FartKilometre/" target="_blank">FartKilometre</a></p>Internet History
<p>Eventually, most of the content on the internet will have been created by dead people.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Phaesporic/" target="_blank">Phaesporic</a></p><p>Now I'm imagining a class like English literature but for internet culture and picturing a bored class with some kids sleeping while the teacher is saying some shit like "Okay class this meme is 100 years old and it says Me and the Boys going out to get some B E A N S what do the B E A N S symbolize and how does it reflect what was going on in society ? " lmao.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Cheshire_Cat8888/" target="_blank">Cheshire_Cat8888</a></p>Awful, Awful
<p>There are estimated to be at least 25 active serial killers in the United States alone at any given time. Very few will be detected, much less apprehended.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/brideofchuckydoll/" target="_blank">brideofchuckydoll</a></p><p>Derrick Todd Lee and Sean Vincent Gillis were both active serial killer in the same city from the late 90s to early 2000s. For most of this time, law enforcement did not realize they were trying to catch multiple individuals, much less that they were acting completely independently of each other. On top of that, there are additional unsolved murders that neither was ever linked to whose evidence raises the possibility of a third active serial killer in the area during the same time period.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/see-bees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">see-bees</a></p>Viewer, Beware....
<p>National parks are not all swings and roundabouts. Over 1600 people have gone inside Yellowstone National Park and never come out.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/I_Am_A_Master-Baiter/" target="_blank">I_Am_A_Master-Baiter</a></p><p>Yellowstone is known for boiling water and pools of acid. People on this earth put gorrilla glue in their hair. I don't have any questions about what happened.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MCqStep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MCqStep</a></p>Statistically....
<p>If you end up being the victim of a violent crime, you probably know the perpetrators. You probably trust them, most likely, you love them.</p><p><span data-verified="redactor" data-redactor-tag="span"></span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Double-Kicks/" target="_blank">Double-Kicks</a></p><p>People find it weird when the police declare most family members and close friends of murder victims to be suspects, but this is precisely why. You are FAR more likely to be (deliberately) killed by someone you know than a stranger. Also, in most countries and demographics, the most likely person to deliberately kill you is you.</p><p><span data-verified="redactor" data-redactor-tag="span"></span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kutuup1989/" target="_blank">kutuup1989</a></p>Our Brains Are Unsettling, Too
<p>There is a rare genetic degenerative brain disorder called Fatal Familial Insomnia. FFI starts as a mild inability to sleep followed by short bouts of intense nightmares/dreams and progressively deteriorates until the sufferer is completely unable to sleep, at all. Eventually impacting the human ability to microsleep as a last ditch effort of self preservation. There is no cure for FFI and eventually sufferers lose their minds and die of sleep deprivation. But it gets so much worse.</p><p>Due to the degenerative nature of the condition as it progresses you begin deteriorating mentally and physically. You lose the ability to regulate body temperature and may swing between freezing and sweating, you develop severe memory problems, confusion, agitation, weight loss, paranoia, hallucinations, speech problems, double vision, loss of motor controls (similar to parkinsons), inability to swallow, increased blood pressure and production of tears as well as many other unpleasant symptoms. The combination of your mind going and your body shutting down eventually kills you.</p>Rise Of The Machines
<p>There so far at least two fatalities as a result of robots, both of industrial type.</p><p>The first was in Flat Rock, Michigan in 1979 when an engineer was killed when he was hit in the back and crushed while retrieving parts at an automobile factory. It was due to a malfunctioning industrial robot he was fixing. The second was in Akashi, Hyōgo, Japan where a maintenance worker was fixing a broken-down robot when it came to life by mistake. Both locations happened in factories that are well-known for manufacturing vehicles.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MissSara101/" target="_blank">MissSara101</a></p>So Can We Fix The Justice System Now
<p>One to five percent of the US prison population is estimated to be innocent.</p><p>Combine that with the fact that one percent of the US population is incarcerated and your chance of being wrongly imprisoned in the 21st century is around 1 in 1000 in America.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Crocoshark/" target="_blank">Crocoshark</a></p>People Who Thoroughly Read The Terms And Conditions Share The Strangest Things They've Found
Let's be honest, most of us don't read the Terms and Conditions before we click that little "I Agree" button. Most of you probably aren't even going to read this intro.
A huge chunk of you are going to open this article and immediately scroll to "the meat" because we're all about getting to the good stuff. But that rush can sometimes mean missing out on some seriously important tidbits of info.
The Catch Was...
