When people are out in public, it's sort of implied that we all stay on our best behavior.
But walk down any street on a New York day, and you quickly realize most of the world missed the memo on this matter.
Or they got it and just crumpled it up and tossed it in the garbage.
This makes us all spectators to some serious nonsense.
Oh the things we can never unsee!
Redditor Defaultuser9148 wanted to hear about the most messed up things they've witnessed others do, so they asked:
"What is the most f**ked up thing you saw someone do in a public place?"
I try not to look at people in public too much.
I've already witnessed more than my fair share of crazy.
WHAT THE ACTUAL F??!!!
Oh My God Wow GIF by The Roku ChannelGiphy"Saw a coworker take off his shoe and sock, pull up his foot, and bite his toenails DURING A WORK MEETING AT THE OFFICE."
hyteck9
"Covid is over, they said. Return to the office, they said. The exposure to corporate culture will be good for you, they said."
johnwalkersbeard
Look Away
"I used to deliver janitorial supplies to businesses. Part of my route was in the Kensington section of Philadelphia it's basically zombie land there and the whole neighborhood is filthy, idk how people can even live there. Needless to say, I've seen A LOT. But the one thing I saw that really stuck with me was seeing a naked man covered in his own excrement... He was clearly very disturbed. No one paid him any mind either. It was surreal."
Jawnson765
Rinse and Repeat
"I once saw a homeless man rinse his mouth out with water from the windshield cleaning 'bucket' at a gas station."
theAdvancedBeginner
"Just saw something similar here in San Diego on Friday. Pumping gas and a homeless guy in a trench coat in 90-degree heat asked me about my dog in the car as he dunked his head in the windshield bucket. Asked me for a dollar right after too while dripping."
H3rrPie
Rough
"I was waiting for a bus in the ‘rough’ part of town when I heard two men having a full-blown argument on the other side of the bus stop… one was being extremely aggressive whilst the other sounded confused at the verbal lashing he was receiving. It went on for a couple of minutes and the meeker one was nearly in tears, so I decided to walk around the other side of the bus stop to take a look at what was going on."
"When I poked my head around the corner the poor guy was crying but his aggressor was nowhere to be seen, I asked if he was okay to which he said 'Yeah, don’t worry about him, he’s all talk.' I nodded and turned around just as the nastier man re-emerged to berate his victim… only it wasn’t another person, it was the same guy shouting at himself with an alternate personality. Until you see these things up close you don’t realize how disturbing it must be to suffer from such mental health issues."
BarraDoner
It's heartbreaking to see people like that.
The Disturbed
Scared Kermit The Frog GIFGiphy"Saw a kid follow around a toad at a state park for a bit, pick it up, and ground it against a tree, eviscerating it in an instant. An adult immediately grabbed them and took them off yelling as the kid didn't look bothered by the interaction at all. It was surreal and disturbing."
Capn_Yoaz
Disgusting
"A scary a** woman was yelling at people in a store. The manager told her to leave. She screamed insults at him as security escorted her out. When I left the store, she was still screaming at him. He was blocking her from going back into the store."
"Then she did something I never thought I'd see in my entire life: She reached into her pants, pulled out a bloody tampon, and threw it at the manager. She missed but it stuck to the glass door. She laughed as she ran off. I wanted to vomit. I never want to see anything like that again."
RiffRandellsBF
All is Well
"21st B-Day at a Festival in FL called Langerado. Was incredibly drunk but I'll never forget this... unfortunately."
"So, we're listening to a band called Umphrey's McGee and everyone is having a good time. All is well. Heaven on Earth. Until I turn around."
"There's a guy, late 30s or early 40s by himself and he was having quite a time."
"He kept shoving his hand [in his pants] and licking his fingers afterward. At some point, he started chasing people and then some poor souls working security had to deal with him. Ewwww."
DylanV1969
In the Bathroom
"A woman at my old retail job I used to work at came in dry heaving to our restroom. It sounded like she was about to give birth. Nope, much worse. She goes into our restroom and shi*s all over the stalls, the floor is coated. It became a complete swamp. This woman proceeds to take off all her clothes and leave them there. She walks out of the store nude, screaming."
AdReady528
Stop It!
