If you're a fan of action films or romantic comedies, then you've definitely seen at least one take on the classic "follow that car!" scenario. At some point in the film, someone is jumping into the back seat of a cab and excitedly pointing while telling the cabbie to just follow that car. Sometimes the cabbie jumps into action. Sometimes they just stare at the protagonist like they've lost it. In some films we're chasing down the love of our life before they reach the airport and fly away for forever! In some we're speeding through the streets in pursuit of the baddie. We see it in movies - but there's no way it ever happens in real life, right?
Wrong.
One Reddit user asked:
Taxi drivers - have you been asked to 'follow that car'? If so, what happened?
The responses weren't all from taxi drivers - we guess this is a thing that happens in non-taxi life as well. Who knew? Here are some of our favorite responses.
Phone Bro
GiphyTaxi followed my car. When my driver understood it- he started driving faster. So when we reached our destination, other taxi stopped near us and my brother came from it and said that I forgot my phone!
His V8 Performance Sedan
A woman got in my cab and asked me to follow her husband's car as she suspected he was going to see another woman.
I was in a clapped out six cylinder and his was a V8 performance sedan. Lost him after a few blocks.
She wasn't impressed.
Nope
GiphyI work in the taxi industry, drivers will not comply with things like this. Any "follow that car" or "drive fast let's get out of here" gets a customer kicked out.
Chasing The Train
Not a car, but followed a train once. Picked up a fare at a train station who had missed his train. Got him two stops down the line (about 5 or 6 miles away) so he could make it on. Had to drive pretty fast.
- heebro
Follow Cab, Meet Future Wife
I was on shore leave in Perth. I went to a night club with my friend. He met couple of girls but they were ignoring me. I finally told him I was leaving and would he stay or go. He was staying of course.
I hopped in a cab and asked the driver if there were any good night clubs away from the city. He recommended one called Doors and off we went. We stopped at a light on the Horse Shoe Bridge and I asked him if he knew of any place to meet girls. He looked at me then pointed past me. In the turn lane was a taxi full of girls yelling and waving at me. When the light changed I said "Follow that Cab!" I ended up a block from where I caught the taxi. The door man asked for a cover charge from me. The 4 girls laid into him about how the club never charged when the Fleet was not in and he relented and let us past. Some of the guys I worked with were already in the club, and their jaws drop to see me roll in with four beautiful women. One of the Girls grabbed me to dance and would not let me go. The other guys started hitting on the other girls but they weren't having it. The local girls gave those sailors a clinic in rejection.
The party of girls broke up. Me, my date and her best friend left and went to Doors. We ditched the best friend after much alcohol consumption and eventually ended up back at her place. The next morning I could not remember her name, so when she her friend called to make sure she got home alright I snuck a look at her driver's license. Name, Age, Eye Color memorized. Then her friend asked to speak to me. Chit chatted for a bit and hung up. Found out later the friend was on the phone because the girl did not remember my name and the friend got it out of me.
That was nearly 20 years ago, we have been married for 18 with one son. We moved to America and her best friend also lives 20 minutes away
- sony1018
"Catch That Bus!" - Round 1
GiphyI took a bus to the airport and got off without my luggage. As soon as I realized, I ran to the nearest taxi and told the driver to catch that bus. The cabbie delivered. I caught the bus at the last stop before it left the airport, got the luggage and barely made my flight.
"Catch That Bus!" - Round 2
My friend left his bike on the front of a bus. We got in the nearest cab and told him to "catch that bus". I thought this was every taxi drivers dream, and that we would make the taxi drivers day.
He didn't give two sh!ts. Drove slow as f*ck towards the bus and didn't even make an effort to pass cars.
Mixing Genders
I told a cab driver to follow a car once. I was in the navy and we were out in the middle east where you couldn't have opposite genders in the same cab. We had some free time and wanted to go out, but needed to split up for drives. All over the place were red cabs for women and blue cabs for men. I got in blue cab with other dudes, the ladies and the one guy who was related to one of them got in the red. It was a bit stressful to have some of my liberty buddies in a separate vehicle.
Sober Vans And Fist Bumps
GiphyI'm an uber driver. 2 weeks into it I pick up a rider from a bar, and she asks, "are you up for something different tonight?"
Being the adventurous guy that I am, I say, "sure, what's your idea?"
She tells me she wants to pay me to follow a safe ride van that has her date in it. She thinks he was being different that night and wanted to see if he was going where he said he was. So of course I'm all in. We missed him getting dropped off and followed an empty van around quiet streets for almost a half hour, probably freaked out the driver. When we realize it's empty, I end her ride and start driving her home. But then I get another ride, so she did a ride along for a couple passengers before I was able to take her home.
