Sometimes, no most times, truth is stranger than fiction. Often people will tell us wild stories and regale us with detailed recountings that just seem s bit.... embellished, but later we see ourselves proven wrong, which leaves us stunned. It is true, some people just live through crazy moments that couldn't be thought up by even the most gifted writers. So be careful when you accuse someone of telling tall tales. They may be spewing facts.
Redditor u/Not-A-Robot12 wanted everyone to chat about the times they realized the truth was the truth which left them stunned by asking.... What was your biggest "Oh, you weren't lying" moment?At 5
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Was working in a care home, a lot of the residents had dementia and would often want to 'go home', not believing that's where they stayed.
I had just started working there and this lady was telling me all day that her mum was coming to pick her up soon, she was about 60.
Sure as heck, at five o'clock a little eighty year old lady comes to pick up her daughter
I felt like such an idiot, it was a very valuable lesson for me though, don't just dismiss someone because they've got dementia!
The Family Tree
Elderly neighbor told me that at one point in the sixties he was the only British person in Finland, and the Finnish secret service had spies on him all day.
Also told me his nephew cloned Dolly the sheep.
That his ex wife was a former Miss Finland.
That his mum had been the governess for the kids of an Indian Prince. (Not sure of proper title)
Yeah, turns out all of it was true.
Moneybags...
I worked with a guy in his late 30s who had all kinds of crazy stories from when he was younger and had won a big chunk of money. I just kind of brushed it off as him being a bullsh***er. Then he brought in a ton of pictures. Ok, so you really did party with Metallica, crash a Lamborghini, get arrested base jumping, and still own a vacation house in Italy. I thought he was just full of shit. Nice guy too.
Through the Smoke
scared on fire GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants
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I was heading to school when I got a text from a friend saying my neighbor's house was on fire.
I said "haha, yeah sure" and kept driving. I pass by the fire department and see the ambulance pull out so I decide to follow. I see it pull into my neighborhood and from the highway, I see the fire truck and all the smoke, and I just remember being like "holy crap."
"Twas I"
I was the one suspected. I ended up playing semi-pro rugby in NZ and none of my friends back in the US believed me (even though I was captain of my college team.) Post season I ran into a teammate of mine who had made it big and we ended up in the news. "[Teammate] out on the town in Auckland CBD with former teammate [Me] of the [Our team.]"
But then I didn't want to be the guy to post it and be like "see, I told you guys." Luckily a friend of mine saw the paper and tagged me on FB.
"call the neighbors."
When I was in 4th grade, the teacher was calling each student over to her desk one by one and asked them a question. When she called me up to her desk she said. "You see thick smoke coming out of your neighbors window. What do you do?" I said "call the fire department." She asked "what else would you do?" I again said that I would call the fire department. Then she asked again "what else would you do?"
This went on for a few minutes until she said that I could go back to my desk. When I got home from school, I mentioned this to my mom, and I asked her if she could think of anything else which I could do. My mom said "call the neighbors." To this day, I have no idea if that was the answer which the teacher was looking for or not. I also have no idea why she asked that question.
That Day
I was in middle school during 9/11 and our school didn't announce it or put the tv on or anything so most of us had no idea what was going on. In lunch me and my buddies are sitting there when another kid, who was a known bull sh.... artist, came up and told us about the attacks. We laughed in his face and called him a liar because we didn't believe him. I didn't find out he was telling the truth until I got home and my mom had the news on.
4/1
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A neighbor called me on April 1st to tell me that I left a faucet turned on, and it caused damage to the apartments below.
Laughed my butt off.
Still paying, though...
Get the RAID!!
My daughter, aged 6 or 7 at the time, is the biggest worry wart. I've never met a more highly strung kid (I'm already aware she's got anxiety and going through steps now to help relieve it and give her tools as she grows) She came running in yelling that a spider ran across her face in her sleep.
Her hair was wild and it was like 2am in the morning. So I'm like "pickle, it was your hair, come on let's go back to bed"
Next morning as I'm getting her clothes ready I see a huge palm sized huntsman beside her drawers. It was indeed a huge spider who crawled across her face.
I'd rather Pepsi....
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In college, I was showing off by smashing Coke cans with my head. A girl in the group said "Yeah? I can do it with my boobs."
We didn't believe her.
She stood up, unhooked her bra, put an empty Coke can between her breasts, kinda flexed her arms forward, and completely crushed that can.
I don't remember much after that. I kinda rebooted, and then it was the next day. Dunno where she went.
Grain of salt
I had a friend who was just super dramatic and and full of over the top stories about how f*cked up and crazy their family was; I took it all with a grain of salt. As years went by I had multiple experiences actually meeting their family members, and gradually came to realize that they had not been exaggerating AT ALL. I now look at them in wonder and with profound respect, for managing to come out of such a background as well as they did.
Small town
I'm from a small town and went to a small high school. In the area it was common for kids to switch back and forth between tri-county schools due to parents divorce or guardianship/foster care. Well one day I was talking to a girl next to me in class and I was asking her where she was from. She said the small town and said "yeah there is only one traffic light in the town and it's in front of the middle school." I thought she was just joking around until about two weeks later my academic team went to said small town and I saw she was right. There was only one traffic light and it was in front of the middle school.