"Woman recording a mother and her two children after the mother collapsed and was unresponsive in a Costco. Asked her to stop, but she looked at me and scowled, so I amplified my request which was 'Stop recording, you completely demented, witch!' and the immediate unfavorable attention that got her compelled her to stop. The woman who collapsed, and her small children were terrified, screaming and crying, and it was awful. Can't imagine why you would want footage of such a thing. Just remembering makes me sad and hope that everything turns out alright."
Freechickenpeople
When you gotta go, you gotta go!!
Peeing Ladies Night GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy"In my hometown, I was using the mall food court bathroom which is usually a bad idea... but I had to. While I was taking the worst poop of my life, the people in the stall next to me were getting on the whole time. I can't image someone being that horny next to me in my worst time."
Breze
Some people will do it anywhere.
I would run to another restroom if I could make it!
Do you have any wild stories for us, let us know in the comments below.
Redditor Kondellark wondered about what life truths are so outrageous they nearly prove truth is stranger than fiction, so they asked:
"What is a true fact so baffling, it should be false?"
The truth will always be more off the wall than we think.
Lies have to come from somewhere.
That Decade
roaring twenties smile GIFGiphy"There used to be a radioactive energy drink called 'Radithor' that was in the US market for a decade from 1918-1928. Some of the more prominent users had to be buried in lead coffins."
WildWonderWolf
The Power
"There is a 1 in roughly 5.2 to the 61st power chance that if you were to slap a table, all of the molecules in your hand and the table would miss each other and your hand would go through it."
"Story time: I learned this fact from a deep intellectual conversation with my engineering class 2 years ago, so there very well could be some kind of detail I'm missing here, but nonetheless, what i said is theoretically true."
32151134
Go Wayne!
"You could take away all of Wayne Gretzky’s goals that he scored during his career and he would still be the all-time NHL points leader off his assists alone."
"Bonus Gretzky fact: He and his brother own the record for being the highest scoring pair of siblings. Brent had 4 points in his whole career."
holy_cal
"Of every father/son combo in NHL history, Wayne and Trevor Gretzky have the most goals. Trevor Gretzky was a baseball player."
Damage
happy betty boop GIF by OctoNationGiphy"Giant squids have a donut shaped brain so their esophagus can run through the middle. If they try to swallow too large a bite of food they can get brain damage."
VerminSupreme__
Unless a squid is fried with marinara sauce... stay away from me.
Bad Face
Wide Eyed Reaction GIF by MOODMANGiphy"If a gorilla looks grumpy, it's because they are relaxed and at ease."
"So I’m a gorilla. Cool."
Think about that...
"When the 22nd President of the U.S., Grover Cleveland was 27 years old, he was friends with a married couple who had a baby girl named Frances. As a gift, he bought them a high-end baby stroller for little Frances. 21 years later, he married Frances and she became the youngest 1st Lady. Think about that."
FixFalcon
"This isn't mindblowing or anything, but a fun presidential fact: Grover Cleveland was also the only U.S. President to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was the 22nd AND 24th President, with Benjamin Harrison (23rd President) serving as the meat in the sandwich that was Grover Cleveland's two terms."
japanishinquisition
In the Hole
"The gravity of black holes is so great that it literally bends light around the black hole, so that if you could somehow stand close enough to a black hole and look straight ahead, you would actually see the back of your own head."
chyko9
"So going through a black hole = realizing we all live in a videogame."
"While getting close to the black hole you start seeing weird things. Thinking that light is just being freaky... you suddenly go from thinking the last thing you see before you step into the next dimension is the back of your own head, to realizing it’s actually just you currently looking at yourself on a screen in 3rd person view."
jaqueburton
no food at all...
"A morbidly obese person can survive with absolute starvation without any sickness or feeling ill (under close control). There have been studies since 60's, there is a patient in 1973 who went under a 382 day starvation diet for therapuetic purposes under close control with only vitamin and mineral supplements and water intake without protein, carbohydrate or fat intake (no food at all)."
"Dropped from 207 kg to 88kg and maintained it. After a follow up check-up 5 years later, the patient was 96 kilograms, stabilized. Prolonged fasting had no ill effects. If anybody is curious about the article, the pubmed ID is: PMC2495396."
Dartosismyname
Crunchy
Loop Waiting GIFGiphy"Giraffes eat bones."