Two weeks later, I pick her up during the day when she's sober and we fist bumped like old pals.
- Asskhole
Easier For Drunk People
I followed the car ... and it turned out it is easier for a drunk person to just tell you to follow someone than it is for them to give directions.
H/T: Reddit
Your voice is the only thing about you that's deep...
"Dudes that are trying to do deep voice because of TikToks."- ashucream
Eventually, they'll stop chasing...
"Playing hard to get."- groovy604
I must be right if I'm talking this loud!
"Loud, assertive confidence."
"When you're not an expert on the topic."- Hullaba-Loo
Season 2 Ugh GIF by The Lonely IslandGiphyI can smell your desperation from a mile away...
"Guys who drown themselves in cologne."- shoegazer44
You can impress me in other ways
"I am told that exotic sex positions are incredible awkward and physically difficult which will turn you off quickly."- Psychological_Dish75
I'm rich, therefor I must be desirable!
I" have a buddy who is constantly showing off his cars, watches, and shoes."
"He’s single and I’m convinced he’s doing all that to find a girl."
"It's not as impressive or attractive as he thinks it is."- dkwatkins28
Balling Andy Samberg GIF by The Lonely IslandGiphyWhy has it become so difficult to talk?
"Those horrendous jacked up lips everyone is getting."
"Y’all look like you’ve had an allergic reaction."- Gr00vemovement
"Those massive lips."
"Just looks like you got stung by a bee."- level 1dana_ranger
The viral sensation that feels more like a virus...
"Tiktok boys biting their lip and rubbing their hands."
"One woman who stitched one boy like that said it right: you look like a housefly."
"Stop it."- Somniatora
Confidence, not arrogance
"People hear 'confidence is attractive', and think its attractive to be a huge obnoxious d*ck who thinks they're better than everyone and doesn't care about how they treat others."
"Confidence in yourself, like knowing who you are, what you like and being okay with it is attractive."- pancakepegasus
Music Video Good Job GIF by Taylor SwiftGiphyThe best way to make a strong first impression is by showing others who you really and truly are.
Not by simply showing off.
Not every detail and truth needs to be heard. Trust me, I speak from experience.
Favorites
Dog GIF by ViralHogGiphy"That you know you’re the Pet’s favorite person."
mostpeopleheresuck12
"Oof, I am absolutely both of our dogs favorite person. We both know it but I would never ever say that to my wife."
abrokenelevator
Weapons
"No matter how healthy a relationship is, there'll always come a time where you have resentful thoughts of your spouse. Those should be kept to yourself, as most of them pass quickly. The only time you should share them is if they're persisting in some behavior that is hurting you, and then it should be done calmly and not in the heat of the moment."
"For instance, if you got home from work tired to find your spouse binge watching a TV show, but the sink is full of dirty dishes, the impulse may be to lace into them. Don't. Go ahead and do the dishes, and tomorrow, when that initial flash of anger has passed, discuss the issue."
"People say arguments can be healthy in a relationship, but it all comes down to how you argue. Spouses, at least if they're good ones, know intimate details about you, your past, and how you think and feel. This gives them weapons to hurt you, and it may be tempting to use such weapons when angry. But if you know your spouse has a sore spot about their dad, and you say in anger 'this is why your dad never loved you,' you have permanently damaged your relationship."
"And that damage builds up over time. Successful relationships survive because people rein themselves in in that moment. Even when they're angry, they don't want to inflict wounds like that. So whenever the impulse arises to use those weapons in anger, resist the temptation! You may forget what you did quickly, but they won't."
Degs29
Be Honest
"If your relationship started under potentially offensive pretenses (e.g. they were madly in love w/ you but you they were just the your rebound)."
Yuo_cna_Raed_Tihs
"An old friend of mine's gf told him this. I was there when it happened, and I swear to God I saw his heart break. They were really good together and really liked each other, so he tried to keep going, but I watched it eat him from the inside out until he just couldn't take it anymore and broke up with her. There really are some things you just can't take back."
RavagerHughesy
The Clippers
"Where I hide the secret, spare pair of scissors I keep for when he's lost all the other 11 pairs of scissors we own and I need to trim a chip bag down to make getting to the chips easier."
lysanderish
"I had a pair of nail clippers stashed away because they were never where they were supposed to be. After my wife passed away I found 9 pairs! In her desk drawers, in purses she hadn’t used in years - 3 pair in with her makeup."
dirkalict
Strategy
Naval Battle Navy GIF by World of WarshipsGiphy"The location of your ships while playing Battleship."
