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Professionals Confess Industry Secrets From Their Chosen Field

Professionals Confess Industry Secrets From Their Chosen Field
Photo by Lee Thomas on Unsplash

We've all heard some conspiracy theories about certain businesses, most of which are outrageously false.

That laundromats are simply a facade for shadier practices (including, not so ironically, money laundering) or that the Coca-Cola company invented "New Coke" with the express purpose of improving sales on original Coke.

But every now and then, we can't help but wonder what really goes on behind closed doors in certain professions.

And are eager to hear all the juicy tidbits from people working in that industry.


Redditor WoOoOoOoShHhHh opened the door for people from a wide range of professions to share some of their juiciest secrets, by asking:
"What’s an industry secret in the field you work in?"

Literal Money Grabbing Machines

"I design slot machines for casinos."

"Don’t play slots."- psychfan5

Speak When Spoken To!

"I'm an attorney."

"The secret is shut the f*ck up."- --IIII--------IIII--

They Are In Good Hands

"Managed boarding and grooming kennels for 8 years."

"The secret is that the employees actually do love your pets too."

"Even the difficult ones, most of us realize they just miss their people."

"The number of times I’ve weeped when a pet died, or spent way too many hours comforting a dog with separation anxiety, or spent hours off the clock with a boarder who needed to be rushed to a vet office, wouldn’t trade it for the world."

"Some pets just suck though, not gonna lie."- breadandbirds

Dogs Stripping GIF by Artero Professional LineGiphy

They Just Want To Go Home!

"I'm a server."

"No matter how much we insist it's 'okay' that you are keeping the entire restaurant open after we've closed, please know we are 100% lying."

"We will get fired if we deviate from anything other than pure delight that you are keeping us from going home."

"We dread it."

"Please don't believe us."- MorddSith187

Don't Be Fooled By The Price

"I used to work in jewelry."

"Most of the prettiest gemstones are also very affordable."

"Tanzanite is a beautiful purple and looks nicer than amethyst."

"Topaz comes in lots of colors, including a pretty blue color which can be as nice as aquamarine."

"Opals aren't as brightly rainbow hued as they look in pictures."- rubicks56

What Are You Looking At?!?!

"Almost every hairstylist gets the heebie jeebies when we shampoo your hair and you just stare up at us."

"CLOSE. YOUR. DAMN. EYES at the shampoo bowl!"- picklemetimberzz

Hair Wash GIF by ALLBLK (formerly known as UMC)Giphy

You're More Qualified Than You Think!

"Used to screen resumes for small companies."

"Job 'requirements' are more of a wish-list situation."

"Never let some unchecked boxes deter you from applying, you have no idea what the applicant pool is like."

"The biggest boon, especially at small companies, is someone who legitimately cares."- TwoPesetas

If You Wonder What Makes It So Delicious...

"There is way more butter than you think in almost every dish you eat at fancy restaurants, and that is usually the reason you won't see the amount of calories in each dish."

"5 years as a chef in Italian cuisine head chef, 8 years in an Italian kitchen."

" f I could recomend one guide book for you all to have in your kitchen it would be Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat."

"Yes there are a plethora of others but this one is my personal favorite."- BackslashR

That's Why It Smells So Familiar!

"Former bath and body works associate here."

"The scents they 'discontinue' will come back with a different name and new marketing."

"They’re just recycling the scents."- xyenz08

Bath And Body Works Perfume GIF by Bath & Body Works Asia AustraliaGiphy

Nothing Wrong With A Second Opinion

"Some therapists/counselors are on the wrong side of the couch, so to speak."

"If you feel your mental health provider is unhinged, they may very well be."- FriktionalTales

Hygiene Issues...

"I'm a forklift driver at a plastics manufacturing facility."

"We melt down various types of plastic into sheets, then a different department molds them into whatever the customer asks for."

"We're a food supply company, so that means everything has to be spotless, right?"

"When I worked in the molding department, the machines had toothed chains to hold the plastic in place while it was being molded."

"Those chains were constantly over greased, and the plastic would rub up against various sections, so at the end of every shift, no matter what machine I was on, I had to clean up big puddles of plastic powder/grease slime not only from the floor, but from key sections of the machine itself."

"Plastics manufacturing companies are constantly at war with each other to produce the least amount of scrap."


"In my region, we're #1 for least scrap produced."

"On paper, anyway."

"In reality, we throw away about 30-40 lbs of plastic every day."

"This is because the plastic we throw away is not able to be recycled."

"About 60% of the material is like this."

"Or because it would cost too much to grind up, the remaining 40%."

"Not only that, but you know how I said the place has to be spotless?"

"Well one of the supervisors on the other shifts chews AND SPITS into a trash can on the production floor!"

"Needless to say, I and my supervisor are trying to get him out of there, not just because of that, he's also the laziest man you've ever seen."

"Sits in the break room the whole shift then complains that his job is so boring."

"Remember these things next time you eat a prepackaged meal."- forklift_in_disguise

Animation Burn GIFGiphy

Don't Give In To Pressure!

"Mental Health Care /Healthcare worker."

"When hired, the company that you work for will try to dissuade you from forming a union."

"This is not only illegal, it would probably prevent at least half of the problems between the staff and the administration."-jironspoon

As NOT Seen On TV...

"Law enforcement, specifically policing, is not very interesting the majority of the time and certainly not like what documentaries, films and TV make it out to be."

"I'll give you some examples to compare of some of the biggest misconceptions/tropes out there perpetuated by the media coverage of criminal justice/law enforcement."

"MISSING PEOPLE CASES."

"The majority of the time, especially these types of investigations, are nowhere near as eventful as they are thought to be."

"In fact, typically all missing persons are located within 24-48 hours after being reported as such."

"Usually, this is because someone in the family or friend group of the missing person knows where the subject is but for whatever reason, a lack of communication or miscommunication has occurred."

"It is much less common for the subject of the case to have been a victim of foul play, but the media obviously cover the cases where a homicide or something else suspicious has occurred."

"MURDERS/HOMICIDES."

"These are often sensationalized, unfortunately, when covered by the media."

"Especially when there is a suggestion that the victim may have been victim to a serial killer or other dangerous unknown persons."

"In reality, most of the cases of this will have been the result of ongoing domestic violence, drug deals gone wrong etc., rather than being committed by a complete random and/or a serial killer."

"In short, it is far more common for someone to be murdered by a person they know and trust than someone they don't."

"TYPES OF CRIMES THAT ARE DEALT WITH."

"At least in the UK, where I live, from what I have heard is that many more of the calls received by police are more likely to be things like Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs), arson/house fires, robberies and misdemeanor offenses than they are to be much more serious offenses such as murder etc."

"However, obviously it seems that the media do not cover this kind of stuff since it doesn't have the same shock factor as homicides, but it is another way in which false expectations of the job of a police officer is perpetuated."

"Bottom line is that I just get frustrated with the fact that so many people seem to underestimate and under appreciate the hard work that comes with being in the forces, but also how the job is usually far more mundane than it is made out to be."

"Especially when that is the main reason people are attracted to the job."- PM_ME_SHIT_IDK

Season 19 Nbc GIF by SVUGiphy

Exactly How "Doers Get More Done"...

"You can return dead plants to Home Depot."

"The handwritten markdowns on sales tags on merchandise that you see on the sales floor, if it’s in the middle of the month, you can ask for a bigger discount and will likely get it."

"Never ask at the end of the month, because all the markdown allowances are usually eaten up and you will likely not get the discount."

"There are cameras everywhere."

"Except the bathroom."

"You will get caught shoplifting by a loss prevention person, if they are at the store that day you are there."

"Otherwise, you can walk out with a lawnmower, and tell the cashier you paid at the other register on the other side of the store, wave an old Home Depot receipt at her and tell her to have a great day- and keep pushing the lawnmower to your car and drive off."

"If you return a faucet, every part better be in the box, otherwise, they will give you hard time-not! "

"Hell, you can return half cans of spray paint!"

"Also, if a sales associate is rude to you, don’t be afraid to call a manager on them while you're in the store."

"Those people are paid to be there to help you, especially in these departments:appliances, flooring, windows and doors, flooring, and kitchen/plumbing."

"All those sales associates are paid well."

"If you are lucky to have a Home Depot with a Kitchen design department in it, just fyi, those sales associates are the top paid people in the store."

"Why?"

"They know everything about most departments."

"Their hourly can top out at $42 an hour in some cases."

"The lowest hourly is $13-14, benefits are great."

"Very rarely does Home Depot hire management from the outside."

"They always promote from within the ranks."

"Every day is different."

"One day you might have two customers who are brothers in the paint department who start fighting and progress to throwing at each other five gallon buckets of oil-based primer on one another who end up being arrested, covered head to toe in white paint and the cops trying to figure out how to get them in the police car with all that paint all over them."

"OR You are taking customers to the vault in the back because a tornado is about to hit the store."

"So, most people who work there do not find it boring."- Southern_9098

Dragging Home Depot GIF by Megan BatoonGiphy

Hearing secrets about certain industries divulged can be a blessing and a curse.

No one would complain about not wasting their money away on slot machines.

Though, health conscious people might not want to know what really goes into their food when they go out to eat...

You're Dead To Me: Why People Killed Off A Friendship With Their Bestie

Reddit user No_Dependent4663 asked: 'People who fell out with their best/close friend, what killed it?'

Silhouette of a man anda woman having an argument
Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

Having a best friend doesn't always mean we see eye to eye with them.

Indeed, every now and again we find ourselves having a possibly fundamental difference with them.

Sometimes, we can let these differences and disagreements go with a deep breath, other times, letting things slide isn't so easy.

In the most extreme cases, it could even lead to the first person we call when we're feeling down being cut from our life completely.

Redditor No_Dependent4663 was curious to hear from people who cut ties with their best friend, and what led them to do it, asking:

"People who fell out with their best/close friend, what killed it?"

Wasn't There When They Needed Them...

"Friends for 20 years."

"Helped her with rides, money, cloths ect."

"The first time I asked her for anything was after my husband had brain surgery and needed meds the local pharmacy didn't have."

"I couldn't leave him alone and could not take him with me so I asked her to watch him for an hour."

"She said no she wanted to go to the store with her bf."

"I never talked to her again."

"And thank goodness she didn't have the balls to show up to my husband's funeral."- softshoulder313

Ignoring The Warnings...

"Well it ended but was repaired."

"She got into a relationship with a walking red flag, and I told her as much."