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4OTYxNy9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Mzg2NjM3N30.Zr6T7LGuuXaTr7NKBFfaCTwEc0Fvu3yJ-KdYO-Xk_No/img.gif?width=980" id="c41a3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f677f014d9104effd3b059212c9af24c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="480" data-height="270" />Giphy<p>I financed some furniture when I was young and getting established in my first professional job. It was interest-free financing for the first 12 months. </p><p>The catch was that if you paid late, they would charge you a fee, back-interest from the beginning of the loan period, and you would lose the interest free status for the rest of the loan. The APR was 29.9%, compounded monthly! </p><p>I couldn't imagine getting to the 11th payment and having something go wrong so a payment is late, then pay basically double what I had financed on the furniture.</p><p>I paid it off in 6 months, and I never did in-store financing again.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnx5tr1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">EngineeringQueen</a></p><p>This is most interest free gimmicks. Educate your friends. Usually the young ones fall victim to this.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gny23jj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Chimmiii</a></p><p>I sold furniture and we had financing like this and I made sure to always tells my customers this so they couldn't come at me later on down the road. Others didn't and it just seemed so shady and f*cked up to me.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnxldnd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Piccolo_known</a></p>Get It From The Next Owner
<p>I almost signed a contract that granted 50% of profits to the previous owner of the business for 3 years. It was a restaurant that used a conventional microwave instead of an actual oven.</p><p>This was back in the early 2000's and this place had a wonderful 50's vibe. From the bar, to the stools to booths - but it was empty because the food was SO bad and there was fast food up the road.</p><p>We were going to get a pizza oven in there and turn it into a Pizza/Shake place with soup in the winter. </p><p>When the law STUDENT we paid $500 to look over everything (DO THIS!) asked the seller about it for us, they said that they had sunk so much money into the business, the only way to make the money back was to get it from the next owner somehow.</p><p>Good luck with that.</p><p>We could not get them to remove that clause, the owner was hellbent on making the next person be the one to make the business successful and pay them.</p>18 Months
<p>A realtor once gave me a contract that said she would be the only person allowed to represent the property for 18 months.</p><p>That means that they were the only person that could try to sell the house. For <em>a year and a half</em>. We could not work with a different agent if we felt that this one wasn't doing enough, not responding, if we weren't happy, etc. </p><p>If we did, this agent would still get commission from the sale that that other agent actually made.</p><p>Nope. No way was I going to agree to being attached to someone for a year and a half like that. We found a different realtor with a 3 month term (which is much closer to standard), told the first one that her terms were ridiculous, and was under contract within 10 days.</p><p><span></span>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gny1hbr?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Tricky-Garden</a></p>Idol Entitlement
<p>Canadian Idol auditions when the first show was announced. Read the contract to the very end after signing it.</p><p>"you agree to being filmed 24/7. We can enter your room at any time and record personal phone calls and interactions with anyone." </p><p>That received a hard no for me. Ripped up the contract and never looked back. Thank god I read that before submitting it.</p><p><span></span>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gny2yf4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">jenskal</a></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gny2yf4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank"></a>Tell the camera crew to get out or get weird.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnz2mr7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">WielderOfDaNWordPass</a></p><p>Fine want to record me 24/7? Congrats, I have IBS.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnz0d4s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">wanderurlyy</a></p>Phone Privileges
<p>To be able to link my phone's outlook reader to my university account, I would had to give the IT-department permission to wipe my phone clean "if needed."</p><p>No thanks, I'll just use browser instead.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnxdc3z?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">craftaliis</a></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnxdc3z?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank"></a>I saw an employment contract where, if you did any company business on your cell phone, they could go through your phone and delete/restrict basically whatever they wanted. </p><p>I advised my friend to make a company-provided phone part of her contract.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnxq6pc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">EngineeringQueen</a></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnxq6pc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank"></a>Yeah. Someone at my old company had a commonish name, and someone lost their phone... and the company wiped the wrong phone.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnye6z8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">blargh2947</a></p>The Good Ol' US of A
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4OTYxMi9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTA1MDM5M30.A1BqwoI_FExTt3jqON2xJbJN1qt62txRrTsJ8V5Ybs8/img.gif?width=980" id="99844" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9236d4a9b82c22589577961a2a710924" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="480" data-height="270" />Season 3 America GIF by Broad CityGiphy<p>Any health and safety terms and conditions in USA. </p><p>I was working on adapting a US one for a charity event in the UK run by the same people and oh boy you cannot get away with that here. One line said if an employee harmed you in any way (even intentionally), you could not sue... </p><p>What!? </p><p><span></span>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnydf7s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">lt52-</a></p>Keep It
