People who've had bad encounters with someone they've never met shared their experiences when Redditor Jemuzu8304 asked:
"Whats the most f'ked up thing a complete stranger has done to you?"
Drivers and passengers recall their rude interactions.
The Prank
"One time I was in south Philly and a car pulled up with two guys in it. They called out to me asking for directions so I walked over. As I was explaining where to go the dude in the passenger seat spit in my face and they sped off."
– the_humbL_lion
Willing Victim
"You just reminded me of a similarly gross interaction:"
"Years ago after a doctor's appointment, I got into my car and turned it on, at which point a small child started leaning/sitting on the hood. His heavily pregnant mother stood by doing nothing, apparently distracted by her phone. I rolled down my window, and asked if she would mind getting her child off of my car, as I needed to leave, and was concerned he could get hurt."
"She asked if I had insurance. Confused, I answered '...yes?', to which she said 'Well I hope you DO hit him so I can get some MONEY!' She proceeded to lean in through my passenger window, and started spitting on me. The kid was no longer on my car, and I desperately wanted to get away from her, so I put my car in reverse. She then hurled her pregnant belly into my sideview mirror, and shrieked in such an exaggerated way, as if I had hit her."
"I eventually found a new doctor."
– TheHaydnPorter
Unwanted Car Wash
"Stopped at a red light one time. Someone from a building adjacent to the light threw a bag of ice and water on my car, from a few stories up. Dented the roof and shattered the windshield."
"Wasn't even a nice car, I was driving a Dodge neon sh*tbox."
– IAmPandaKerman
You never know the capabilities of strangers you encounter.
The Violent Thief
"I got held up at gun point 2 weeks ago in philly 10 feet from the door to my friends apartment. They stole both our watches. My watch was given to me by my dead uncle. https://imgur.com/a/V59aebW"
– xcpain93
Hit By A Hard Object
"Reminds me of something. Some a**hole tossed a lock, like the combination type out of a car at me and hit me in the knee. I had trouble walking correctly for damn near a month."
"I always thought if they'd have stopped at a light I'd have hurled that b*tch right back."
"Good thing they didn't. I wasn't in any condition for a fight."
– Ok_Relationship_705
Moving Targets
"I also have a drive-by experience but it was with a f'king paintball gun. My friend and I were in freshmen year, just walking to the park to play some ball and with no warning he suddenly recoils and shouts in pain. I had no clue what happened. He reaches at his back and when he turns around I see a bright red paint splat on his white shirt. I look up and see the car that just passed us turns around, pulls up next to us with the kid in the passenger seat hanging the gun out window saying 'Sorry bro, I’m just so surgical with this thing,' and speeds off. Pretty hilarious story in hindsight within our friend group now, but at the time we were pissed. Luckily we got their plates and the cops showed up at their house and they got in trouble. F'kers."
– zakxk
Wrong Target
"I was about 11 and me and some friends were standing on a small bridge over a lake. All of a sudden I was picked up and thrown over the railing into the lake below. I tried to grab onto anything I could as I fell and scrapped my arms up pretty good. I still have scars 30 years later. So I swim to the side and some older kid comes up to me and just say - sorry, I thought you were someone else."
– discostud1515
Attacks happen when you least expect it.
Random Attack
"Punched me, for no reason. I was standing. Waiting for the community bus. A stranger got out of the car and punched me. I filed the Police report but nothing happen."
– Hallo-Mapskollegen
Hitting The Elderly
"My grandmother was at the movies and a guy walking up the aisle punched her in the side of the head. He told the cops he was mad because he was on a bad blind date."
"Like...great excuse to wallop a 75-year-old woman minding her own business."
– BarracudaImpossible4
The Ferrari Guys
"Had a similar thing happen when I was in Downtown Los Angeles. I was crossing the street and just came up onto the sidewalk. Some dude in a Ferrari steps out of the car, walks up to me and tries to swing on me in broad daylight. I sidestepped this dude, and he then spun to try to hit me again, calling me a motherf**ker and not to dodge. I caught him with a nut shot with my foot and doubled him over."
"His buddy hops out of the car, and another of his buddies (I assume) gets up from the side of the sidewalk and both are yelling at me, and I'm like, 'ah, f'k, I'm not ready for this.'"
"These absolute legends who had been watching all this sh*t go down just appear out of nowhere and jump these guys for me. Like, six different people from out of the woodwork. Nutshot and Scrub (Ferrari guys) hop in the car and just take off, scraping the car and taking the right side view mirror off. Their (assumedly) other homeboy gets left behind, but he tries to stumblef'k his a** away after having taken a couple of hits to the head. One of the guys who helped me jogs up and punts this dude in the side right after he falls over, doubling him up. Meanwhile, everybody else is checking on me and making sure I'm good."