"Things kept getting worse with him until I wasn’t able to watch it anymore."

"Then he convinced her that I was the toxic one and trying to control her so she didn’t want to be friends anymore."

"I said I respected her decision to choose him over me, but please don’t delete my number and to call me when it came time to run."

"She did and she’s out, learned from it, and we’re friends again."- Successful-Snow-562

...Goes Both Ways

"She warned me about my fiancé at the time, now ex-wife, and I didn't listen to her."

"My fiancé didn't like that and told me to pick her or my friend."

"I picked my fiancé and then she eventually cheated on me multiple times including while we had an infant at home."

"Never been more wrong in my life."- thegodfaubel

Ink On Their Face...

"I worked with them."

"They were very lazy and constantly started drama between myself and our coworkers."

"Lost pretty much all the respect I had for them."- AmericanTitan07

Who Knows?

"Nothing at all, and that is the saddest part."

"No big fight, no disagreement, no nothing."

"One day they met their now spouse and suddenly that was it."

"Since then radio silence."- Showfina

"I have no idea, but she stopped responding to texts or reaching out."- wei-ohara

Sensing A Spouse/Partner Theme...

"Best friends for 12 years."

"She was a complete bridezilla."

'Long story short, I was maid of honor and was expected to pay for multiple showers, ended up paying for part of her dress, and was asked to plan/pay for the entire bachelorette trip."

"I was in the process of building a house so I said no to the parties and trip (paying not planning/attending) and was swiftly booted from the wedding."

"Funny part was, the guy had been cheating on her and she knew and told me she was gonna leave him."

"She didn’t."

"She cheated on him back."

"He found out while I was with them, they broke up."

"Couple weeks later I got a call they were engaged."

"So bizarre."- accomplishedswan44

Were They Ever A Friend?

"Realizing that he was a shit friend who saw me as lesser than him, and he used that as justification to try and completely control my life."- yeetgodmcnechass

Lack Of Quid Pro Quo

"I cared more about the relationship than she did."

"I’m not gonna beg anyone to be my friend."- Superkittymeowmeow

Making Life A Competition

"My son was delayed."

"Hers was not."

"Her son was roughly a year younger and there were constant snide comments about how much sooner her son hit milestones than mine did."

"I gave her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she didn't mean it the way it came across and I was just touchy."

"And then she called my 2 year old stupid because he was mostly nonverbal."

"She got told to f*ck off."- TransportationOk4914

Absence Did Not Make The Heart Grow Fonder...

"They moved and stopped putting any effort into the relationship whatsoever."

"I offered to go there, I offered to fly them here (they hadn’t secured work yet) and they never made time."

"They never reached out."

"When I finally wrote and said it seemed apparent they’d lost interest in the relationship and I respected that but needed to move on rather than wait indefinitely, they refused to acknowledge anything had changed, and told me I sounded crazy."

"I asked why I hadn’t heard from them or seen them in a year and a half."

"No response."

"Reality is subjective, as they say."- testcase_sincere

Couldn't Meet Their Standards...

"She literally turned into her mother, only caring about appearances."

"At 23."

"I couldn’t take the judgment anymore."- Obi1NotWan

Wanted To Be More Than Friends

"We were best friends in high school."

"I moved in with him in 2015 because I needed a place to stay, and his father offered to let me rent out a spare bedroom for super cheap."

"Within five months, my friend made a romantic/sexual pass at me."

"I was not interested."

"I left that night and have never looked back."- allycatraz

They say to err is human, to forgive is divine.

But sometimes, the only way to forgive someone who hurt or betrayed you more than you thought was possible, is to let go, and move on.


A blonde woman with sunglasses poses into the camera against a red background
Photo by Daria Volkova

One day with a celebrity.

How could that not be a good time?

To be able to spend one entire duration of 24 hours with one of the people who inspires you most is a memory you take to the grave.

So if given the chance, how do you pick?

Is there that ONE person, or are there several?

It may be hard to pick just one.

Redditor Beneficial-Course69 wanted to hear about how everyone would share time with their favorite famous person, so they asked:

"You have one day to spend with one celebrity of your choice. Who do you choose and what will you do?"

Adele.

Dear Adele... if you're listening...

You and me... and gelato.

Well that is for starters.

Let's Pump

arnold schwarzenegger vintage GIF by Okkult Motion PicturesGiphy

"Arnold Schwarzenegger, we'll go to a gym and he's gonna teach me how to really do everything properly. Then go over to his place and watch 'Predator' or something."

Head_Meme_Cultist

He's Nice

"Paul Rudd and I play disc golf."

Bot_Fly_Bot

"I was thinking Paul Rudd too because he seems nice and easy to talk to."

Important_Dark3502

"This but Ryan Reynolds dressed as Deadpool."

peptodismal13

One Wish

"I don't really go into celeb culture."

"But I want to be with Robin Williams. Just bring him back for a day and let him decide what he wants to do... He was just the voice of my childhood and teens. His shows and voice were always on replay."

"If he wants to just talk about his life, or go surfing (I can't surf) or go bicycling (I can't cycle). I'll be cool with it. RIP Robin, you will always be Genie."

Outrageous-Broccoli8

It's You!

"Bruce Campbell. It doesn’t matter what we are doing. It’s Bruce Campbell!"

Ok-Essay-2352

"One magic evening about a decade ago, me and several friends attended a conference in Southern Oregon. We were out at a local Oasis, and frankly, throwing down. After a few rounds, the door opens with a flood of light into the dark bar. A shadow fills the door, then comes into focus."

"Because it could not possibly be Bruce Campbell walking into a bar I'm getting s**t-faced at, I say 'Hey, it's Bruce Campbell' he walks by, makes eye contact, and gives me the 'sup nod. It's actually Bruce. He lives nearby. My drunk starstruck a** is stunned into silence. He gets a table with some women he comes in with. I try to play it cool, but I'm sure my furtive glances are noticed."

"My group continues pounding drinks and somehow manages to leave him alone. I wish I could tell you he came over and partied with us, but the truth is he left after 90 minutes, as he probably recognized the vibe was going to shift to him at some point. I didn't slobber on him, and that's probably for the best. My wife saved the progressively drunker voicemails I left about seeing 'brooscamblll.' Fun time."

ImWrong_OnTheNet

Ride High

Love You GIF by SkyGiphy

"Keanu Reeves, we'll go motorcycling."

lurid_sun__

"Keanu was my pick too, but since I don't know how to ride a motorcycle, I figured we'd just go do something good like go volunteer at one of those pet adoption events or give people free ice cream or something."

ferociousrickjames

Long live Keanu.

We love you Keanu.

Does it Fit?

Happy Jeff Goldblum GIF by Apartments.comGiphy

"Clothes shopping with Jeff Goldblum. I can imagine he'd be so positive and share his style too so overall would be a great hang."

Kbanana

In the Track

"David Gilmour (Pink Floyd). Would love to sit and talk and play guitar. He’d teach me some stuff. Now that would be a great day."

Mantooth77

"I was Gilmour in a decently popular Floyd tribute band. We played Shine On You Crazy Diamond as our opener every night. I can substitute for him in a pinch if you don’t hear from him. In all seriousness, no one else sits 'in the track' as far as spatial awareness and attack as Gilmour has. Ever."

"We can talk about Clapton, page, and Jimi soaring above the mix and right in your face, but no one ever knows exactly when to play, what and how to play like David. His genius is in the spaces. It took so long to realize that gear isn’t going to get the job done alone."

KgMonstah

Homerun

"Chase Utley. I feel like I can call him Chase because he and I are so alike. I'd like to meet him one day, it would be great to have a catch. I know I can't throw as fast as him but I think he’d be impressed with my speed. I love his hair, he runs fast. Did he have a good relationship with his father? Me neither."

"These are all things we can talk about and more. I know he hasn’t been getting my letters because I know he would write back if he did. I hope he writes back this time, and we can become good friends. I am sure our relationship would be a real homerun!"

PoopSlinger23

Ridiculous

"Bryan Cranston. We spent the day with him pretending to be my dad. He makes me breakfast. We play catch, and some board games, ice cream for lunch, and go on rides at West Edmonton Mall. Pizza for dinner. Then get drunk on shots at a dive bar where we swap work stories. It ends with him telling me he's proud of me then we never speak of it again to anyone. We are both old men so it will be ridiculous."

Oldmanenok

Just Hanging

Happy Stephen Colbert GIF by The Late Show With Stephen ColbertGiphy

"Pedro Pascal. I wanna take him hiking. I don't know why, he just seems like he'd be a fun hiking buddy. Then we can hit a diner in the middle of nowhere and have the best food of our lives because an old lady runs the place and uses all her family recipes."

SuspiciousBowlOfSoup

Pedro is the future.

Who wouldn't want to spend the day with him?

Well, dear readers, who would you want to spend the day with?

The world is a very scary place. This fact can be easy to forget when we’re going about our daily lives, but all it takes is one crazy incident to remind us of how true this really is. And for folks who have experienced eerie encounters with dangerous people or circumstances that could easily have caused them a lot of problems, this fact remains ever-present in their minds no matter where they go or what they do. Here are 50 unforgettable stories about encounters with people that most of us would probably prefer never to meet again.

Man’s Best Friend

black white and brown long coated dog on brown dirt road during daytimePhoto by Andy Lyell on Unsplash

My family has a Bernese mountain dog called Ava, who is very big. She’s a quiet and lazy dog, but she also seems to be alert at all times. One night, my parents went out for dinner and left me at home with Ava. I was downstairs watching TV and my lounge is right next to the front door. At around 8:00 PM, the doorbell rang.

I opened the door to see a guy in fairly plain clothes standing there. He told me that he had a delivery for me. I was confused because he didn’t look like a delivery driver, and he had no parcel. Suddenly, I turn my head and see another guy around the side of my driveway which goes to our back door. This other man is clearly walking towards my back door.

I freak out and the guy at the door notices this. He barges through, shouting for the other guy. This is when Ava wakes up and begins to let out the loudest bark I’ve ever heard, making the guy stumble back. She rushed towards him and jumped up, grabbing his shoulder and literally throwing him out the door. His buddy came along, but saw Ava and started to run.

