
Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay |
There's a really excellent thriller from the 1940s called Sorry, Wrong Number. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, who received an Academy Award nomination for playing a woman who overhears what she thinks is a murder plot and tries to prevent it.
Now, as good as this movie is, it reminds me why I don't bother to pick up the phone for numbers I don't recognize (and yes, obviously, this film takes place in the days long before caller ID).
But calls from wrong numbers aren't all annoying or even bad (though at least one story below might just be). We heard all about people's experiences after Redditor cowgary asked the online community,
"What is your strangest wrong number story?"
"I got a call..."
"I got a call at like 6 am, and I was still sleeping so I kind of didn't understand what was happening- but this person was SO EXCITED to tell me that they got the new job, and they recognized I was still half asleep so they said they'd call me back later, and said "I love you." - I just said, "I love you too, I'm glad you got the job." I absolutely did not know that person and they never called back, but I think of that call all the time."
[user deleted]
Oh no! I bet this keeps you awake at 3 a.m., huh?
"For some reason..."
"An old friend of mine got a wrong number text from a mother responding to an ad about a used electric wheelchair for her child.
For some reason, he used got a lot of wrong number texts. He would usually have a little fun with the sender before telling them they had the wrong number, and share it on social media.
But this time, he didn't mess with her (obviously). He posted it on social media and asked around if anyone knew where to find a used electric wheelchair. The mother couldn't afford a new one. It got a lot of attention, but nobody could find one for sale. After a couple of days of no luck, anonymous donors bought and donated to them a brand-new electric wheelchair.
More heart-warming than strange, but a good story either way."
"I hung up..."
"Guy: Is Steve there?
Me: You have the wrong number.
Guy: Nice try, numbnuts, put Steve on the phone now.
Me: You really do have the wrong number.
Guy: Is this (my phone number)?
Me: Yeah.
Guy: Then it's the right number, isn't it? Put Steve on the phone.
I hung up and then he continued to call and leave threatening voicemails for a few hours, until he either got bored, realized he had the wrong number, or perhaps died of hypertension from being so angry all the time."
That's scary. Perhaps he did realize he had the wrong number––which is all the better for you.
"I was home from college..."
"I was home from college for Christmas break around 2014 and ended up chilling downtown with a few buddies from high school who were also in town for the holidays.
While hanging out, I received a group text with a bunch of numbers I didn't recognize. The message was a group picture with people who were obviously at a Christmas party. I made the only logical choice and immediately sent a selfie back with the message "wrong number."
The rest of the people in this text absolutely loved this and responded with "hahaha"s and "you're kinda cute" texts, until one person said, "You should come to our Christmas party!"
The party was only a few blocks away from where I was hanging out, so I left my friends and went to the party.
I find the apartment, walk-in, and it had a "record scratch moment" like from a cheesy 90s movie. Everyone goes silent stares at me: I am the only white person there. After a few seconds, the host shatters the silence with the shout: "It's wrong number guy!"
We end up doing shots and partying for The next few hours! By far the BEST wrong number experience ever!"
There is always a level of risk when you go to a stranger's home but this sounds like it ended really well. Hopefully you kept in touch?
"She talked to me..."
"I had a little old lady call me 3 different times to reach her friend who was all alone for the first mothers day. She had this rich joyous voice with southern accent blended with her Jamaican accent.
She talked to me about her grandson that was her pride and joy. She was thrilled to hear stories of my wee ones on mother's day. We shared some great stories and laughs.
Each call Sue and I had a lovely chat and reviewed the phone numbers. She just kept getting that pesky area code wrong. She kept saying God wanted us to chat. It was a great moment."
Parents Explain Which Things Surprised Them Most When Their Child Moved Out | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"Next day..."
"Back in my community college days I had a pretty tight clique, but we lost touch when I transferred to university. After that I did an MA, so I was gone quite a while. The rest of them stayed tight.
Well, when I moved back to town after finishing my MA, I was invited to a New Year's Eve party by one of my old friends. At this party was Gina, a girl I had had a crush on, but never got anywhere with. A few years later we had a pretty good time at the party, and ended up in the same car home.
So we were in the back seat and started fooling around.
Next day I wake up with a massive headache and a text message from someone I didn't know saying things like "If you touch my girl again I will break your arms!" I texted back "I'm not so sure she's your girl." The response: "Wait, 206 area code? Where is that?" "Seattle." "Sorry dude, wrong number."