Snip
During my vasectomy. My doc said "ok I'm done on that side" it felt like he had been down there for an hour and it was painful. I laughed thinking it was him making light of the situation. He then scooted his chair over and kept working. 😬😅
Strike out
My grandfather told me that bowling used to have nine pins. I honestly thought he was joking, but I looked it up and it's true.
Spurt
I was a huge joker in 8th grade and my teacher (who was a really cool guy) knew it. One day I came in class asking for a bandaid because I was bleeding and he said, "Aw you're messing!" So then I squeezed my finger and blood just spurt out of it. He explained that he thought I was joking and proceeded to get the medical kit.
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Wait, what?
At the beginning of the year, a supervisor where I worked asked me if I wanted to be on the Coronavirus Strike Team (where we'd go to other prisons hit by covid and help them out if staff got sick). This guy was a noted prankster and had a perfect deadpan delivery, so I figured it was another one of his many jokes. I laughed and said sure. Keep in mind, this was January, it didn't seem that big a deal then. Three months later, I got a text reading: "Pack a bag for 3 nights, we're going up to [redacted] Prison. They're hit hard and need people."
I went ahead and kept my word, but I wasn't happy about it.
Missing
When my parents believed I was kidnapped at the age of eight years old or so and decided to organise a search party after not seeing me for the whole day when I was actually in a new friends house from primary school that was up the road from us and I was happily stuffing my face with hotdogs etc with the rest of her family. If I didn't randomly appear in the square when I did during late evening when a family friend was walking back to her house, I'd have definitely ended up on the news as a missing child.
Talking stalk
A guy I worked with in the late 90's claimed he was being stalked by his ex, not entirely unusual. The picture he showed was of some supermodel who was so hot the picture was practically smoking. I did a double-take and looked at the nerdy little goof ball who showed us the picture. I couldn't believe for a half-second this little dweeb with his D&D obsession and fondness for everything Star Wars was being stalked by some woman with a body like an angel. I pretended to go along with it until one day she showed up and confront him, and yeah she had a heavenly body. You couldn't not notice how hot she was, a gay dude in the office couldn't take his eyes off her. She cried for him to take her back, apologizing over and over about something, but he kept shaking his head and told her to leave him the hell alone. We had to get the police to take her off the property.
Much later I learned that she wasn't always that hot little number, they had known each other through high school and got together around graduation. She too had quite the obsession with D&D, making her as rare as a unicorn at the time. The girls cousin came to visit and took her for a makeover and showed her how to maintain her appearance. She had instantly found success modeling and was taking courses to help her get into acting. Her looks got her lots of attention she'd never had before, but that was the problem. She wound up having an affair and kicked her boyfriend to the curb. Later she realized all of the guys she was sleeping with only cared about her looks, but her boyfriend cared about her. He was willing to let it all go, but wasn't willing to take her back.
Odd jobs
That's a common thing people have said to me, usually about my job history/hobbies. I've worked as a MMA instructor (adults and kids, with the kids I've taught martial arts summer camps too), makeup artist/hair assistant, personal support worker, and registered nurse. I'm 23.
When you look at it in order though, it makes sense.
I started jiu-jitsu at age 5, did a few small local exhibition-type fights as a teenager and taught as well. Then I worked at a salon after moving out, as a makeup artist/hair assistant (they provided the hair assistant training) while studying a year of biochem and then switching into an RN degree. I worked part-time as a personal support worker doing homecare in my last two years of my 4-year degree, while still working part-time at the salon. Now, I'm a registered nurse (with some odd skills in my back pocket)
Adoption
I was volunteering in an animal shelter, working in the small pet supply shop that was attached to it. A happy, excited woman came in and asked me to help her find a collar that would be a good fit for the dog she was about to adopt. She didn't have the dog with her, so I asked what kind of dog it was so that I could get an idea of its size.
She told me that it was a Rottweiler/dachshund cross. I admittedly thought to myself, "Right, OK, you don't know much about dogs, this is probably going to be a corgi." But I humored her and said, "Wow, that's an unusual one! Let's wait until they bring him out and we'll size the collar right onto him."
Out he comes on his little blue-and-white slip-lead, and I swear on my honor, there is nothing this dog could have been BUT a Rottweiler/dachshund cross. He looked like a stocky dachshund with a Rottweiler's head grafted onto its shoulders. His body was dark liver-dachshund and light liver-dachshund in the classic Rottweiler dark/light pattern. I was just speechless. He was quite a little sight to behold.
My absolute favorite part of this story: the lady turns to me, eyes shining, and says, "Isn't he the handsomest dog you've ever seen?" Lady, there sure is something beautiful here. Just warmed my heart.
Emergency
Working at Frito Lay, stocking a store in inner city St. Louis at 3:30 in the morning. Guy walks in and shouts "Call 911, I've been shot!" He looked completely fine until he turned around and the back of his wife-beater was completely red with blood.
Got the store clerk to lock the door and call 911 while I provided first aid until police/EMS arrived.
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For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
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"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
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"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
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What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
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Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
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Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
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Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...