The other guy managed to slip out of Ava’s grip and run down the road. I somehow managed to get Ava to stay so I didn’t lose her, and they got away. I was so shaken up. I called my parents and then the authorities, and I gave them a statement. It’s safe to say that Ava got plenty of treats from then on, and I always keep her nearby when I am on my own.

reggie2006

Railroaded

I live in Tokyo and commute via those famously crazy crowded trains daily. There exists on them this kind of unspoken agreement that everyone works together to make this suck as little as possible. But that’s only when the trains are full. About two stops before mine, the train goes from sardine can to everyone on this train could lay on the seats and have room left over.

So, usually, I can sit down at this point. I'm also very obviously not a Japanese woman. But despite my appearance, I'm fluent in Japanese. One day, I sit down when the train empties out, ready to enjoy the 10 minutes of sitting that I get on my hour-long commute. I'm sitting with my legs crossed, as there are maybe ten people in the whole car and I'm not in anyone's way.

All of a sudden, a hand reaches out and grabs my bare knee. I jolt straight out of my skin, rip out my headphones, and look up at the hand's owner. It's some skinny old Japanese dude, at least in his 60s. He points at my legs and, in slightly broken English, says: "You must not cross legs on the train!" I'm totally bewildered by this.

I start to tell him in Japanese that the train isn't crowded right now, and that I'm not in anyone's way. But he doesn't like this answer. He starts to reach for my legs again. I scream as loud as I can, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Thankfully, this was enough to get him to stop that, as another thing you don't do on trains here is make a fuss.

Djtaffi

A Taste Of His Own Medicine

I was standing in line at the local pharmacy to get my prescriptions. This is a small town and I am a regular there, so they know me on sight. I was behind a couple of other people in line, and there were a couple of people behind me. I kept feeling a tickle in my hair in the back of my head, but every time I looked behind me, the guy there was a few steps back and looking at the floor.

This happened several times by the time I reached the front of the line. The pharmacist told me she wanted to talk to me about my medication in the consultation room. I thought this was weird, because we both knew I had been on this medication for years and would be for life. Nothing new. I get back to the room and close the door, and she comes in from the pharmacy.

She told me that the man behind me had been stepping forward, sticking his nose in my hair, and smelling it before stepping back and looking at the floor. This shook me pretty badly as this is such weird behavior, especially in my little town. The pharmacy staff insisted on having me wait there until the guy was distracted by another pharmacy employee.

They then had a security guard walk me to my car and watch me drive off, to make sure I was gone before Hair Sniffer came out and saw what car I was driving or what direction I was going in. I still use this pharmacy and some of the same people still work there. I will always be grateful that they took the initiative to make sure I was safe that day.

Cygnus875

Grin And Bare It

A few years ago, I was living alone in a little house. It had a heavy back door that would swell up after it rained. This always made it get really tough to open, and it would make a lot of noise. Late one night, I had passed out on my sofa in the living room on the opposite side of the house. But I suddenly woke up to a strange sound. Netflix was still blaring away on my laptop, but I guess I had felt a vibration or movement.

As I slowly squinted my eyes open, I realized the outline of someone was standing still in the hallway looking down at me. They were not very large or tall based on how much space they took up in the door frame. Being completely disoriented in my not-quite-awake-yet state, my mind assumed that it must be my girlfriend.

I was naked at the time, so I pulled back my blanket with my legs sprawled apart and called to her in my best deep voice "C'mere baby!" I guess once they realized I was a naked 200-pound man beckoning to them with my private parts, the person immediately turned on their heels and booked it for the back door. By the time I stumbled up to the door, all I could hear was them taking off into the darkness at a full sprint.

Arnold_Schrodinger

A Devoted Follower

I was 13 years old and on vacation with my parents in Turkey. We were at an all-inclusive hotel and enjoying the holiday. The hotel was full of tourists from different countries. There was this one guy, around 20 years old, who was staring at me for some time. I felt uncomfortable and asked him how he was doing. Wrong choice.

The next few days, everywhere I went, he also suddenly appeared. Not flirting, just lurking for hours and watching me. He had a really strange vibe around him and I felt I shouldn't be alone with him. Now, I was still young and my parents didn't want to leave me alone in a foreign country. So he couldn’t really bother me at any point.

But one night, there was entertainment in the hotel, which became boring to me after some time. I told my parents I wanted to go up to our hotel room and that I would see them in the morning. I left and walked to the elevator. I didn’t know it, but I was making a dire mistake. The guy who had been watching me for days saw me leaving, and he had followed me.

When I saw him also coming into the elevator, I was shaking with fear. He looked at me silently with a sinister smile. "This is it." I thought. Who knows what horrible plans he had for me. And just before the doors of the elevator were closing, someone stuck his boot between in order to prevent the doors from closing. I am not kidding, all I could see was a boot.

The doors opened and it was my dad. He saw that the creepy guy was leaving at the exact time I had left and didn't trust it. He looked the guy in the eye and said hello. My dad took me to my hotel room. To this day, I am so glad for the rescue because I don't want to know what would've happened if he didn't.

dees94

Home Sweet Home

man in gray crew neck shirt standing beside white curtainPhoto by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash

When I was 13 years old, my family moved from a village to a city. This city had a fairly high homelessness rate, so of course, there were always a lot of people looking for somewhere to stay. An old family friend of mine is a letting agent, so he often lets me use some of the unoccupied houses as a sort of recording studio for music that I create in my spare time.

He is totally fine with me using the houses for this purpose as long as I keep them clean and clear out for a while whenever there are viewings. This arrangement works fine for me. One night, after recording at one of the houses, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet there. So, I cycled back, got my wallet, and decided to check the rooms since the door hadn’t been locked properly.

I go upstairs and open the door to one of the bedrooms. Lo and behold, there was a man in his mid-30s lying on the bed like it was his own home. Both of us just looked at each other, completely startled. Neither of us said anything. I guess we came to some sort of non-verbal agreement, and I showed him out. Definitely a creepy experience…

Metal_Warrior_69

Power Struggle

When I was about 14 years old, my parents were out one night. They left me and my little sister home alone. It was about 10:00 PM when the lights suddenly went out. This used to happen sometimes in my country, since it’s a new country and really poor. But that time, I noticed something out of the ordinary. Only the lights in our house were out, and my neighbors’ lights were still on.

I had a bad feeling, so I quickly locked all the doors and closed the blinds. I told my little sister to hide behind the couch and not to go out no matter what happened. I hid somewhere else with a knife and tried to call my mom. She didn’t pick up, so I waited. After some time, I thought it was over, so I got out of my hiding place and headed to the kitchen to look out the window.

Before I could even get close, I heard a terrifying sound. It was the doorknob turning. It didn’t open, so the person tried it again, now violently. That’s when I panicked and I shouted: “WHO ARE YOU? GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE. I JUST CALLED 9-1-1!” I heard footsteps and then nothing. I went to the other room and looked out the window. From there, I saw someone running out of my backyard.

My sister was crying so I comforted her while we still stayed hidden until my parents came home. We told them everything and my dad said that whoever it was, he had intentionally cut the house’s electricity to scare us. To this day, every time the electricity goes out, I get kinda scared and I’m glad we are all safe and well.

differentpersonas

Salt And Pepper

I was standing right outside my apartment when an unknown person snuck around a corner and sprayed me with pepper spray while I was looking at my phone. I could make out a tall, thin man with a backpack walking away with his hands in his pockets before I lost the ability to keep my eyes open. There were no other people on the sidewalk in either direction.

I didn't see his face. He didn't say anything or try to take anything from me. He didn't even stick around to watch me be all messed up. Just walked away. Like nothing happened. I'm very thankful that I was able to feel for my keys and get back into my building, but then I started to realize that I could have permanent damage if I didn't get to a sink.

I couldn't find the key to my apartment. I was starting to not be able to breathe. I pounded on every door I could feel until my neighbor, whom I had never met before this moment, opened up for me. She let me bust into her bathroom and toss water everywhere. I felt so terrible for just commandeering her bathroom and bringing in that smell to her place.

But I will be eternally grateful to this lady for helping me. The officers that showed up didn't find the guy, and now I'm wondering whether this was a random attack or if this dude had been waiting for me for some unknown reason. At this point, I have no reason to suspect that I’ll ever learn the real reason behind this bizarre incident.

PuzzledAlbatross

An Uninvited Guest

When I was nine years old, my sister and I were doing swimming classes together at our community pool. One evening, after my mom had picked us up from the pool, she told us to get ready to go to the grocery store. So, I went upstairs to shower and get the chlorinated water off me before we left home. My sister was changing in our room. While I was in the shower, I heard someone come into the bathroom and start rummaging through the drawers.

I asked what my sister was looking for because I couldn't see through the frosted glass and, at that point, I assumed it was her looking for something for her hair. It wasn’t. All of a sudden, this strange man jumped into the shower with me, pulled off his shirt, and draped it over my head. I screamed at the top of my lungs and crouched down into a ball to protect myself.

My incessant screaming and squirming scared the guy off after a few seconds. He jumped out and ran out the back door. Seconds later, my dad came bolting into the room to see if I was okay. I was scared out of my mind, but thankfully I was okay. Unbeknownst to us, earlier in the day, an employee of ours had left the front door open while doing some work outside and a man snuck into our home. This man had secretly been hiding inside our house all day long. I was too traumatized to go into the bathroom by myself for like a year and a half after that.

In_Omnia_Paratus26

Something Much Worse Than A Ghost

I was about seven years old. My brother was about 10. It was well past our bedtime when our mom woke up off the couch to put us to bed. Our dad worked construction out of town back then, so it was often just us three at the house for weeks at a time. Up the stairs and to the immediate right was our parents' bedroom. Going left put you in the middle of a hallway.

Taking another left down that hallway led to my brother's room. The opposite end was my room, which was also across the hall from our upstairs bathroom. At either end of the hallway are windowed doors that we always kept locked and rarely used. The door on my end led to a balcony overlooking our front yard, and the door on my brother's end opened to our back porch.

My brother and mom both had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I only knew this because I was always a light sleeper and they just couldn't help flushing with the door wide open. This night, however, my brother stopped on his way to his room and came back towards the bathroom. That’s when he made a comment that chilled me to the bone.

He told me: "I'm gonna try to pee before I go to bed tonight. The past few nights, I've been too afraid to walk to the bathroom. I keep seeing a man wearing stripes at the end of the hallway." I don't know if my mom wrote it off as my brother telling ghost stories to try to scare me, or if she was already half asleep and didn't catch it, but she didn't react at all to my brother's confession.