.... ok?
I never saw Gina again though."
"Got a call from a government agency..."
"Got a call from a government agency, FDA maybe? Anyway, the first thing the lady says to me is, "We got a call that you have a problem with goats?" I'm like no, sorry, wrong number. "Are you sure you don't have a goat problem?" Nope. "Ok thanks, sorry about the confusion."
Are you sure it wasn't the Department of Agriculture? Just saying.
"He sounded lonely..."
"Got a call from an older dude, told him wrong number and the exchange went as follows:
Me: Sorry wrong number
Him: Oh alright, sorry to bother you
Me: Okay b-
Him: How are you?
Me: Umm, good you?
Him: Eh I'm alright.
Me: Alright, well uh… gotta go bye
He sounded lonely so I felt bad, but I was just so thrown off and had no idea what to say."
Aww. Poor guy. Hopefully he found someone to talk to.
"Later that night..."
"A picture was sent to me from a group of numbers I'd never seen before. I opened the message and it was a photo of a white family standing around a casket. There was a sign behind the casket that read "we'll miss you, Aunt Sandy" It gave me the chills but I had no idea what to say, I had no idea who they were. I left it on read and went about my day.
Later that night, someone from that group texted "you didn't show up, the least you could do is text your condolences to your family"
I went downstairs, took a selfie with my black grandfather and Guatemalan grandmother, and said "my condolences, but I do believe you have the wrong number"
One person sent a single 😂 emoji and another person replied "I AM SO SORRY"
Never heard from them again. Hope they were able to find whatever family member that played funeral hooky though."
You see, as interesting as some of these stories are, they have not convinced me to answer numbers that I just don't recognize. Guess I'll be missing out on all the fun.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments below!
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People Describe The Exact Moment They Realized Their Friends Were A-Holes
Everyone has friends who you become less and less close to with each passing year.
This isn't always by choice, though, but simply by circumstance, when your lives both take different directions.
In some cases, however, we do find ourselves making a very conscious decision to stop spending time with certain friends.
Owing to the fact that these people might not be our friends after all.
In certain cases, the communication ends as the result of one specific moment.
Redditor D1Tytos was curious to hear the triggering moment when people decided to end their friendships, leading them to ask:
"What's the moment that made you realize your so called 'friends' were really just d*cks?"
Lack of Compassion
"When I got cancer and they never checked on me."- justagirlx19
Being Taken Advantage Of
"Worked with and rented a large house with my friend group after high school."
"Dumb and inexperienced with life, I didn’t know they were lying to me about bills and making me pay more/whatever they felt like until a family member asked about it."
"Eventually they all looked at moving into a new place without telling me."
"I felt guilty and confessed they would basically steal my money to shop with and planned on moving out while I was visiting family so I came back to an empty place and responsible for everything."- dylandbloom
"I found myself getting irritated whenever they called/hit me up."
"Because every time they'd only ask for something , never just to talk to hang out."- ybbetter_ratio
Happy Birthday Indeed...
"The last time I tried throwing a birthday party for myself."
"It always seemed like the ratio of people who said they'd come to people who actually showed was...lacking."
"But my final attempt."
"I had 20+ people say they'd show."
"Exactly one actually came."
"I've never had a birthday party since."
"But I'm still good friends with the one guy who showed."- Lachwen
Unkind Exclusion
"They asked to not have one of the people in our group over."
"They didn't want to tell him there was no game, they just wanted him to knock and pretend no one was there."
"I wasn't very cool with this but they didn't want to be 'confrontational' with said person."
"Before the next week rolled around they were saying 'there wasn't going to be anything going on' that Saturday."
"I knew they were full of sh*t, but went by to confirm they were all there that Saturday, and sure enough they all were."
"Just dropped them like a sack of potatoes and never spoke to them again, no reason to."- MickCollins
True Colors
"Had 3 friends."
"2 I liked and 1 I didn't really like at all."
"Turns out they had a secret group chat where they just called me slurs and talked about me behind my back."
"The guy I didn't like sent me screenshots of this and me and him have been friends 3 years now."- c_a_t2·
Blurred Perceptions
"When I stopped drinking and realized that’s all we had holding our friendship together."- BillieBoJangers·
Unreliable
"I remember I was severely depressed and I called someone I thought was my friend."