"When I was in Africa we were legit surrounded by a family (?) of 12 giraffes. Then one bent over and picked up a gazelle carcass, looked dead into our eyes as it ate it's leg. It was so f**king creepy."
Kibeth_8
I knew there was something off about giraffes.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.
I haven't tried these rooms yet. Not sure I want to. Highly claustrophobic. Convince me...
No touching...
"I used to work at one. I can’t tell you how many people thought that power outlets were a prop and tried to stick keys into them. Guys. There was a lamp plugged into it and a 'do not touch, not a part of the game' sticker on it. It’s not a trick, don’t do that."
brasscassette
Shackles
"A friend of mine works for an escape room and he told me one about a puzzle where the key to the next door was shackled to a desk by a combination lock. What you are supposed to do is figure out the combination for the lock from the clues around the room to free the key. What one group decided to do instead was get a guy on each corner and pick up the 150 pound desk and carry it across the room, slide the key into the lock, and then rotate the entire desk to unlock the door."
sharrrper
'Yale'
"I am not an escape room employee but I did a lot of em and talked to the employees often. One of them told me there was a simple lock (opened by a key) that had 'Yale' written on it (the name of the lock company) and a lady (not native English speaker) thought it read 'yell' and legit shouted 'OPEN!!' at it, expecting it to open."
Dorza1
searching the fountain...
"Recently went to an escape room with my co-workers. Before we started, we were explicitly warned not to touch or drink the bright blue water coming out of a fountain because it would turn our skin blue - clearly people had tried searching the fountain as part of the escape room previously and now they have to warn everyone."
babers1987
Voice of God
Whos That Voice Of God GIF by Shark WeekGiphy"I was in an escape room once where one puzzle involved some objects that needed to be manipulated inside a structure that made it very awkward."
"We were all looking at it trying to figure out how to proceed when I said 'Well, the bottom is held on with screws and I have a screwdriver in my purse, but that would probably be cheating.' Instantly the Voice of God came over the intercom 'THAT WOULD BE CHEATING!' So we didn't do that..."
Miss_Speller
Well people really do get creative at this game... don't they?
Reverse
genius GIFGiphy"Had a group of engineers who were familiar with the style of the lock effectively reverse engineer the lock. They showed us how they did it afterwards."
Snowf1ake222
Smoked...
"When I was in one they told us several times that the fire extinguisher is NOT part of the puzzle. They said it so many times, I'm 98% sure someone once used it lol."
Zirael_Swallow
"I always wait to see if they say not to disassemble smoke detectors, if they have that warning, I ask about it, and every time they will always have a story about a dumby who ignored the warning labels and disassembled the smoke detector."
cleverplaydoh
Group of 4
"There was a story on here a while ago about a guy in a group of four who took a broom from the first room because 'it had to be for something.' He said it looked too out of place to not be needed. Well he was half right. It was out of place but that's because it was the broom used by employees to clean the room."
"It was simply forgotten when they cleaned last time. The guys giving hints thought it was hilarious that this guy carried a broom through four rooms expecting it to be the key to their escape at some point. I thought that was funny as hell."
PCCoatings
Damages...
"Take in a screwdriver and dismantling furniture or taking doors off hinges... all the while we specifically tell them not to use force and that furniture is just furniture. Though I don't care cause they gotta pay the damages. Also had some groups press our panic button cause that opens all the doors (for emergency cases)."
"So they can skip puzzles and be faster. Makes zero sense to us cause they are paying for an hour of playtime and to solve puzzles, not like the prize is reduced cause you solved less in fewer minutes. Especially since our prices aren't cheap."
karmasabitterpill
Idiots
Idiot Facepalm GIFGiphy"Breaking EVERYTHING. Trying to eat or drink things they should totally not be trying to eat or drink."
Radiant-Comb9058
Perfect Pitch
"My brother and sister once did an escape room where they fell behind 45 minutes in to their one hour limit. Then my brother sat down at the piano and just played the background music that was on (he has perfect pitch). This happened to be the code to open the final door."
B1ue_zangoose
Are you crazy!?
"I did a spy thriller which had a chalk board. Trouble is, 3 of the 4 of us were scientists. A chalkboard full of equations?! Clearly this meant something. Now. In hindsight. It seems unlikely that any puzzle designer would expect you have the working knowledge to solve quadratic equations. Or that you'd need anything but the most basic of mathematical skills."