I, on the other hand, was terrified by it. The fear of seeing a ghost-like that at the end of the hallway or through the windows is the reason I started running from the stairs to my bedroom at night. Years later, when I was about 18, my mom and I were having a conversation in her car about a dog named Max that we’d had for a very short time when I was little.

We were sharing stories about Max's tendency towards destroying my shoes and other unruly behaviors, when my mom blurted out, "Do you remember that time I opened the front door for the cops and Max ran inside to the kitchen and started tearing open that big bag of dog food we had?" This really caught me by surprise.

In all the years I lived in that house, we never once called law enforcement as far as I was aware. I asked her what she was talking about and she looked equally surprised, as if she had just revealed something by accident. Then, she said: "Oh, that's right! I never told you about this because you were too young at the time…”

She continued: "One night, I woke up hearing noises outside my window and, when I looked outside, I saw a man staring into my bedroom." She went on to describe how turning on the lights caused him to take off running, and how she had grabbed my dad's pistol before calling the authorities. I started to ask some more questions about the experience until something clicked in my head.

My mom said she couldn’t remember all the details she gave them when they showed up, but she remembered describing the man as a tall white male, wearing a striped shirt and jeans, with short dark hair, or something like that. They said it matched the description of a man they were looking for in the area. It turns out he had just escaped from behind bars, where he’d been charged with murder.

Now, I know it sounds so obvious hearing those two stories back to back, but it wasn't until a few years ago, in my mid-20s, that I pieced together that my brother had unknowingly warned us about a murderer who had spent multiple nights staking out our home. Who knows what he had been planning to do…

florianizer

After Hours

park with lampposts turned onPhoto by Marco Chilese on Unsplash

When I was in high school, I spent the better portion of my junior year being grounded. I was always in trouble for something and fighting with my parents. During one of these timeouts, a friend wanted to hang out. Being a teen, I wanted to hang out with my friends. I explained that I was in trouble, and he suggested that we wait until my parents were asleep so I could sneak out.

There was a park right next to my apartment building and it seemed innocent enough, so I agreed. My parents fell asleep and I could hear my stepdad snoring, so I tiptoed out of my house and met up with my friend. It was late, about 1:00 AM. As planned, we went to the park to smoke and hang out. We were sitting on the jungle gym, just talking, when we spotted another person walking around.

After a few moments, the person sees us and approaches us. He started asking us a bunch of questions, like: “Are you guys together?”, “What are you doing?”, “Where do you live?”, “Why are you here right now?”, “How old are you?” The person was obviously on some kind of substance and we politely tried to answer him without revealing any information about ourselves.

After a few minutes, the guy asked us if we wanted to come and see his house. Despite it being the middle of the night, we quickly said we had somewhere to be and rushed back to the car. We just sat there for a minute, not sure of what we avoided. All I could think about was that this guy could have done something terrible to me, and my parents would not have known what happened because I had snuck out.

Needless to say, that was the first and last time I ever snuck out of my house.

alixfofalix

Changing Things Up

I'm a 14-year-old girl, but I’m often mistaken for 18 because of my shape. One time, I was at the YMCA with my sisters. We were swimming for a while and then I started to feel sick. My younger sister said, "You don't look good, maybe you should sit in the changing room for a while." I agreed. I went into the changing room for some peace and quiet, and luckily no one else was there.

I sat on one of the benches and closed my eyes. A few moments later, I heard someone come in. It was a guy who was tall, muscular, and genuinely good looking. I brushed it off thinking he was probably waiting on his girlfriend and came in to check on her or something. That is until he approached me and sat right next to me, so close our thighs were touching.

I was really surprised. I scooted over and gave him that “What do you think you're doing?” look. He smiled at me and said, "Don't worry girl, I'm not gonna hurt you." He proceeded to put his hand on my back. I stood up and slowly backed away. I was scared to run because he seemed athletic, so he probably could've caught me.

He asked me "How old are you baby?" in a sickeningly sweet tone. I say 14 and he nonchalantly says "Cool." So I asked how old he was, and he said "23." He then stood up and started walking over to me. I backed away from him. This was the turning point. That was the moment when I heard a bathroom stall open and there, standing in all her glory, was the lady who I'll call my hero.

She stepped out and I know she heard everything. That dude hightailed it outta there. The lady was nice and stayed with me for a while. Her name was Stacy. Thank you Stacy!

Permalink

I Spy With My Little Eye

In December 2018, my ex and I split up after seven years in a relationship. I was new to the dating game so I didn’t want to just jump into it. In February, I met a guy at the bar. The second time I met him, we exchanged numbers. By the end of March, I was feeling pretty comfortable with him and invited him to a party at my house.

He stayed after the party and one thing led to another. After it was all said and done, I had a weird vibe from him. He was too pushy and it made me uncomfortable. So I asked him to leave. I planned to never speak to him again, that is until he started to text me from random numbers. He would say things like “Hope you have fun fishing” when I didn’t post on any social media about going fishing.

“I hope the movie was good” when I hadn’t posted anything online indicating that I was at the movies. He would text me and ask how I liked the bar whenever I was at the bar where I had met him with my friends. I had never told anyone or posted where we were going. We had no mutual friends who he could be getting the information from, so he was obviously following me.

The final straw came when my friends took me to Washington, DC for my 25th birthday celebration. We barhopped all over the city. Around 2:30 in the morning, we came out of a bar and decided to get cookies across the street. As we were coming out of the cookie shop, guess who pops up. You guessed it! He does. And I am not amused...

He goes “I hope visiting the monuments was fun earlier! I wanted to say hi earlier but since you haven’t been replying to my messages I didn’t wanna freak you out.” I was TERRIFIED. Thankfully, my friend's husband stepped in and called him out. He threatened to report him to the authorities. I changed my number and moved. Thankfully, I haven’t heard from him since.

MindfullyMeghan

Phoning It In

When I was 17 years old, my older sister took me to the mall to get a cell phone. The guy who sold it to us showed us several options and let me choose from a selection of phone numbers. He then set us up with a plan and we left. Pretty standard stuff. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary…until I got a text later that evening.

"Hey, it's the guy who sold you your new phone." I don’t remember how I replied to that. What I do remember is that the guy kept texting me and calling me non-stop. He kept telling me how attractive I was and that we should be together. I told him that it wasn't a good time for me and that I was about to leave town for the entire summer.

He asked where I was going and offered to come along. He then offered to quit his job and leave the state with me on a whim. Again, he had only ever spoken to me in-person for around 15 minutes. I asked him to leave me alone, and to stop calling and texting me. He kept calling, I kept not answering. We eventually had to file a complaint and change my number.

SteenPeace

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

I'm a 30-year-old female who lives with my fiancé and our two dogs. My huskies are not guard dogs. They never bark or howl. These dogs just love people so much. My brother-in-law and friends have walked in unexpectedly on multiple occasions, and the dogs don't make a peep. But on this one occasion, it was 8:00 PM and dark out, and I was home alone.

I was in the bathroom with the door closed and I had the blow dryer going, so I couldn't really hear anything going on around me. But when I suddenly heard one of the dogs howling, my ears perked up. I stopped the blow dryer and listened out. Then, I heard a faint knock and the dogs started going insane. Barking, howling, jumping into the window so loudly that I thought they'd break it.

I’m wondering what the heck is making them go crazy like that, maybe a skunk or something. I look out my bedroom window and see two men in hoodies standing at the front door. They start knocking louder. This time, one of the dogs jumps from the side window to the front door and starts growling and ramming his body into the door at full force.

I'm watching this from my bedroom window. As the dog jumps into the door, one of the men jumps back startled. He looks at the other guy, and then they just walk away. I called my fiancé and told him to get home right away. I watched the men walk away down the road. They weren’t selling anything, as they didn't stop at any other houses. I have no idea who they were.

amanda-g

Fairy Tale

open casement window near plantsPhoto by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash

When I was way younger, I had gone into my bedroom alone to change into pajamas. Apparently, I then came back and asked my mom why Peter Pan was at my window and if we could let him in. She, of course, ran to my bedroom. Sure enough, someone had pulled the screen off my window and had opened it slightly. Needless to say, we moved shortly after that.

I was oblivious as to what was wrong because, hey, I got to meet Peter Pan!

JordynDeLambo

Cookie Cutter

When I was 11 years old, I was staying home alone with my little brother who was seven. At that time, it was about 9:00 at night. It was dark and rainy outside, and we were reading in our room right next to the front door, with a big window and open blinds. That's when I heard the front doorbell ring, followed by repeated rounds of knocking.

I thought my parents had arrived home, but found it strange that they didn't use the garage or their keys. I looked outside to try and see their car. I saw nothing but rain. As I approached the door, I heard a man's voice that was not my father's yell through the storm: "Would you like some cookies? We're selling Girl Scout cookies!"

I was shocked at this, considering the weather and time of day. Saying nothing, I checked the peephole and peered through the side window only to see that it was not a father with his girl as I had expected. My heart dropped. Standing there was just a fully grown man, maybe in his late 50s, with no box of cookies in sight, soaking on my doorstep.

I can remember the gut-wrenching feeling of having to check the locks while he was right on the other side. He heard this for sure. The two locks were the only thing separating myself and my brother from a potential monster. He continued to knock on the door and mention his cookies, as I considered calling the authorities.

That's when I remembered that the blinds were open in my room where my brother was, with the light on. As I turn the corner into the doorway, I see the man carefully peering into our window, possibly eyeing my brother who was focused on his book. My heart was pounding now as I began to panic. Using all of my willpower, I quickly turned off the lights and shut the blinds, in full view of the man.

As fast as I could, I double-checked all the locks in the house, closed all the blinds, and told my brother to go hang out in one of the big closets in the interior of the house with no windows. I didn't tell him what was going on so that he wouldn't be frightened. For some reason, I never did call law enforcement or my parents. I just waited in the hallway until the man left.

Thinking about it still gives me shivers. So many things could have gone wrong that night. My worst fear to this day is strangers getting to an unlocked door before I do.

iloginonceaweek

Big Plans

When I was a student teacher, I was 21 and working with mostly seniors in high school, many of whom were 17 or 18 years old. One day, the mentor teacher I was working with pulled me aside from teaching my class to inform me that other teachers had overheard some students telling each other what they "wanted to do to me."

While disturbing, my friends and colleagues insisted that this was just a fact of being a young teacher working with high schoolers. The next day, a few girls in my class informed me that three specific boys were no longer just talking about what they WANTED to do, but were graphically describing what they were PLANNING on doing to me in the coming weeks in the parking lot after school.