<p>Free ceiling insulation. </p><p>The catch? You allowed a company to install temperature sensors around the inside of your house, and they can do that at any time. And you have to allow access for them to check the sensors and get readings, adjust things, and remove the sensors. Everything belongs to the company. </p><p>This means letting randos into your house potentially over and over to get their readings from the electrical crap they put in your house. </p><p>Nah I'm good, keep your insulation.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnyrbn7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">bumpequalsbump</a></p>Airlines
<p>Was going to post this as a response on another thread, but I want people to actually see it.</p><p>When you book a flight, in the terms and conditions (especially for basic and econo fares) you agree that in the event of your flight getting canceled due to an act outside of the airlines control they don't have to refund you unless they offer you a travel credit.</p><p>That includes a world spanning virus.</p><p>Don't be cheap, get travelers insurance or pay for the higher fare that has a refund clause.</p><p><span></span>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnxyb4e?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">bpanio</a></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnxyb4e?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank"></a></p>Crepes
<p>I worked for a meat pie company that moved over from Australia that made me sign a contract that I would never work for another meat pie company or open an establishment that sells similar food. I didn't read the fine print. </p><p>They also sold a few other things ... like crepes. Sure enough, I wanted to open a food truck and my partner had her sights on crepes as she made them in her previous food truck and it just happened a truck we were buying was set up to make similar things. </p><p>I gave 1 month notice because they were busy and I didn't want to leave them stranded in high season. I told the owner we were working on a food truck we bought, it was a dream coming true, and that it happens we are doing crepes as my partner is French and had done them before.</p>This Sparks Joy
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4OTU2NS9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTY0OTgxM30.takzFO7X_vx_UzNvPeNEvpcYSGho5_AZNX-itkNSdOE/img.gif?width=980" id="d78cf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="09a8efb07fb739ec04f38de1406639f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="480" data-height="276" />Giphy<p>I'm pretty sure I gave google the rights to all of my Spotify data when they gave me a free google home. </p><p>On one hand, RIP privacy. </p><p>On the other hand, knowing some poor algorithm has to figure out some possible way to advertise things to me based on listening to Knock On Wood 57 times in a row and the soundtrack to Starship Troopers on repeat gives me great joy.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnywvs7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">OakNogg</a></p>Claim $100
<p>Back when the internet really started being a thing, some company/website put something in their terms and conditions about the first person who reads it, can contact them to claim a $100 prize. </p><p>Took five years for somebody to claim the prize.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gny3g6s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">RubyShooz </a></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gny3g6s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank"></a>I wonder how much of that is people not reading it and how much is people reading it and thinking "surely somebody's already claimed this by now, why bother?"</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnyj0gy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Novaseerblyat</a></p>Amazon ... Should We Be Worried?
<p>Not really an example of the worst thing, but you're not allowed to use Amazon's game engine (Lumberyard) for military/nuclear applications normally, but that restriction is suspended specifically if there's a zombie apocalypse</p><p><a href="https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/</a> Clause 47.10: "<em>this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization</em></p><p><em></em>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gny3skb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">OldGodsAndNew</a></p>Most Ridiculous
<p>I recall a major airline in the pioneer days won an award for most ridiculous TOS to simply look up a flight arrival time on their web site.</p><p>If I recall, it was a 22,000 word document that an analysis said was written at a post graduate reading level. It states that you would, in perpetuity, never use that computer to connect to any other airline's website.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnyb3lm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">NightMGR</a></p><p>What were they planning on doing about it if you broke the contract? Send a hitman after you or something?</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/go1hpi5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">ChungusFungus303</a></p>Citibank Is Serious Business
<p>When I started work for Citibank, they asked me to sign two documents;</p><ol><li>promising I would never use encryption for any purpose other than Citibank's for as long as I live.</li><li>promising to obey the laws of all 196 countries on earth that Citibank operates in.</li></ol><p>So obviously I looked at my cubicle mate and stoned her to death for exposing her wrists, and I can no longer use HTTPS.</p><p>- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmugas/users_who_read_the_terms_and_conditions_what_are/gnyy0u3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">beachbbqlover</a></p>Funeral Home Employees Divulge The Weirdest Requests They've Ever Gotten
Death is scary. It brings the unknown of the great beyond, whether that's heaven, some other afterlife, or total nothingness, depending on what you believe.
But there is one perk that comes with death: total control of your funeral.