"When he realized I wanted to talk about real sh*t he made up an excuse to hang up."
"After that he kept ignoring my calls."
"What's crazy is I was there for that dude when his wife left him for another guy."
"There were times where I wanted to escape his depressing stories, but sat there and listened because he was my friend."- horsetoothjack@ss119
Ungrateful
"Couples retreat of 3 pairs, other 2 girlfriends flaked last minute, leaving mine."
"They still came, then had the nerve to tell mine the trip would’ve been better without her right to her face when I was out surfing."
"This was never established as a guys trip at any point."
"She fed them, organized the trip as a whole, etc."
"Losers."- SwingmanSealegz
Provoking Others
"Guy lies about his well-being being bad cus he loves how worried someone reacts."
"I called him out on it when he lied to someone else and he literally said 'I enjoy winding people up, I love how they react when I say x'."
"That's gross to me."- PastaNotFound
Ending a friendship is never pleasant.
But time heals everything, and over the course of a couple months, it might become evidently clear how much better off your life is without certain people in it.
We all have songs that we can't get out of our heads, resulting in our randomly humming them while walking down the street.
Among the most infectious songs are theme songs to TV shows.
Be it from tuning in every week to catch up with Friends who will always" be there for [us]", or being "stuck in the middle" of a Grace And Frankie binge, we often find ourselves humming the theme songs of our favorite shows more often than we find ourselves quoting the best lines.
Even if it means humming an infectious melody to a wordless piece of music (Will & Grace or Seinfeld anyone?)
Redditor LinksOtherUncle was curious to hear what people considered the all time greatest theme song to a TV show, leading them to ask:
"What is the greatest TV Show theme song of all-time?"
"Whoo-oo"...
"Duck Tales, of course."- Beautiful-Stranger20
"Believe It Or Not It's Just Me!"
"Greatest American Hero!"- GayHole
"Bum Bum BUM bum...bum bum BUM BUM bum bum bum..."
"Sanford and Son"- jkulpa
The Original MCU
"90s X-Men."- Ourobius
"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale..."
"Gilligan's Island"- Cantbetoobad1953
"It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights..."
"The Muppet Show theme song!"- Poorkiddonegood8541
"A World Of Criminals Who Operate Above The Law"
"Knight Rider!"- BladeBronson
"Heroes in a half-shell, TURTLE POWER!"
"The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon theme."- Petulant_Platypus
"You want to go where everybody knows your name."
"Cheers."- Big-Significance3604
The only thing more comforting than turning on our TVs to revisit a familiar town with familiar characters, is the comforting familiar music which greets us on our return.
People Explain Which Bits Of Common Knowledge They Learned Way Too Late In Life
Who hasn't had a moment when they learned what they thought was a revelatory piece of information, ran to share it with their friends, and were then greeted by a barrage of stone faces?
Owing to the fact that what we only just learned a few minutes ago, was apparently common knowledge.
These include your favorite movie star was in fact the offspring of another movie star, what gelatin is actually made of, or little tricks and strategies which make certain experiences so much more pleasurable.
For no particular reason, some people learn these things far later than just about everyone else.
Redditor Big_Piccolo_8369 was curious to learn which bits of common knowledge people were late to the party in knowing, leading them to ask:
"What is common knowledge that you found out way too late?"
Strategic Planning
"Always eat before shopping at Costco."- mtl_jim
Sometimes Silence Is Golden
"Just because I hold an opinion on something doesn't mean that I need to share it."
"I spent WAY too much of my early adulthood inserting my viewpoint into discussions that I wasn't really a part of."- xjuggernaughtx
How To Keep Friendships Strong
"Simply asking 'how are you' once in awhile is all it takes to not fall apart from old friends."- a_burdie_from_hell
Know Your Worth
"Hard work isn’t always the answer."
"When I worked a minimum wage job, I would work hard and not take breaks, so a great job, and always finish early."
"I just then got told to pick up the slack for the employees who spent their time goofing off."
"Never got a promotion, raise, or even a 'hey, good job'."- Disco-Onion
Think Twice Before Lending Money
"That when people ask to borrow money especially if it's a friend or family just expect to never see it again."- Different-Chest-5716
Spotting Charlatans
Being well-educated in one area doesn't mean that a person can't be a total idiot in other areas."- Red-belliedOrator
Never Make Decisions When Angry
"'Every action made in anger ends in sorrow'."