I went to the administration immediately, and they handled it very quickly and professionally. I was very grateful for their support. I was never touched nor harmed by any of these students, thankfully. What scared the absolute wits out of me, however, was that less than a week later, one of those boys was pulled out of school by an officer.

I didn't find out immediately, but I eventually learned he was being held for the alleged assault of his younger sister. It still makes me sick just thinking about it. I genuinely hope to never meet him again. It's terrifying to think of what could have happened had I not had some wonderful staff and students looking out for me.

BRIanphrionsa

Bus-ted

One Sunday afternoon, I was waiting at the bus stop alone after an outing with a friend. I saw a driver get onto an empty bus, so I asked him if he was going to be stopping at my stop. He said that he was not, so I said okay and continued patiently waiting for the right bus. A few minutes later, he pulls up beside me and motions to me to come onto the bus.

I figure that he has changed his route or something and wanted to let me know that he would now be passing by my stop, but as soon as I approached him he started making a whole bunch of creepy comments about my body. He was also making really awkward eye contact with me the entire time he was speaking. I started to climb back off the bus to get of there, but he grabbed my hand.

I wiggled myself free and ran away as fast as I could. I immediately reported him to the authorities.

momowantsadonut613

It’s A Mall World After All

This happened about eight years ago in Germany. My daughters were four and two years old, respectively. It was a very nice morning, so I decided to take my girls to a little mall to walk around and do some shopping. My girls are and always were very well behaved and never ran away from me. Usually, we always held hands walking around in areas with many people.

On this day, the mall was almost empty. Still, the girls stayed on my hands. I noticed a man passing me. He looked at my daughters with a very stern look that gave me a bad vibe. I just brushed it off and kept walking. We wanted to go to a shoe store. This store had a very cute play area that the girls liked to go to.

As we entered the store, they asked if they could run ahead to the play area. I could see it from the entrance, so I told them yes and they took off. At that exact moment, that same strange man burst into the store and speed-walked past me towards my daughters. It didn’t even take me a second to realize that he was up to no good.

He was absolutely focused on getting to them, and fast. I instantly started yelling while running past him. I told my girls to come back right away. I am never very stern with them, so they knew that something was serious. He got thrown off by my yelling. I got to my daughters before he could, so he turned around and ran out of the store.

nightmind08

Drive My Car

person holding black iphone 5Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

I don't have a car, so Uber is my main mode of transportation to get to work. This morning, I requested an Uber a half hour before I had to be there and the pickup was supposed to take less than five minutes. But, for some reason, my Uber driver kept going around in circles. He ended up calling me asking for directions and I was telling him exactly where he needed to go.

But he just wasn’t listening. At that point, I was irritated and asked if there was a way he could cancel because I was going to be late. He said he couldn't, and ended up finding his way to my apartment at the time I was supposed to be at work. He kept apologizing and I would mumble, "It's fine, I just need to get there."

He ended up taking me to another store that was on the way and asked "This is it, right?" It took all of my patience not to just blow up at that point. I calmly gave him the directions to the actual store I work at and just told him to please listen to the GPS. We finally get to my job and I'm nearly 20 minutes late. I muttered, "Thanks," got out, and bolted to the office to clock in.

An hour or so into my shift, one of my managers came up to tell me that my Uber driver has been harassing the people in the front of the store, trying to get a hold of me or my manager to take fault and apologize for my being late. He tried four or five separate times to come inside. An hour later, a different manager lets me know that the driver is now blowing up the store's phone and begging to speak to me.

My manager suggested that I not leave alone that night, and that I be on the lookout in case he came back. I contacted Uber support multiple times to let them know. You wanna know what they did about it? They gave me a three-dollar credit! I made sure to give him a one-star rating so that I wouldn't get him as a driver again, but it's just scary to think that he knows where I work and live.

jellyfishgardens

Bathroom Break

About four years ago, I was living with an ex-boyfriend, his aunt, and her boyfriend Len. I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee. My ex was asleep in bed when I got up. I walked across the house and his aunt’s door was open. She and Len were both passed out. I made my way sleepily to the bathroom and saw that the light was on.

Since I knew everyone was asleep, I innocently assumed the aunt had left the light on. So I opened the door. I was wrong. I saw multiple things in a few seconds. The first thing I remember is that it smelled horrible, like poop. I also immediately noticed that someone had just taken a shower based on the steam. Then, I spotted a pile of clothes folded up and organized on the ground.

There was a random man on the toilet. I, having manners, and very much still half asleep, jumped, apologized, and closed the door. I panicked, went to my room, and texted the aunt. I said: “Hey, there is a man in the bathroom!” She texted back, “I know, it’s okay. He’s a friend of mine.” This calmed me down and I went back to sleep.

The next day, I bring it up when everyone is around. I was still shaken…but this is where it got so much worse. The aunt says she never texted me, as she was completely passed out. We soon realized that this guy had taken her phone into the bathroom, and that he himself had sent me that text. What in the world?? I was so confused and freaked out by this whole thing. It was the weirdest experience I’ve ever had.

harley242424

Message Delivered

I was around 10 or 11 years old when this happened, and I was home alone. The doorbell rang while I was watching TV, so I hastily moved my bowl of cereal and got up to answer the door. It was the mailman, who said we had gotten a package. But it was so big that he needed help carrying it in. Something felt off about him, as he wasn’t wearing a uniform, but a dirty white shirt and jeans.

I asked him where his truck was, because I didn’t see it parked out front. He said it was around the corner, and that I should just follow him out to grab my parcel. He kept telling me to go with him, but I politely said I wasn’t feeling well and that we would just get our mail from the post office. He said that would be a big hassle, and that I should just go out and get it then and there.

I said I had to get my shoes on from upstairs and he waited outside. I locked the door and bolted upstairs, closing all the windows. I called my mom and asked her to come home, explaining everything. The man was still outside and he shouted at me, asking if I’d gotten my shoes. I replied that my mom was coming because she’s much stronger and could help carry the package.

Once I’d said that, he was quick to run away. And I never saw him again. They never caught him and I hope that he never lured any other kids or tricked them into going near that van.

gracerussellx_

On The Road

I was driving home when I realized a truck had been behind me for miles. Just to be precautious, I made an abrupt last second U-turn. He did too. It was then that I realized he was following me. While on the phone with an officer, I made sharp turns and ran red lights to try to lose him. He wouldn’t stop. He literally almost hit my car a couple of times as he sped up trying to catch up.

The operator instructed me to go to a local grocery store and wait for help to arrive. I parked right in front of the store’s entrance, in front of the surveillance cameras, and waited. He decided to park his car at a distance and waited for me to get out of my car. All of a sudden, I heard a hard knock at the window. I freaked out.

It turned out to be the grocery manager, letting me know that the officer had just notified him of the situation. He asked if I wanted to go inside the store and have him protect me until law enforcement arrived. I honestly feared the worst and told him no. I was shaking, but I thought: “This maniac might be dangerous. He could shoot me and everyone in there.”

The officers arrived and cornered him in the back of the parking structure. I was shaking as they came to my car. My hand was gripping the wheel very tightly. They took him away soon after and charged him with driving while under the influence. I didn’t know who he was. Apparently, he lived a couple of miles away from me.

inezzzz

I Want You Back

When I was seven years old, I went to a small school in our little town in Alberta. There was this guy named Daniel. Daniel had slept with my mom ages before I was even conceived, yet he somehow had in his brain that I was his child. Full-blown delusional. So, Daniel decided that the smart and rational thing to do was to stalk me.

He apparently plotted out a map to my school, he knew my name, he knew how old I was, and he knew what I looked like. I have no idea how he got this information. My mom never really used Facebook, and he lived in a different province. I had never met this man before. As if that wasn’t bad enough already, Daniel decided that one day he wanted to take it a step further.

He had been ranting to his wife about me. He kept telling her that I was his kid, and that he was going to drive from British Columbia all the way to Alberta to bring me back. He was convinced that I was conceived earlier than I was, and that my mom had made some kind of conspiracy to hide the fact I was his kid from the world.

He had a whole plan for how to kidnap me, right down to the date he was going to do it. His wife decided to call my mom and warn her. My mom put safety measures up, like making sure I was always in groups and that I was home by 4:00, etc. I was only told about all this when I was about 14, and still don’t know all the details. Obviously, Daniel never successfully went through with his plan.

Gurowho

An Offer You Can Refuse

man in black hat standing near storePhoto by Laurynas Mereckas on Unsplash

My son looks nothing like me and I have a babyface. So when people see us together, they typically see babysitter rather than a mother. One day, I'd just gotten off work at McDonald’s and my husband was waiting for me with our son, who was four months old at the time. We ordered something to go and my husband went to use the bathroom while my coworkers cooed over my baby at the counter.

I see this older man watching us, but I dismiss it because my son usually gets a lot of attention. Plus, this guy came to the McDonald's pretty regularly and never raised any red flags. He came up to us and smiled at my son. He then asked if he could hold him, which I politely declined. He pulls a twenty out of his wallet.

"Why don't you take this, get yourself a sandwich, and leave the baby with me," he said, while trying to hand me the money. "No, thank you," I replied. I tried to be polite. He came back with, "Aren't you hungry? It's so hard to work two jobs. I'm sure if anything happened, the parents wouldn't blame you." When he said that, I was about to go off on him.

Just then, my husband came out of the bathroom and placed himself between the man and me. "Oh, you must be the father." He offered my husband the money but didn't talk about taking our son.

We made our way out of the store and the man followed, offering us money the entire way. After a while, my husband abruptly stopped and stared the man down until he went back into the store.

A few weeks later, he came back to the store. He ranted about how he could have given that baby a better life than that young man could. I told him that I was the baby’s mother and that he could get his sausage biscuit somewhere else from now on, because he wasn't welcome here anymore. I’m glad I never have to see that guy again. What a creep!

forgetfulbuttbutt

Calling Card

When we were both really young, my parents once left me and my brother at home while they went out. The two of us were all the way down in our basement, playing video games. We had the home phone in between us, just in case one of our parents called. About an hour goes by, and the phone starts to ring. We look down and the caller ID shows it’s our uncle calling.

We decide to just let it ring. Now, this phone usually rang four times when someone called, but I noticed that it stopped in the middle of the third ring. I couldn’t understand why this would have happened, unless someone else in the house had picked up one of the other phones. But no one else was in the house with us, right?