"So that was our first error. The second error was when our friend (fiancé of one of the three scientists and only non scientist of the bunch) immediately goes to erase the board with its immaculate display of complicated formulae and equations. She was immediately wrestled to the ground."
"Sheer panic. No dignity. Are you crazy!? You don't just erase someones chalkboard!!! Full blown PTSD of Uni is the play here. Lo and behold. Erasing the board revealed some unerasableble text, spelling out the clue. We felt bad for that one. She was right."
Kenobi_01
Numbers
"We were supposed to find the numbers to a padlock. My boss had guessed the answer within 5 minutes."
Th3_Accountant
"I had to do this once. In a poorly designed room, one of the padlocks needed to be open by a hint that led to a 5 letter word, but the lock only had 4 digits so the designers of the room just took the last letter off of the word and spelt it wrong. We were trying real 4 letter words and couldn't figure it out so I just started guessing and eventually got it."
ObsquatuIate
Digits
code GIFGiphy"Not an employee... but my group once was so bad that we solved the room by fully misunderstanding the concept and we ended up getting the five digit code to the lockbox via some truly failed logic that shouldn't have worked."
xeothought
Water Levels
"One of the puzzles is opened at the start of the room to reveal a large jug of water with a floating key, but the water level is too low for you to reach it. As you progress through the room you get smaller canteens to fill up the jug. Bachelor party comes in already tipsy, orders multiple drinks as they progress through the room, and at some point one of them pees into the jug to raise the water level. This is what made me leave for another job. If you ever go to an escape room, just know we're judging you for every move you make."
Xenomorph_Queen
Your UV
"I was in a room once with a puzzle that required UV light - and you did find a UV torch somewhere. Problem was, the batteries were as good as dead. Luckily I had a UV torch on me because I hadn't yet unpacked my pockets from night geocaching the previous weekend. Came out of the room, telling the employees, 'Your UV badly needs new batteries.' - 'How did you solve it then?' - 'Well, had my own...'
bbgreenie
Hey Jeff...
"Went on a team building escape room and ended up in a room with a colleague we'll call 'Jeff.' Jeff is profoundly deaf and a large part of this particular room involved listening to messages on Dictaphones that could be found in different drawers* etc."
"About ten minutes into the timer an employee burst into the room in a panic and we turned to find Jeff taking the Dictaphone apart piece by piece because he had no idea it was making any sound. He was not supposed to do that, still a top bloke."
ifthen_endif
Letters matter...
lights alphabet GIFGiphy"I don't know if it's the weirdest but we had a puzzle which involved morse code. Usually you had to use an endoscope to find the alphabet in a chest. One person in this group actually knew the whole alphabet and was able to solve it."
MrNighty
She broke the machine...
"Not an employee, but while doing a casino-themed escape room with some colleagues, the worker told us 'please do not pull the lever on the slot machine as it will break something later in the game.' The timer started and my coworker went 'well we’re obviously supposed to do that first' and pulled the lever. We were not supposed to do that first. She broke the machine."
ProfessorBeer
Even though there are a million ways to escape, I'm still gonna pass. My claustrophobia won't allow it.
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We tend to gravitate toward like-minded individuals, friendliness, and general positive vibes that they can be trusted.
Unfortunately, our barometer for judging quality friends can be a little off, and hopefully, by the time we realize it, there has been no emotional–or heaven forbid, physical—harm.
Curious to hear experiences from strangers online, Redditor sugarthnder asked:
"What made you realize someone you knew was actually completely f'ked in the head?"
Figuring out the psyche of certain people is enough to drive a person mad.
The One Who Had Zero Fs To Give
"Was like 15 and my dog just died. Absolutely devastated and was so upset all I wanted to do was go play basketball at the gym. On my way I stop at my best friend's house to tell him the news. He sees I'm upset and starts giggling and sh*t and I was like wtf man whatever."
"As I'm leaving one of the last things he says is 'Hey * my name* where's your dog!?!?' And completely breaks down laughing. Hands on his knees crying. To this day I am still awed at the lack of empathy he extended toward me."
– Acrobatic-Compote-12
The Egregious Ruse
"When they told our friend group of 15 years they had brain cancer and would be dead in 3 months. Went on going away vacation with everyone, cried a million tears, made funeral plans, had therapy sessions about it... They are still alive, never had cancer."