Let the Games Begin
<p>"I got a request for the deceased to be dressed up in a Where's Waldo costume and to have 12 other identical caskets in the room so the guests could try to guess where he was by opening coffins randomly."</p><p>"Each guest was to play this guessing game and then sit down before the next person could enter so everyone could play the game."</p><p>"Problem was not everyone wanted to play the game.....super odd but they paid a lot for it."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnylmi3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">ramontgomery</a></p>Dead In a Faraway Galaxy
<p>"The deceased was a huge Star Wars fan and left explicit instructions for his funeral."</p><p>"As funeral organist, I was requested to play Star Wars principal themes on the grand pipe organ for prelude music, processional and recessional."</p><p>"As I once described, pall bearers were dressed in main characters costumes and "Obi-Wan Kenobi" gave an inspired eulogy, drawing upon memorable moments from the series."</p><p>"Using 'full organ' (all the stops out) for climatic moments, I played the <em>Imperial March</em> at the conclusion of the funeral before those in attendance departed for the cemetery for the committal."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnxielt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Back2Bach</a></p>A True Celebration of the Life He Lived
<p>"I'm a florist, and I've created some unique tributes out of fresh flowers, and more."</p><p>"I made a putting green two feet across, complete with ball, tee and a club for an avid golfer. I constructed a fish out of various blooms and leaves, placed by a lakeside foliage spray. I've made rainbows and black and white themed arrangements. I put a lot of heart into memorial pieces."</p><p>"A few years ago, I was helping a family decide on their tributes for a much-loved man. The wife stressed he was known for his big blue Giant Eagle truck, and most of their friends were from the driver's union."</p><p>"I volunteered myself for a watercolor picture of the truck around which I would design a floral spray. It took four attempts, but I was finally happy, and framed it."</p><p>"Two days later, I received the most wonderful letter from his wife, and said that everyone agreed it was the most appropriate and important statement about his life. It will sit on her mantle for the rest of her life."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnyf7h2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">cavepainted</a></p>Friends Til the Very End
<p>"My family owns a grave digging business as well as lawn and garden statues, someone purchased an 8ft tall gorilla statue."</p><p>"My dad delivered it and asked what they were going to do with it and where they were putting it, the guys said their friends dying wish was to be stuffed up this concrete gorillas a**, and that's what they did."</p><p>"They drilled a whole in the a** and put their buddies ashes inside"</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnytm2i?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">hayhay428</a></p>Always Watching
<p>"My husband found out they can make gems out of cremains, and now he wants to be reduced to 2 jewels seated in his own eye sockets."</p><p>"I don't want a skull! I don't want to own his skull! I don't want him to watch me with his evil gem eyes!"</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gny5vcy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">ParadiseSold</a></p>For Science
<p>"My own will requests that my right eye be removed, preserved and delivered to my oncologist in Miami for him to do with whatever he sees fit."</p><p>"Hopefully as a teaching aid to new optometry students, but if he wants to use it for pranks I'm totally fine with that too."</p><p>"I survived a very unusual eye cancer and they had to do all kinds of experimental things to repair it when all was done. I jokingly suggested I donate it to science when I went and he said that was an amazing idea. So, here you go."</p><p>"I hope whoever deals with my corpse has fun with that request."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnxp6ri?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">zerbey</a> </p>One Last Look
<p>"My wife's uncle asked the funeral director when he dies he would like his eyes open in the casket during his viewing."</p><p>"His entire life everyone commented on his big baby blue eyes and he wanted them open for people to see one last time."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnycdzg?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Agreeable-Scratch424</a></p>One Last F-You
<p>"One rich guy hated his kids and didn't want them to get a cent of his wealth. He therefore wanted all his money to spent on a mausoleum for his coffin with a rose garden around it and the eternal upkeep thereof."</p><p>"He had the city council-approved architectural plans for the mausoleum included in his will and testament."</p><p>"He demanded in his will that the remaining funds, after construction, must go to a gardening service to maintain the rose garden and clean off the bird poop from his mausoleum in perpetuity until the money runs out in a few centuries."</p><p>"The mausoleum is in Cemetery de Saint Rambert outside Lyon, France."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnxnk4q?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">JingoisticJeremiah</a></p>Utter Indifference
<p>"My coworker was meeting a client who was picking up his mother's cremains. My coworker has the client sign a release, then hands him the urn."</p><p>The man immediately turns around and drops the urn into the trash can."</p><p>"My coworker is a 40 year funeral director veteran, and without missing a beat, he says, 'Sir, I can understand your strong feelings about your mother, but I cannot allow you to leave that here. What you do once you get out the door is up to you and God.' " </p><p>"Dude picked up the urn and left without a word."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnybff8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">keliez</a></p>To Reflect What She Was Like, Or Never Did?
<p>"My mom asked the embalmer to put a few stitches in my grandma's cheeks to give her a faint smile. </p><p>"At the time it seemed like an odd, even slightly morbid request, but 20+ years on, it's one of the only things I remember from her funeral. It was kind of lovely, actually."</p><p>-- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lmtl11/funeral_home_workers_and_owners_whats_the/gnx79mi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Fearless_Lab</a></p>After we've watched a movie, it can be difficult to imagine the film as a project that took months or years to finally culminate into the product we see at the theater or on our television.
But it was built and hacked together, piece by piece.