"Cops show up, detain us, figure out what's going on, let us go, and arrest homie that couldn't get away. Come to find out, these guys have been doing this for weeks, and the people who helped me were local residents who had been on the lookout for Nutshot. Arrested homie later squealed, and all the guys involved got a couple of years for aggravated assault."
– feronen
My bad interactions with strangers were all random but definitely premeditated assaults.
I was mugged twice in New York City while I was typically minding my own business.
Also, while I was in Barcelona, I had a team of youths pick-pocket me and run off with my wallet containing my passport and credit cards. Fortunately, the friend I was with saw what happened and ran off after them. She sucker-punched the young lady who had my wallet, causing her to drop it.
Be careful out there, folks!
Excess in anything as always brought me down more dicey roads. So I try to stick with moderation.
Blow it out...
"Forgot you lit a candle and ended up burning your apartment complex down which caused the death of multiple tenants."
Ok_Cryptographer_535
Addiction
"Went to school with a guy who was valedictorian... couple years later found out he overdosed... he was set up to go to Yale or Harvard don't really remember... either way that sucks."
GetoBoii
"Yeah, developing an addiction to drugs or alcohol is a surefire way to screw up your life and it can happen surprisingly quickly. Source: ruined a lot of things for myself because of a drinking problem but luckily managed to turn things around."
Strange-Bee5626
For fast results...
"Drugs and Crime. For fast results. Get naked in public and punch a cop."
ghigoli
"Growing up, my parents didn't shelter me from that crap, they showed me what drugs could do to me. They had a few co workers who were recovering addicts talk to me and tell what they went through because of drugs. As I got older I never wanted to do anything harder than weed, and that was very infrequently. Now I'm 35 yrs old happily married with a beautiful son and I haven't done anything harder than weed."
Mike_Hav
Black Holes
"In high school, I was in all of the AP classes with all of the top 10% of my graduating class and this was actually not too uncommon. I know so many that dropped out of college or never went to college and a few that turned to drugs at least for a little bit. Number 3 in my graduating class dropped out after a semester and started working at Walmart."
"She still does 14 years later and not even a manager or supervisor as if she purposely chooses not to be in a position of power or advance at all. Just something about being considered a child genius and having that constant pressure to always be perfect just messes with so many people."
"I admit that I fell into that same black hole and did nothing for over a year before I woke up and pieced my life back together. Luckily I never had any interest in drugs. I think our school system needs to change or at least provide better support to these students."
Taiyonay
Used People
"Marry or cohabit with someone who doesn't love you but wants to use you."
Genshed
Don't jump on the FOREVER bandwagon without really knowing them first! That's a good one.
15 years ago...
"Get caught on To Catch a Predator. There is still a very active community of fans that watch and discuss episodes from 15 years ago. Every guy from that show has a nickname and a wiki page with all the dirty details whether they did an interview with Chris or just showed up in the background for 5 seconds."
Sleepy_Tortoise
Bad Charge
I Got This Credit GIF by HustlersGiphy"Get into massive credit card debt."
toothfixingfiend
Russian Roulette
"So, heard a story about a guy that I went to high school with. He was a big druggy and the kind of guy that always wanted to look like a bada**. SUPPOSEDLY he and some friends were crazy high and decided to play Russian Roulette. The spun the gun and all that, and the first guy wised up and didn't pull the trigger."
"From what I was told he said 'don't be a pu**y' put the gun under his chin and fired. The bullet went up through his jaw and tore off the front of the left side of his face along with his nose and eye socket. Somehow survived. Now he is missing one eye, his face is all messed up and I think he is blind in his other eye because of it. No brain damage though, somehow."
towmader
No parental help...
"A friend was all set up to go to university with a full ride scholarship but ended up knocking his GF up and had to drop out to support them. He now works as a gas station attendant."
Dire-Dog
"If you have parents support pregnancy doesn't have to be the end obviously it makes it harder and no additional support from relatives is really difficult."
"But a lot of people actually have an incentive to do better with kids. Having a parent to look up to growing up who actively pursues higher education and incentives to provide a better life is inspiring. My dad did that for the purpose of qualifying for promotion. No parental help."
queen--c
Death
Oh My God Wow GIF by The Roku ChannelGiphy"Maybe not the quickest, but punching someone who falls, hits their head, and dies. Quick, AND probably unexpected!"
TwoTonMantis
Revolver
"Playing Russian roulette."
the_man_with_none
"Some kids near my town decided to do it not even with a revolver but with like a .45 and this 17-year-old guy shot his brains out in front of his friends."
"Edit: I don't wanna speak ill of the dead, even if there was a lack of thought process in such a senseless death."
Train wreck
"Having a baby unexpectedly and you broke as hell.and you don't even like the other person that much... f**ks up so many people's life."