MadlyHatting
If we are in competition... in my eyes... you are only a casualty.
No Touch
episode 9 search GIFGiphy"My dad has mentioned a few times that in their 40+ years of marriage, he’s never gone in her top dresser drawer or purse."
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmfarts
Weak Spots
"Sometimes, no matter how attractive your partner is to you and no matter how much you love them, there is an aspect to them that is unchangeable but that you find gross or annoying or just generally less than attractive. Clogged nose pores, a laugh that sounds like a muppet, big toe nails that just look a little bit weird, or that single long hair growing from inside their ear that just keeps coming back no matter what they do. If it’s going to make them feel insecure or unloved, this is something you should just keep to yourself."
"In a relationship, you learn each other’s weak points and vulnerabilities, and using them against your partner is a boundary that, once you cross it, you can’t come back from. Once you make someone feel like they can’t trust you with their vulnerable self, your relationship is on its way out."
baby_armadillo
"how did it go?"
"Your psychologist/therapy sessions. I had an ex that used to demand I tell him what I talked about in my sessions and it was super uncomfortable. With my current partner we are both in therapy and if it's a phone session the other goes in a different room. If we want to talk about something we told the psych or something we will tell our psych at the next appointment we do."
"But I would never ask and nor would he. We might ask 'how did it go?' To which the other may say 'it was good' or 'it was emotionally draining,' but that's as far as it should go. (These are personal sessions, not couples therapy, we're not in that)."
Tattsand
Go to Sleep...
"The unkind crap you think when you're angry and tired, it will absolutely never help at all to say any of it out loud and even if you don't have a particularly big fight or break up over it you'll still regret it and they'll still remember. Possibly also what you think about how hot other people are, depending on how jealous/insecure your SO is."
Amnesigenic
LOLzzz
sarcastic well done GIF by CBCGiphy"My steady supply of jokes. I set up my android to send me a joke every night at 5 pm and I tell it to my husband later on, before i jump in the shower. He always asks where I'm getting this stuff from and I just laugh and shut the bathroom door I would like him to continue thinking of me as this endless joke fairy for the rest of our lives :)."
welldressedpickles
See there... sometimes omission is the only lie.
Reputation is everything. And it's fragile. But just try to be your best self and you should be fine. Maybe.
Bye Brooke
Real Housewives Goodbye GIFGiphy"Youtuber Brooke Houts. Uploaded a wrong video, in which she was abusing her dog."
truthrevealer07
"popular enough"
"Artesian builds. CEO destroyed the entire company by deciding a winner of their raffle wasn't 'popular enough' to get the prize."
bulboustadpole
The best and most ironic part of this? Their sh**ty attitude towards the winner meant that a bunch of companies went to the winner and offered them a free PC and sponsorship."
"Thus giving the winner way more than they'd otherwise have won and ensuring that those other companies signed on a trending streamer due to their publicity in the incident. Artesian literally hamstrung themselves and handed their competition all their business."
AlkalineArts
Pervert
"Had a teacher in high school that everyone loved. He always helped kids who were being bullied, fully sat down with us and tried to mediate any conflict in groups as well. No one had a bad thing to say about him. One day a news story breaks that a teacher was caught filming up girls. Next day our favourite teacher had taken a few 'personal days.'"
"Everyone defended him saying it was only a coincidence that he was gone. We knew it was him when they started talking to girls from our school. They found footage of underage girls on his work laptop, 99% were students. Destroyed his career, family and life."
forgotten-cifer
'Communicator of the Year'
"Kelly Blazek used to run a closed job board for Cleveland area openings, mostly marketing-related. A young professional dm’d her on LinkedIn and her nasty response was so profoundly awful it went viral. I think she even had a 'communicator of the year' award revoked."
"After all this, I think she fell off the face of the internet. She went from someone who functioned as a clearing house for job listings to a household name due to her unprofessional behavior. Article: https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/tech/web/linked-in-cleveland-job-bank/index.html"
vorschlaghammer
Don't Lie
GIF by Big BrotherGiphy"At one point, Ryan Lochte was arguably on the way to becoming as big in the swimming world as Michael Phelps. Then his lies about being robbed at the Olympics torched his reputation and career."
Averagejoee1990
Oh Ryan... what were you thinking? Were you thinking?
Nice Suit
sad natalia kills GIFGiphy"That X Factor judge who told a contestant, wearing a SUIT that he was trying to copy her husband lmfao. I think Natalia Kills was her name."
roamingaroundhere
The Coast
"On the Gold Coast in Australia, the theme park Dreamworld lost all it’s reputation after 4 people died in an accident."