I got really suspicious and my paranoia got the better of me. I took my brother upstairs. We see that the phone is still there, but there is still a phone on the third floor in my parents' room. So we walk towards the stairs. What we saw next chilled us to the bone. A man in his late 40s was standing by the door of our parents' room and staring back at us.

The second we saw him, we both screamed, ran out of the house, and went straight to our neighbors’ house. We tell them what happened and they proceed to call the authorities and then our parents. They come fast and I don’t know what was wrong with the man, but he never left the house. He just stood there and let the officers take him away. I later heard he was taken to a mental hospital.

I shudder to imagine what could have happened to my brother and me if my uncle hadn’t decided to call at that exact moment.

joedcorey

In Hot Water

When I was around six years old, I was with a bunch of people from my church having a barbecue at a river. All of the kids were swimming in the water. I didn't know how to swim yet, so I was just staying waist-deep in the shallow part. At some point, this girl came up to me and was playing with me. We were splashing each other and stuff.

The weird thing was that she was probably 13 or so and I didn't know who she was, even though I knew everyone else there. Apparently, no one was paying attention to us. She started pushing me out deeper and deeper, to where I couldn't touch the ground anymore. She just kept laughing the whole time. My head kept going underwater.

I tried grabbing onto her arms when she would push me, but she easily knocked my grip loose each time. The slight current slowly pulled me away from my friends and family while I struggled to tread water. I was panicking, but she wouldn't stop pushing me and laughing. I could not possibly have looked like I was having fun. I would try to yell, but was only ever above water long enough to take a breath.

Every time my feet touched the mud for a split second, she would just push me again. I couldn't believe she was laughing. I was sure I was going to drown. No one seemed to notice. Of all people to intervene, it would happen to be my childhood bully, Zachary. He had always been a jerk to me before. But I still feel like he saved my life this day.

He came up and told her to get away from me. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up to where I could stand again. Then, he ran off and continued to play with the other kids his age as if nothing happened. The girl was already far away by that time. I went on playing, and I don't think I ever told anyone until I was much older. Pretty sure I never saw that girl again.

SmirkyShrugs

Center Of Attention

This happened a week ago. My blood still runs cold when I think about it. My brother wanted to get a drink from a place we both love to go to. It was going to close soon and he had work to do, so I went by myself. It wasn't very late, but it was already dark and my parents had drummed into me since birth about the dangers of walking alone at night.

I went and got both drinks and, for some reason, didn't get a bag. As a result, I was walking along with both hands full. As I was walking towards the street where my house was, I suddenly became aware of two men near me. One was in front of me, wearing a maroon pullover, and the other was behind me, wearing a grey zipped up hoodie with the hood pulled up.

I only turned around for a flash of a second, so I couldn't describe his face to you. I was weirded out, because I was walking between them and I was beginning to feel uncomfortably like they were trying to herd me. And just as I was telling myself that I was clearly overreacting, I came across a garage that was down an alleyway and a black Subaru was coming out.

I had time, so I crossed before they reached me. The person inside clearly wasn't counting on me doing that, so they swung around and parallel parked next to me, at most two feet away. So now I was between three men and a wall. When I saw the car door open, that was it for me. I bolted and didn't stop running until I reached my house.

maxyagirl

Keep Your Friends Close And Your Dad’s Frenemies Closer

I have known my father's best friend and his wife since I was a baby. But they always unsettled me. The wife hated me, like she hated all kids, and the man would obsessively pay attention to me the entire time he was around. He would constantly watch me, even if I ignored him. By the time I was twelve, I knew things about him that I shouldn't.

The kind of stuff one would expect someone to tell their best friend in confidence, though usually not with their best friend’s daughter around. When I turned 16, there was a night where he was over and I was about to go to bed, saying goodnight to everyone in the house. My dad had gone to the bathroom and this guy's wife wasn’t there.

He got up from the table and went to give me a hug goodnight. This was really weird, since I never initiated any hugging and he would never have initiated one with me in the past. This hug lasted forever. My arms were at my sides, and his arms were trapping me against him. He finally released me from the hug, but placed his hands on my arms and looked at me.

This look still makes my skin crawl. He looked down at my chest and whispered, "Wow, you are getting so much bigger!" His thumbs were ghosting over my arms and closer to my chest. I was so startled and unnerved that I just froze. I couldn't think to move. This man, a man that helped my dad change my diapers, was lusting over the size of my 16-year-old chest.

Thankfully, before anything got worse, my father came out of the bathroom and this guy immediately backed away from me. I would never go around him again from that day forward. I haven’t seen him a single time since. Right after this incident took place, I told my dad that whenever he would be over, I was not going to stay there. Marvin, let's not meet again.

Eienharu

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

men's black pullover hoodiePhoto by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

I had just fallen asleep when I heard my dog outside losing his mind. I then received a notification on my phone, stating: "There is motion detected at your front door." I open my phone to the live view of what's happening outside, only to be greeted by an eyeball staring directly into the camera. The man standing there was mumbling to himself.

He proceeds to knock and ring the doorbell. Now, I live in a suburban, quiet town, with wholesome neighbors who are all good people. I had decided to actually lock my door that day, which wasn’t always the case. That was a lucky thing, because the man started trying the doorknob, and then attempted to climb in through the window.

I turned on the microphone of my security system and told the man that he would be behind bars within the hour if he didn’t leave immediately. He got all huffy and puffy, and started talking about how he was just looking for his dog "Fido." Uh-huh, by trying to enter my house and acting like a creep on video? I’m more careful to always lock my door nowadays.

permalink

A Helping Hand

My boss has four children. When they were younger, she was driving along when her van broke down on the side of a motorway. She pulled over onto the hard shoulder and put on her hazard lights. She got the kids out of the car and took them to stand behind the barrier. She called roadside assistance and her husband. All standard stuff.

About 10 or 20 minutes later, a car pulls up behind her with a rather good looking chap in it. He says he lives just off the next exit and had seen her, so he decided to circle back to see if she needed any help. All the way through this interaction, my boss says he didn't throw up any red flags. He just seemed genuinely concerned about the kids being on the side of the road.

He offered to take her back to his place for a cup of tea while they waited. He even said she could call her husband to tell him where she was, just to be safe. Again, my boss is very sweet and kind and thinks the best of people, and there were still no red flags. Nevertheless, she turns him down only because she had four kids with her.

She said if she had been on her own, she probably would have taken him up on the offer since he seemed so genuinely kind. She turned him down because she didn't want to take the children back to a stranger's house, not because of mistrust. He sort of pushed it a little bit more but eventually shrugged and left the scene.

A couple of weeks later, she saw his photo in the paper. Apparently, he had stopped to help another woman whose car had also broken down, and he had attacked her and taken her life after offering her a lift. To this day, she maintains that she genuinely didn't see any red flags when she spoke to him. She insists that the only reason she's alive is because of her kids.

QueenChoco

The Sound Of Silence

When I was around 13 years old, I was granted the privilege of staying home alone. Every now and then when I was home alone, I’d hear sounds coming from upstairs, and so I would instinctively call my mom. She then told me a story of how she used to hear things in her old house all the time and how it’s just the house “settling.”

Fast forward to many instances of sounds later. I decided that the very next time I was going to be home alone, I was going to be completely silent and make as little noise as possible. Within the first half an hour, there was nothing. Not a peep out of the entire house. I eventually got bored and felt safe, so I went to grab the TV remote to watch something.

But a few seconds before I grabbed the remote, I heard a sound that I’ll never forget. There was a huge crash upstairs and running footsteps. I was more sure than ever that someone was inside the house. By now, there were plenty of consistent sounds coming from upstairs. I decided to hatch a quick plan. Being the skinny, non-threatening little girl that I was, I first grabbed a kitchen knife.

Then, I grabbed a shoe and propped open the front door. After a few moments of some deep breaths, I yelled out in the deepest voice I could, “I know you are upstairs! I am giving you a chance to leave now without me reporting you. I have propped the front door open and I will be in the bathroom. Be aware that I am armed and ready to take immediate action if you refuse to leave.”

Sure enough, I walk into the bathroom, absolutely terrified that someone is about to attack me. I wait and wait until I hear the one unforgettable sound. I heard the front door close and the shoe being moved. I quickly locked the door and turned on the alarm system. I hope to never see this person or even hear this person again.

itsmiichristine

Like A Moth To The Flame

I have always been a lanky and non-muscular man. Needless to say, when I came face to face with a big dude holding a knife in the middle of the night, I was pretty much screwed. I was walking home from my closing shift on a warm summer night last year when he stepped out of the shadows and demanded my wallet. I didn't immediately reach for it, as I guess I was in shock.

He stepped closer and yelled at me to empty my pockets. When the realization set in that this guy was ready to take my life over the meager $20 I had on me, a white moth fluttered between us. To my surprise, the mugger began screaming and swinging his knife at the bug, which only caused it to fly around more sporadically.

Those fierce eyes which had been looking at me just a few seconds ago were now shrouded in terror and not breaking their focus on the moth. I took karate lessons for a few years when I was a young boy, so I took advantage of the large man desperately flailing at a small insect and performed the number one move recommended by all reputable martial arts schools. I ran like a madman.

I ran all the way back to my house, occasionally glancing behind myself, but I never saw him following. He had other matters to attend to, I suppose. So, an important lesson for all you wannabe criminals out there. Before attempting to commit a mugging, go see a therapist first who can help you get over your dumb phobias.

fifthfire

Mountain Music

When I was a kid, I used to often go up to the Smoky Mountains and stay with my friend and her family for a few days to a week. One time, my friend's dad drove me and my friend down to Asheville, North Carolina, which was about an hour and a half away. My friend and I had put on a lot of makeup that day, because we were preteen girls who enjoyed having fun with makeup.

Even with the makeup, it was still very obvious that we were children. We went into a pizza shop to sit down and eat, when a man in his 30s or 40s started talking to my friend. The situation quickly turned sinister when it became apparent that the man thought my friend's dad was a pimp, and he was interested in my friend.

I'm pretty sure that my friend's dad threatened to disembowel the guy, and then we all promptly left and drove back to the mountain home. My friend's dad had to explain to us later what happened, and why we went home so abruptly. We were too young to understand it completely. It was definitely a very strange experience for both of us...

snail-overlord

Low Key

brown coated dog on couchPhoto by Nathalie SPEHNER on Unsplash

Someone just tried to break into my house while I was home alone for the weekend. I am the only one in my family who uses the spare key that was hidden in my garden, and no one but me would have known where to find it. Yet, I saw this attempted burglar walk right up to the hiding spot and pick it up, which makes me think he had been stalking me beforehand.