"Turns out they were just worried they were going to jail for embezzling money. Smh, still not sure how that was going to play out well."
– 7Kayman7
Being Hangry
"When she threatened to pour paint thinner on me in the shower because she was mad that I didn't know what she wanted to eat."
– WankyMyHanky603
How do we know if we're in the company of potentially violent people? Sometimes we don't find out until too late.
Can Crusher
"Not my story, but a friend's."
"His buddy was sitting around the fire, hanging out and chatting with everyone else. The guy finished his beer, turned to his wife and crushed the can on her forehead, which knocked her out like a light."
"My buddy said 'that guy says he loves his wife, but he did that to her. I'm not going to wait around to find out what he'd do to me.'"
- Godwinson4King
Interesting Activity For Fun
"A guy I went to school with told me he stabbed himself with a flat head screwdriver for fun."
– BluebomberV
The Pretend Target
"Went out hunting."
"While we were taking a break, he pointed his rifle at my head, paused, and pulled the trigger."
"It wasn't loaded. I left and never went anywhere with him again."
– Swerfbegone
Animal Cruelty
"Let them stay at my place and their dog pooped on the carpet. Woke up to them beating the dog with a metal bat at 1am. Edit: the dog is ok, he lived a long healthy life afterward. She was arrested and her kids were taken away."
– aboxofquackers
Passion and sex drive have their limits.
Obsessed Fan
"When my friend showed me her money and plans to travel to the state of Washington."
"She was planning to steal Edward Cullen from Bella. Twilight was 100% real in her head."
"Last I heard, she had got into some hard drugs."
– cooldart61
Form Of Child Abuse
"When a colleague told me that she had very intense sex with her new boyfriend... in front of her 7 years old son watching all of it."
"She was proud of that and kept giving every detail possible even when we asked her not to. She had a new boyfriend every few weeks and it was always the same sh*t."
– Coc0tte
Awkwardly Proud Brother
"This guy I met in college was a very nice guy. After knowing him for about 9 months, I went to his house in the Summer for the first time. Before we went in, he told me about his sister's 'humungous @ss', and would not quit rambling on about it."
"He even went on about how she was 'blessed with that @ss'. However, the defining moment was when he walked in, and slapped her butt. She said 'stop!' in an embarrassed voice, and shoved him away, as if they were 'playing'(I don't think she liked it at all)."
"Needless to say, I began distancing myself from him more, and more after that home visit."
– Throwawaydrowssap
It's easy to casually view people who are not all there in the head as "crazy" people and make them a punchline.
But I've learned to be more aware of people who are struggling with mental health issues. My babysitter, who use to be the sweetest girl I've ever known since I was a kid, was committed to a mental institution.
To my eyes, there was nothing ever off about her. But she turned out to be bipolar and fell into a deep depression. It pains me to think about her, how she died alone, how she lived in darkness for years and no one ever saw it coming.
Sometimes, people just want to be seen or heard. And when they feel invisible, their frustrations manifest in unexpected ways—some to violent effect.
All I can do is just remember that only kindness matters.
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"Lawyers of Reddit, what is the most f'ked up case that you have fought or seen?"
The court room is now open. Brace yourselves
Some people should never be parents.
Unfit Mother
"A woman was alone with her baby after her husband got deployed. This was not long after the baby was born. Then the baby passed away, and the body had some strange bruising. The mother insisted the baby crawled out of her sight and fell down the stairs. The case ultimately got reassigned from our office, and the mother was pissed. She told the primary lawyer on the case that she had indeed killed the baby. She basically bragged about it, and she had zero remorse at all. Seeing the infant's autopsy photos was absolutely horrific."
Cruel Punishment
"Dependency case where a single father dipped his toddler in boiling water because he was crying about some silly toddler thing. Kid was severely burned over his whole body. They were trying to re-unify them."
Unwanted
"Worse I've heard was a divorce case where both parties fought to NOT have the kids stay with them. It's so depressive to think about the children in that case."
– maximef1
Punishing A Teen
"IANAL, I work for one."
"We represented a family who tried to ruin a teenage boy's life. They fabricated police reports, falsely claimed he stole expensive electronics from them, and took their claims to the very uninterested school the boy attended. When cops tried to investigate, the family evaded the investigator and lied to him."