ExpressBug8265
"Legit, also happened to me. Ex fell pregnant around 2 months into dating, she ended up losing it. Lord if that happened I'd have been messed because looking back, the relationship was a train wreck. When I broke it off with her, she asked me to marry her to'"Fix it.'"
Brammerham
Snake Eyes
"Gambling addiction."
mythrowaway9684
"I'll never forget going to a casino on my 21st birthday. I was sitting there at the penny slots, and sitting a couple of chairs away from some dude. You could smell the booze and stale cigarettes from multiples chairs away. He asks me how old I was, and I told him I just turned 21."
"He told me he was in his late 40s (though he looked older than my 74 year old dad) and due to his gambling addiction he worked mornings as a Walmart bag person, and spent his nights at the casino, while living with his parents. I'm now in my early 30s, and have gambled at a casino like twice since that conversation. Fu***kkkkk all of that."
mothershipq
24/7
"Paying attention to 24h news."
Kringlepuff
"I’ve cut out almost all news and politics a few weeks go, as well as most social media. The best way to describe it is that my life feels insanely more clear. As if I can see all my goals and things I want done."
"I’m reading and learning more. It’s like a weight off my shoulders. I feel so much less stress not looking at politics and news specifically."
"Now, if I could just get rid of reddit and TikTok for the endless scrolling during breaks."
Fire_And_Blood_7
Trauma
kristen bell narcissist GIF by SAG AwardsGiphy"Dating a narcissist. Your life will never be the same again. Not even after the relationship is over. The trauma will remain."
OlichkaLove25
"socially unacceptable"
"Get caught saying something horrific on video and having it go viral."
Bgerrits3
"I'm worried about doing something 'socially unacceptable' on video and it will go viral. Like arguing with a cashier and I will look like a 'Karen.' Or attacking someone because that other person attacked me first but the video conveniently does not show me being attacked. Or I will bump into a woman by accident and it looks like I did it on purpose."
shf500
Discharge
"Join the military for some. For me it was a huge blessing. VA loan and GI bill hooked me up. For others they got DUIs drug incidents and all sorts of reasons to get kicked out. Doesn’t look good to future employers to get kicked out. An honorable discharge is the way to go!"
Harambes-Revenge
Forever
"If you're American. Messing with your credit score That crap will haunt you for life."
Deadly_Zinnia
"Does it not get wiped in America? In U.K. old debts get wiped after 6 yrs no contact (you mustn’t ever have admitted the debt/agreed to a payment plan etc... or the 6 yrs starts again from that date) Then u start off again building credit."
bellDor
Drugs. Stay away from hard drugs. All of them. Be careful out there.
And while they are called sleepovers, sleeping is the last thing that ever happens at the overnighter.
Whether they engage in pillow fights or share scary ghost stories, the event is an opportunity to let kids be kids and engage in plenty of opportunities for mischiefs.
But how far can they go with their rambunctious night of fun?
That's what Redditor skep_JoJoFan wanted to know and asked:
"What's the most f'ked up thing you did in a sleepover?"
People recalled some of their NSFW memories at a sleepover.
Making A Dirty Connection
"In the Mid-Late 90’s, my brother got really into the anarchists cookbook and learned how to tap into neighbors landlines from a box on the pole using a touch tone phone and some connectors from RadioShack."
"We’d have friends sleep over (we are close in age), and we’d sneak out and He’d hook a phone up so we could call phone sex lines from outside a neighbors house in the bushes."
"I still wonder if they disputed the charges or if the wife just thought the husband was calling 1-900-big-t*ts at 2am."
– MKE_likes_it
You Always Remember Your First Porn
"Raided my friend’s dad’s Playboy mags. Then my friend showed me a porn video. Full disclosure: this was early 80s."
– nerdmoot
One Traumatized Kid
"I don’t remember what we were looking for, but me and another friend went through our buddy’s parent’s bedroom drawers and found a VHS tape. We were curious and idiotic so we popped the tape in to see what was on it. Our buddy walked in while we were watching his parents have sex. His scream was the most shocking/horrifying thing I have heard to this day."
– AlwaysMooning
The bathroom was where the action was.
Toilet Clogger
"More embarrassing than f'ked up."
"Accidently clogged the toilet at friend 'X's house. There was no plunger and the toilet was filling rapidly. I panicked and ran to my friend who promptly called for his dad. His dad takes one look and yells from the bathroom, 'Jesus, 'X'! How big of a sh*t did you take?!' It took years before I went back to his house."
– VTMike802
Way Off Target
"visiting a friends house for the first time and i couldn’t find the bathroom (i was about 10) during a sleepover. in the middle of the night, dark, confused, i pissed in the closet."