"An attorney, when I was 24."- yours121110
"Don't make permanent decisions based on temporary feelings."- Yoschnitzel
The Importance Of Sleep
"Going too long without sleep can impair your ability to drive the same way as drinking too much alcohol."- SuvenPan
We're all bound to be looked down upon every now and then for just learning something everyone else already knows.
Though always remember, the wisest ones are those who never want to stop learning.
I'm a simple person when it comes to video games.
I prefer to go with nostalgia.
All of these fancy deals put me on sensory overload.
But my goodness the technology really has come a long way.
And there are actual storylines and drama.
Good for y'all gamers.
Redditor TolisKoutrowanted everyone to list their thoughts on the greatest of the great.
"What video game do you consider a masterpiece?"
I love you Ms. Pac-Man. Always and forever.
It's a Ride
"Roller Coaster Tycoon 2."
Icy_Entrepreneur_859
"Loved RCT2. The canned child laughing sound and the chain lifts noise are permanently burned into my brain."
Career-Known
my whole childhood...
"Man I miss Valve... Their games were designed in a way many developers could only dream of, they were revolutionary in almost everything they laid their hands on."
johnbacosta
"Yeah that’s my whole childhood, still some of the best games… and actually playing HL- alyx for my very first VR experience was nuts. Loved it."
dub3ra
"They made a new game based in the Portal universe. It’s really short but it’s free and funny."
Advanced_Position_25
Better than Perfect
"Portal 2."
Natural-School5690
For real. The first one was absolutely perfect and then they somehow managed to make the second one even better."
Jack_Mackerel
"Portal 1's only fault is that it's very short. I just replayed it a decade since I last touched it and I cleared it in under 2 hours. Portal 2 had so much more room to add more mechanics, more puzzles, and more story. It's the perfect sequel."
YossarianWWII
Classic
"Half Life 2 was brilliant. After that I'd call out WoW Classic. It's hated now, but the first couple of years it was magic. It was a completely new experience exploring such a massive open world and nobody knew anything. So much fun on Ventrilo. Will remember forever. Championship manager in the early 90s. Maybe what I have played the most. I'll mention Fallout series, Witcher and Skyrim as well."
Joppe84
Simply the Best
"Star Wars knights of the old Republic. KOTOR. Surprised it hasn’t been said."
gerbs650
"Absolutely! I played it as a kid and it practically taught me life lessons. KOTOR 2 is a little darker but quite good also."
Lensk
How can you even tell any of the Star Wars games apart?
FAVE!!
"Super Mario World. It’s perfect. I don’t think there’s a single thing about it that I would change."
AdevilSboyU
"That game is awesome. That and Mario 64. But I love the soundtrack from Yoshi’s Island."
HmGrwnSnc1984
Options
"Deus Ex the first one."
Funkyouup82
"At the time the open ended options and story presentation were both really impressive. You could really appreciate that the developer committed to that (e.g. you could physically destroy most locked doors). I think a lot of games stop short of doing that because they don’t want to allow brute force solutions in addition to more elegant ones."
NewKitchenFixtures
"Journey. Not as long and vast as many games here but an artistic masterpiece in my books. It’ll age much better than most games too because of the simplicity."
justthisones
"I absolutely love journey; the music mixed with the visual story telling is absolutely stunning. Also it has, imo, one of the most interesting multiplayer experiences of any game."
"It’s def one of my top three games, but Gris’ artwork and music are peak for me. Also if you really enjoyed the exploration of Journey, you’ll probably love Outer Wilds. Great game, it’ll leave you wishing you could forget it and play it all again."
SynnamonSunset
Play NOW!
"Chrono Trigger, if you know you know, and if you don't, go play it immediately."
sketchypoutine
"Definitely, I feel like some of the best RPGs came from the SNES and Sega era. Chrono Trigger, FF 6, Secret of Mana, super Mario RPG, Earthbound, shining force 2, Phantasy Star 4. Still some of my favorites that i try to revisit every year or so."
chrono_bound20xx
"Came here for Chrono. Time travel just makes for amazing stories, and I love how you can make the game different each play through."
anna1781
i can see your...
"Halo 3. Incredible story and thrilling gameplay. Hilariously fun multiplayer. Fantastic community. Nostalgia."
Current-Ad1250
Video games have surely come a long way from Atari.
What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.