"Why do all this? The family's son was crushing on a girl they were hosting in their home. She chose to date the boy in question over the son. All three kids were classmates."
"The boy got a hefty settlement from the family. This case was outside our typical areas of practice, but they came from a friend of the attorney."
These clients were innocent of their wild allegations.
Insult To Injury
"Represented a painter getting sued on a construction defect job. The painter was hired to paint building 2 and 3. He showed up for work, performed the work, and on his way home got into a terrible car accident leaving him paralyzed from the neck down."
"He was sued several years later for water intrusion defects related to buildings 7-9 (Which he didn't work on). Felt terrible for the guy."
– nicbus07
The No-Show
"Client insisted on suing an employee who failed to show up to work which caused a contract to be cancelled."
"The employee didn't show up to work because he died."
Prank Gone Wrong
"Case told to me by another lawyer on one of my cases: two guys decided to give a marijuana laced brownie to their co-worker without telling him it marijuana in it... right before he started his shift... as a crane operator. It went predictably badly, resulted in an accident and even their union agreed the guys should be fired."
These cases involved criminals who have done unspeakable acts of horror.
The Lying Inmate
"In a pro bono program, I was assigned to handle the request of an inmate to be released after serving 2/3rd of his sentence. When I read his file, I discovered that he was convicted for kidnapping a woman, tying her to the right front wheel of his jeep and torturing her to death with some sort of home made flamethrower. When I went to see the guy, he denied everything, and told me he was appealing the verdict (which legally was not possible anymore)."
"It was really weird sitting in a room with this guy, knowing what he was convicted of, and knowing that he'd been denying the conviction for almost 20 years."
"Needless to say, his request to be released early was denied."
"Edit: People have been asking questions about the sentence he got. He got life in prison, which makes you eligible for early release after ten years (first offence) or 14 years (recidive) in Belgium. The death penalty was abolished in 1996."
People Share Their Best 'Whoa, It Worked' Moments | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Mentally Unstable
"A sociopath in a psych ward making suicide pacts with vulnerable people and never following through. Charged with murder, determined he was too out of his mind to be accountable. Gonna be in an asylum for the next two decades unless something major changes within the case."
Animal Cruelty
"Not a lawyer, but used to work in a law firm. One attorney told me about a case he was trying where the defendant was up for animal abuse charges."
"What did he do? Well, he and his wife were going through a nasty divorce and he had moved out and started living with a friend. One weekend, he knew his wife and kids were away, so he got hammered and decided to go f'k up the house. This dude totally trashed it. But the worst part, he took his kids new kitten and placed it in the microwave & turned it on. He left it there for them to find."
"F'king disgusting psycho."
We could use a bit of levity.
The following will provide just that. Not all cases are gloom and doom.
Saving Mermaids
"I'm here to provide comedic relief!"
"My buddy is an attorney and was working on a case against some company that was dumping pollution in a large, local body of water that had a direct opening to the ocean."
"He gets a letter from an incredibly concerned local dude. He wrote this LONG LETTER begging my buddy's team to do all they can to win the case against the polluting company for the sake of the... mermaids that were living in that local body of water."
"He had seen them often guys. He had been trying to befriend them for quite a while now and was concerned for their well-being and for the possibility that they would move out to the ocean to find a cleaner home if the company kept dumping pollution into their area. I wish I could find that pic of part of the letter."
"In case you are as concerned as he was, fear not! My buddy's team won the case and that company is no longer dumping their waste in that body of water"
Wildly Determined
"My uncle lawyer helped a relative with a traffic ticket. Relative was conspiracy nut and wanted to take it to court to 'reveal the lies.' Uncle just paid the fine and told her she won."
Wayward Ice Cream Particle
"Not really f*cked up, but amusing: my dad won a case against Baskin Robins 30 years ago, because his client chipped her tooth on a pistachio shell while eating pistachio ice cream. No warning label. I don't remember the settlement amount, but it was hefty."
While most TV courtroom dramas are fiction, they can be inspired by actual events.
Certain episodes from programs like How To Get Away With Murder, The Good Wife, and all the Law & Order shows can pull from real-life news headlines and be overly dramatized for our entertainment.
However, it is very unfortunate that some of the most horrendous acts carried out by human beings in the real world are not a manifestation of a writer's imagination.