– Syonoq
Sewage Soak
"I clogged the toilet at a friend's house in the middle of the night. It started to overflow and there was no plunger. I woke up my friend, who then woke his parents. Turned out that the water that had overflowed had soaked through the floor and was dripping into the kitchen. His mom started trying to collect the dripping water downstairs while his dad was on clog duty."
"I never saw a plunger that night. What I did see was my friend's dad elbow deep in sh*t water pulling out a wad of sh*t and toilet paper. The floor was covered. We had to get that cleaned up. More sh*t water. By this time his sister was awake and came to investigate."
"I haven't talked to them in over 20 years."
– CaptainDunkaroo
The Water Bed
"I pissed on the air mattress and my friends mom asked if a raccoon broke in."
– catsrufd
Accidents happen.
A Crime Scene
"Got a bloody nose... it was dark and I didn't know the house, so I stuck near the walls and went down the hallway and found the bathroom. Got the bleeding to stop, cleaned up, went back to sleep."
"In the morning, the mom came in frantic making sure everyone was alive after she saw smeared, bloody handprints all the way down the hallway..."
– xar42
Hatchet, Incoming!
"In Boy Scouts, I was the morning cook, meaning I woke up before anyone else to chop wood, make fire, and get water boiling. I grab the hatchet and start splitting a log into little splinters for kindling. It was cold and dewy. The hatchet slipped from my hand mid upward-swing and went flying… to the tent circle. It seriously flew 10-15 yard and fell straight down though the roof of a tent, where 4 scouts were sound asleep."
"I’m not sure how long I waited to hear someone start screaming. I probably sat there in terrified anticipation for over a minute. Then I was worried someone might be hurt so I crawled over to that ten where the hatchet landed. I super quietly unzipped the flap, and saw it landed in a bag of clothes very close to some kids head. I snuck in, grabbed the hatchet, left the tent, zipped it back up, and finished breakfast."
"I heard them at breakfast complaining that “the raccoons” has ruined their perfectly nice tent by clawing a hole in it."
– brreckelhoff
Unplanned Tree-Trimming
"Threw up on my cousins Christmas tree in the middle of the night at her house. I still get sh*t for that"
– Person31905
Self-Traumatizing
"Played with matches. For years afterward thought I'd burned my aunt and uncle's house down. I was staying with them, my cousin and I were lighting matches in the kitchen and throwing them in the sink to put them out. The head of one flew off and landed in the shelving unit by the sink, still smoking but when we looked for it, we couldn't find it. It was the 80s so all those 'kids, don't play with matches' ads were everywhere. Hours later we were awakened by my aunt telling us to get out of the house because it was on fire. Watched their house burn to the ground and was terrified to tell them what we'd been doing earlier. I just knew we'd done it. Carried that guilt for years. When I was around 15ish, which was many years later, I finally told my aunt. She started laughing and after realizing I'd been thinking this the whole time, hugged me and explained it had been wiring in the back bedroom. I was an adult before I finally understood, after learning about how fire marshals investigate fires that it wasn't just an assumption they'd made and could let go of that guilt. So I guess, technically, the most screwed up thing I did on a sleepover was traumatize myself for years."
– HoosierKittyMama
Saved By The Friend
"In high school I passed out super drunk on my back at a friend's house and started throwing up in my sleep. Luckily my friend heard what was happening and woke me up and rolled me over before I had a chance to asphyxiated."
– x_cLOUDDEAD_x
Curious prepubescents don't tend to have a filter.
Show And Tell
"We had a coed church group sleepover at a Vermont farm."
"I was 13 and recently got a fake testicle (I had my other testicle removed due to an accident)."
"I was getting people to feel my balls and take bets on which one was the real one."
– Aol_awaymessage
Now Let Us Observe
"My friend and I were 11 or 12. His sister was about 14. She announced that she'd never seen a penis in person before and wanted to. Basically, it was a show me yours and I'll show you mine thing. Except it was directed at me and my friend. Which makes sense, I guess. If she'd never seen one before, why not try to look at two at once?"
"Ground rules were set. You can look for as long as you want or as close as you want BUT NO TOUCHING."
"After it was over, we never did that again, never spoke of it again or anything else."
– OhYeahThrowItAway
The Forgotten Buddy
"Walked home while everyone was asleep. Didn't tell my friend, didn't tell their parents, didn't tell my parents, just crawled out a window at my friends house and crawled in a window at my own. Went to bed. Not a single person looked for me in the morning."
– DustiestSquid2
Maybe it's the fact that kids are given the rare opportunity to be away from their parents for a night that leads them to believe they can get away with anything–even though they are most likely under the supervision of other adults.
And while it seems like these Redditors recalled a fun time in their lives, I can only imagine what the parents were going through while cleaning up after the many bathroom disasters left by their young houseguests.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