Thankfully, my dog scared him off before he could do any damage.

EuropeanAustralian

Hate Thy Neighbor

When I was about five years old, my mom and I lived in this duplex that was off the main road and in a wooded area. We lived on one side and on the other was a woman and her son. He was studying to be a teacher. My mother had me young, so she was about 25 and the guy in the other unit was in his early 20s. He would often come by to talk to my mom.

My mother said he would ask a lot of questions about me. He once even asked if he could take me for a walk in the woods. My mother declined. One night, while I was sleeping over at my grandma’s house, my mom came home from work late at night. When she got into her room, she made a chilling discovery. She a pair of feet wearing socks sticking out from the end of her bed.

She grabbed her bedside lamp and was about to hit the intruder with it when all of a sudden he identified himself as that guy from the other unit. He couldn’t explain why he was in our apartment, nor why he was naked and only wearing socks. But he begged my mother to not tell his mother about the incident. My mother, of course, called the authorities.

She ended up going to court and making a victim impact statement against this guy, because she was terrified that he would become a teacher and be around children. We ended up moving immediately, because my mom couldn’t stay another night in that house. She is very thankful that I was out of the house that night, because for all we know he could have been trying to target me.

Clumsybee

Window Shopping

This happened a few weeks ago and I’m still a bit shaken up by it. My husband and I like to take long drives in the desert with our dog. We live outside Las Vegas and are fortunate to live in a city with abundant beautiful areas to stargaze. My husband just got a new telescope for his birthday in October, so he was excited to try it out.

We drove our Kia up to a popular overlock, and he pulled out the telescope. He showed me a bunch of constellations and we saw a shooting star. Our pet dog sat in the car with two of the windows rolled down. At one point, my hubby had to pee. He told me to wait in the car for him. So, I got in and locked the door. After a few seconds, I hear gravel moving.

Thinking it’s my hubby, I remark “That was fast.” Suddenly, my dog goes berserk. She’s snarling and barking like crazy. So I turn around and see this dude standing there that’s not my husband. I then see that the dude had stuck his hand into my car window and that my dog had latched onto his arm as soon as he did so.

The guy was screaming in agony as my dog bit into his arm. I was screaming in terror. My husband is now yelling as he runs towards us with his pants half on. The dog finally lets the guy’s arm go and he takes off. I immediately call the authorities. My husband tries chasing after the guy, but he manages to get away. The doggo got a cup of Dairy Queen that night.

wifey4lifey78

Taking You For A Ride

This happened last year, at the peak of my partying stage. I was at a friend’s house drinking one night. At around 2:00 AM, I was pretty intoxicated and decided to call an Uber to take me home. The car pulled up, and I have this habit of sitting at the front with the driver. He was a young man in his 20s. I don’t remember too much about what we were talking about.

However, I do recall his compliments going from “You’re really pretty,” to “You’re really hot,” and he also kept saying that I reminded him of his mom. I found it really strange, especially considering that I was 19 years old, but I tried to laugh it off because I didn’t want to appear rude. I asked him to swing by the drive-thru at a burger spot because I was hungry.

We got the food and he was supposed to take me home, but I noticed he was driving in the complete opposite direction of where my house was. I looked at his map and it kept telling him to turn around. I asked him where we were going, and I remember him looking over at me and saying, “Oh, you don’t wanna come over to my house?”

I remember I completely sobered up in that instant and said “No. Please take me home.” I don’t recall if we continued talking after that, but luckily he took me home and I never heard from him again. I also reported him the next day. What really upsets me is that he clearly knew I was inebriated and yet he tried to take advantage of me.

It’s safe to say I won’t be Ubering alone at night anymore.

Misscuudi

Hall Pass

I was in Las Vegas on a business trip many years ago. If you’ve ever stayed on the strip in Vegas, you know that the hotels there are absolutely huge. The hallways are mazelike and extremely long. I am a small lady, and I was in my early 30s at the time. I had just left a meeting downstairs and was heading back up to my room.

I pushed the button for my floor when I got onto the elevator, and I got off when it reached my floor. There was a man walking towards me down one of the long halls. We passed each other. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see him turn around. I take a right. He takes a right. I go left. He goes left. I determine that he is definitely following me.

No one is with me on this trip and I’m staying alone in my room. But he doesn’t know that. I pick up my cell phone and make a fake call. Loudly, I spoke into the phone: “Hi babe. What are you doing? Oh, you’re back in our room? You finished your workout super early. Okay. I’m almost back at our room, so I’ll be right there. Love you.”

The creepy guy following me immediately turned around and headed in the direction we had just come from. Whew. I made sure he was extra gone, then got into my room as fast as humanly possible and bolted the door. I never had any more issues for the rest of the trip, and I was happy that I learned a new trick.

ExpensiveArm5

Tunnel Vision

road tunnel wallpaperPhoto by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I was leaving college and about to take a train to visit my family as I used to do every weekend. Usually, my best friend and her friends would join me at the exit of a pedestrian path which takes the shape of a tunnel. This day, they were late, so I walked through the tunnel on my own. As I was passing by an opening in the tunnel, a car suddenly approached me.

The car was black and its windows were tinted. Yet I could see who was inside because the driver had his windows opened. The car parked right in front of me, almost reaching my legs. I did not move. I was tired anyway. And I saw two guys inside of the car. The passenger opened the door and tried to reach for me.

That's when I got extremely lucky. At the precise moment when he tried to grab me, I saw my best friend and her friends emerging from the tunnel. I loudly screamed "Hello!" to her. The dude turned back and saw my group of friends approaching. He went back into the car and drove away quickly. My best friend looked at me and said: "Were you just about to be kidnapped?"

I said yes and we laughed it off very nervously.

Permalink

Living Happily Ever After

Me and my ex were together for two months. Within that time, he swiped money from me and blamed it on me when I asked him about it. We actually broke up after I asked for advice on Reddit. Now, everyone who knows me knows my daily routine. I go to college for most of the day, then go to my work, go home, and do homework. And repeat.

One day, I was at my job, doing my work. All of a sudden, I get an alert on my phone that there’s someone at my house. I figured that I would watch the cameras after I got home. But then, over the next two hours, I got three more alerts. As I was taking the bus back to my home, I watched the cameras. And I saw my crazy ex taking a hammer to my back door!

I kept on watching as he struggled against the deadbolt, and then I saw him enter my house. I called the authorities faster than I thought I could and told them there was a break-in at my address. I continued to watch the video after that. 15 minutes after he entered, he left with a duffle bag. I arrived back at my house and officers were already on the scene.

I identified myself as the homeowner and went inside to check the damage. The place was trashed and, along with my duffle bag, some jewelry was missing. I gave the officers the evidence that it was my ex. And I gave them the address of the place he was crashing at. I then arranged to get a restraining order against him.

Not long after the incident, they caught him at a nearby pawn shop trying to sell my jewelry. When questioned, he claimed that he was trying to “get back” at me for dumping him. I am now happy to announce that the restraining order is officially in place, and my ex is also behind bars for a year for breaking and entering.

Chipsarethebest

Toying With Your Heart

I used to work for Macy's in their beauty department. We had all kinds of weird customers that came in. Guys who would come rub lotion all over their legs, women who would take perfumes and spray them down their pants, all kinds of stuff you wouldn’t believe. I literally would never use a store tester under any circumstances. But one interaction was by far the strangest thing that happened to me.

I was standing at my counter and was approached by a guy who looked like he was in his late 30s. He asked if I had any kids and I told him I didn't. He said he was giving away free toys at the old Big Lots parking lot the following morning. I was like, that's cool but I don't have any kids. He asked me if any of the girls I worked with had little girls who would want free toys.

I told him that they didn't have any kids either. I was getting super creeped out and walked behind the counter. He was like, "Tell your friends if they have little girls to come tomorrow morning and get their free toy." I called my husband on my lunch break and told him about it. He agreed that it was super weird and that I should for sure not to tell any of our friends about the free toy event.

I also called our local security office and they were basically like, what are we supposed to do about it? Yesterday, one of my girlfriends shared a story about a local guy who is being investigated for human trafficking and a string of unsolved murders. I looked at the photograph and immediately recognized the suspect. It was the creepy toy guy!

shankliest

A Lesson You Won’t Soon Forget

When I was around six years old, my family and I were just leaving the supermarket. I was begging my mom for some candy. By the time we left, I didn't get any. So I threw a huge fit. I started stomping and crying at the exit and threatened my mom that I wouldn't leave without getting the candy. She said, "Fine, stay here then." She left me by myself at the exit to teach me a lesson.

This made me cry and scream even louder. As she was getting closer to the car, a man approached me. He just said these simple words: "Get in my van boy, we will catch her." I stopped crying immediately, as I knew what stranger danger was by then. I just looked at the guy and knew that something bad was going to happen.

My mom quickly rushes back, grabs my hand, and yanks me away. She didn't say a word to the man, but she gave him a dirty look. Needless to say, I was quiet the whole ride back home. I'm not sure what would have happened if my mom had decided to pack the groceries before she came back to get me from my little fit.

organic-dinosaur

Late Night Stroll

A few months back, after a night drinking, I hooked up with a much younger bloke. He was an average guy, nothing out of the ordinary. We messaged each other a few times afterward, but I just wasn’t keen on seeing him again. Tonight. Literally, an hour ago, he started to call me. I ignored it, as I was in bed. It’s the middle of the night.

But the calls continued. And to make things worse, I could hear someone walking outside my house. Then, someone started knocking on my windows. I have my six-year-old next to me. I kept ignoring the calls. I should have just said go away. But I lay frozen in fear, and this went on for 45 minutes. Next thing I know, I hear my door open and he enters my house.

I immediately shouted at the top of my lungs, “Get out of my house right now!!!” He said, “Are you sure?” Ummmmm, YES!! What’s wrong with this guy?? He will be immediately deleted and blocked on all of my social media channels. My heart is still racing from the experience. It made me realize how vulnerable I really am as a woman.

klmolk

No Place Like Home

woman's portraitPhoto by Camila Quintero Franco on Unsplash

I suffer from schizophrenia. The other night, I had an extreme episode of psychosis. I don’t remember much about what happened. I was wearing sweatpants and high heels and was wandering around my apartment complex. I decided to go home. The main door in my apartment complex requires a key card like a hotel, but my roommates always leave the back door open.

So I walked into what I thought was my apartment and made myself comfy on the couch. I tried to go into my room, but it was locked, which confused me because I never lock my door. It took me a while to realize that I had walked into the wrong apartment. The people who lived there thought I was a friend of one of the other roommates, so it took them a minute to register what had happened.

When they did, they freaked out, understandably, and called the authorities on me. The officer thought I was drinking or on substances, but I showed him my medical emergency card that explains that I have schizophrenia. After he read the card, I was totally out of trouble and he just wanted to make sure I got home safely.

I don’t even remember the specific interactions that I had with the people who lived there when they saw me, as I wasn’t super lucid until the officer came. So yeah. Now these people just have a story about how a random schizophrenic woman in sweats and high heels walked into their house one night and made herself at home.

bklove1

Glass Ceiling

I live on the second floor of a three-level apartment building. We have a crawlspace that connects all the apartments. We aren't sure why it's there, but we all have stuff in it and none of us would ever even attempt to go inside of it. So it’s never posed any issue. The other night, the sun was setting but it wasn't pitch black out yet.

I'm walking through my living room when I see a short woman on my fire escape looking into my windows. This is extremely bizarre, considering it's still semi-light out and she had literally climbed onto our fire escape somehow. We have two windows that the fire escape reaches. She was looking in both but didn't see me.

I crawled onto the ground and my heart was racing as I watched her try to open the windows. I didn't know what to do because my phone was in the other room. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally left. I went into my room to get my phone to text my landlord and call the authorities. I came back into the living room and was looking out the windows to see if I could locate her.

All of a sudden, I hear a weird noise coming from the ceiling. We have one of those tile ceilings made out of separate slabs of cork. I look up to see one of the slabs lifted up and two eyes staring down at me. I have no clue how she got into the crawlspace so quickly, but I grabbed the nearest thing, which was a broom, and started hitting her with it through the ceiling.

She crawled away. An officer soon showed up and searched the place. They found her a few days later, when she was on someone else's fire escape. The officer said she was definitely on some illicit substances and that she had been violent towards them. I'm glad she's gone and that she won’t be coming through my ceiling again any time soon.

Permalink

Coming In Handy

This happened when I was around five years old, but I remember everything like it happened yesterday. We had gone to a funeral for my mom's cousin in another town a couple of hours out. We got to the house and my mom went to see her aunt. She gave her condolences and I followed, holding her hand. I guess during the hugging and crying, my mom let go of my hand.

I started looking for her hand but not really looking up, just keeping my hand out for her to grab it while calling her name. There were a lot of people and the house was small, so I could only see the people standing around me. A couple of minutes later, I found her. Or so I thought, because she took my hand and started walking towards the door to leave.

I thought to myself as I was putting on my shoes that it seemed weird to come such a long way just to be here for five minutes. That thought led me to look up at the lady holding my hand. I instantly realized it wasn’t my mom. I have no idea where the woman was planning on taking me. I jolted my hand away from her and ran towards the room I had lost my mom at.

Redifar

You’ve Got Company!

I was watching my daughter’s kids while she and her husband were out of town. They have a teenage daughter, who we can call Alyssa. In the middle of the night, I‘m woken up by a weird rustling sound. I look out the window and see movement. I see a boy emerge from the bushes on the side of the house. I then see a bike tossed on the lawn that definitely wasn’t ours.

My first thought was that it must be a burglar casing houses. But since he looked young and came through on a bike, I figured scaring him straight would be enough for him to decide to head home. So I went out on the porch, flipped the lights on, and politely said “Can I help you?” The guy looked surprised, but not nervous.

He was wearing a letterman style jacket, but once I got a clear view of him in the streetlights, he seemed much older than my granddaughter. He walked up closer to the house and said “Yeah, I’m looking for Alyssa.” I gave him a disapproving glare, hoping he’d realize that looking for a girl late at night and getting a grumpy old person meant it was time to split.

I figured Alyssa must have known that her parents were going out of town and, before she knew I’d be staying over, told a secret older boyfriend to come over. It was late and I was alone with several kids, so I didn’t want him coming any closer to the house. I also thought it was weird that he came so late and I wanted to be sure Alyssa actually wanted to talk to him.

I said: “You wait there.” He started to walk up and I felt a sick burning feeling in my gut. Instinct kicked in. I yelled: “NO. STOP. FREEZE.” I readjusted and said, “You stay right there. This is private property. Don't take a step closer. Wait. There.” So I go in and Alyssa is asleep just one room over from where the rustling first occurred.

I wake her up and say something to the effect of “I don’t know what the big idea was to have friends over this time of night, but you tell them to go home.” She has no clue what I’m talking about. I say “There’s a guy outside asking for you.” Confused, she gets up and goes to the window. She sees him and goes white as a sheet.

“He asked for me?” “Yeah.” “By name?” “Yes.” Her reply made my blood run cold. She told me: “I’ve never seen him before in my life!” I called the authorities immediately, but as I was on the phone with them, Alyssa started tugging at my arm. “He’s coming up!” I had younger kids in the house to think about, so I kept the door latched and pulled it just open enough to yell “None of us know an Alyssa. Leave my property immediately.”

He got angry and started yelling for her to come out. Thankfully, an officer came pretty quickly. When the guy heard the sirens, he grabbed the bike and ran off. I watched where he was running to and he jumped into the passenger side of a car without headlights or front plates and sped off. The officer followed in the same direction, but couldn’t find him.

ligamentary

Woman at peace with her hand over her heart
Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

Let's be honest: We're all human here, and we all have our limits for how much we can take.

At some point, something will happen where we'll say, "That's it! I'm out!" But for some people, there will be something that will happen that will lead them to feel that way about... everything.

Curious how others felt, Redditor 33-9 asked:

"What age did you stop giving a f**k, and what situation triggered it?"

An Eye-Opening Moment

"Age 56."

"I had a heart attack with greater than 95 percent blockage. I was a dead man walking."

"Every day is a gift now. I refuse to get stressed."

- graibeard

Putting Themselves First

"Age 37."

"I finally pulled my head out of my @ss and realized that I need to put me first, and not be concerned about what others think of the things I say or do."

"All relationships with others are voluntary and conditional, so don't sacrifice yourself to preserve any of them."

"For context, I am currently 37."

- Macbookaroniandchez

Life-Risking Priorities

"Age 16."

"I overdosed at a kickback, and nobody called for help because they were scared of getting in trouble, making it clear that, ultimately, nobody gives a f**k about you or anything you do! They only care about themselves!"

- angelicaaf

Never the Same Again

"Age 24."

"My dad died, and I stopped caring about anyone’s opinion of me and my life after he passed."

- littlegremlinsparky

No Growth Mindset

"The biggest thing for me is people seeing you in the same light forever despite any changes or personal growth. It makes it difficult to actually take their opinion seriously."

- avidpretender

No Work-Life Balance

"Age 24…"

"My boss at the time asked me if I was coming into work the day after I had an emergency major abdominal surgery."

"I quit the day I was released by doctors to come back."

- TheWhiteSheep3

A Very Sci-Fi Take

"I had the strange epiphany at 24 or 25 years old that everyone I encounter on a daily basis is just a meat suit that’s gonna die someday. Including mine. I drastically stopped giving a f**k about what people thought about me and my life after that."

- Ahungryhippopotamus

On the Bonus Level

"Age 58."

"I got the virus during the pandemic. I was in the hospital for 85 days. The doctors told my brother to prepare for my death."

"I'm living my bonus life. I did a lot of traveling the year after when I regained most of my health. I still get winded easily. I don't worry what strangers think when I dress like a slob. I don't let comments from strangers online bother me anymore."

"I'm direct with friends when they disrespect me rather than fret about it. I'm trying to be more kind and patient with others."

"A positive attitude helped me overcome that virus."

- Adventurous-Sell9358

Cannot Keep Up the Charade

"It's hard to pin down because it happened so gradually. I can say that I was in my 40s when I started losing my ability to pretend to give a f**k, though."

- Salarian_American

A Coping Mechanism

"Like, I don't know, maybe 10 or 11 years old."

"As soon as I moved on from primary school, my mom doubled down on controlling everything about me and forced me to do all this work and sign on for s**t I didn't want to participate in, and I used apathy as a coping mechanism and haven't looked back since."

"Since she punished me for everything I did, I might as well become immune to the punishment and everything else along with it."

- 4rtiphi5hal

Prioritizing the Baby's Happiness

​"When I had my baby."

"I’d never wear a one-piece because I thought I wouldn’t look nice, but then I took her swimming and wore it, and I didn’t give a s**t because the swimming made her happy."

"I didn’t smile too much before because of my teeth, but I do now constantly because my smiling makes her smile."

"A lot of things I used to be self-conscious about, I don’t have the time or worry for."

- MaccasDriveThru

Imposter Syndrome: Over

"Age 48."

"I gave a talk at a conference, and all my imposter syndrome evaporated. And since then, I have no f**ks left to give. Just doing my thing."

- flamingofast

Them Against the World

"Three days ago. I got married."

"I worried too much about the wedding and the people in it but in the middle of it, I was just focusing on my wife being happy, so I gave no f**ks about what other people thought."

"It was our day, and I'm keeping this mentality up forever. It's her and me. That's it."

- CaseVirtual

No F**ks From Birth

"I don't know if I ever gave a f**k. I’m a very no f**ks person."

"I think my mom tells this story when I was five, I said something like, 'Why does that matter? We all gonna die anyway.' She was kind of concerned that her five-year-old looked at life that way."

"However, life is too short to give any f**ks."

- MadamFutureWhatEver

Just Not Worth It

"Various points between ages 17 and 19."

"People around me would criticize me for the dumbest things and/or things they also did, and I realized that for all the things they do to make my life harder, I only bent further backward to avoid problems."

"I could use some restored faith in humanity. But for now, while I look for that, if someone wants to mess with me, they have proven themselves unworthy of my energy. Screw them and their screwed-up, self-centered worldviews."

"Maybe someday I’ll find some genuinely good people who don’t give me panic attacks or cross boundaries on purpose. They have to be out there. I hope I can find them."

- AutisticAcademic

We've all had those moments of feeling like, "I have no f**ks left to give," but in some cases, it can feel like that applies to literally everything.

We can totally understand how these Redditors saw these as turning moments, and for many of them, it was overwhelmingly for the better.

Have you ever had a similar epiphany? Let us know in the comments below.