Ok-Emergency-1382
I didn’t remember hearing about this so I looked into it. Tragic. 3 of the 4 people killed were in the same family (brother/sister/brothers boyfriend).
"Then, several years later, the sisters husband seems to have committed suicide by intentionally entering floodwaters:"
ThreeFingeredTypist
“perfect”
"A former boss in the Army did it. He was son of a general, airborne ranger, and had a family right out of stepford wives. He was the 'perfect' soldier and family man. Until one day it was found out he was banging an interpreter he met in Iraq.
"He hid this for a number of years, but it was eventually discovered that he was flying her all around Europe on US Air Force planes in order to keep her close and keep it a secret from his wife."
"The Army found out and he was forced into retirement and had to pay several hundred thousand to cover the cost of the misappropriated aircraft. The divorce proceedings were quite comical as well. Made the military newspapers and everything."
BigSkyMountains
'Institute of Directors'
"Gerald Ratner. At one time 'Ratners' were a nationwide chain of jewelry shops in the UK, they were known as an 'affordable' jewelry shop. In 1991 he was a guest at the 'Institute of Directors' and made a speech where he called the stuff sold by his shops, 'total Crap.'"
"A popular range of earrings was described as being cheaper than a prawn sandwich and compounded it by saying the prawn sandwich would last longer. Shares in the company dropped like a stone and he was fired by the majority company shareholders."
ArcTan_Pete
In an Instant
season 5 morphine GIF by BBCGiphy"Had a supervisor who decided to get blitzed on morphine and alcohol before writing a racist, incomprehensible, unprofessional email and sending it to every subordinate. Every single person turned against him, and he was gone from his job really quickly after that. (And he was tenured and everything). Happened in an instant."
parkervoice
Be better. Don't let life ruin who you are. It only takes an instant to take down who you are.
Scams are on the rise more than ever, especially during the pandemic when random phone calls preyed on the gullible and the elderly and persuaded them to give an exorbitant amount of money in order to avoid various consequences.
But suspicious dealings are also prevalent in already familiar situations that appear legit but are not.
In an effort to raise awareness, Redditor Diligent-Log6805 asked:
"What's a modern day scam that's become normalized that we don't realize it's a scam anymore?"
Beware. Some institutions are trying to take advantage of you and have a sneaky way of doing it.
Privileged Information
"Employers insisting that employees not talk about their salaries AND job listings not posting salaries."
– aDogNamedPotato
Credit Score Scam
"Credit scores."
"They started in 1989 and are designed to encourage debt."
– kung_fu_jive
You Don't Know You're Even A Member
"Everything is a sneaky small monthly subscription."
– wowsers808
"This is getting ridiculous. A one time payment for an app or game used to be fine. Now you keep paying. Terrible for the consumer."
– 1shaggy123
Keep Track Of What You're Joining
"Free trial auto renewal subscriptions."
– ResidentOfTheWorld
More To Pay
"subscriptions for already-paid apps."
– Head_Membership_4252
Never rely on the face value of things purchased online.
You'll find that after the transaction is done, you're hit with some surprises that managed to slip past your radar.
The Fine Print
"Hidden fees. Especially in the medical and hospitality industries."
– spade13F
Enjoy Your Stay
"Resort fees at hotels."
– ChickenXing
An Annoying Practice
"Similarly, those U-Hauls that say '$20.00 a day!' I have never been able to rent a U-Haul for less than $100. Which is fine. I know that's what it costs. But the bait and switch is annoying."
– EatYourCheckers
If You Complain Enough, It Works In Your Favor
"I stayed at a hotel in Boston and they had a $30 per day charge that wasn't included in the price when we booked online. 'destination charge' or something. They told us that we got a credit at the restaurant because of it so we shrugged it off."
"The next morning we tried to use the credit and they told us it was only good for dinner. I went to the front desk after we ate and told them to reverse the charge. They said they couldn't. I politely said they could. They did. Saved us $120 that trip."
– PhishGreenLantern
Banking Fees
"Transaction fees when using online banking. I do all the work filling out the form so a bank employee doesn’t have too, yet I get charged the same."
– patrik3031
Blatant Thievery
"'Admin fees' for completely automated services."
– Hungry4Memes
Using Toll Roads In Australia
"In Australia if you use a toll road and don’t have a toll account, you get sent a toll notice with an added $10 admin fee. And if you don’t pay it within the requested time frame the admin fee goes up to $20. A $2.50 toll could end up costing you $22.50. Scam…"
– Ikewiththebeard
Try backing out of something you decided to sign up for. It's like a roach motel. You can get in but you can never get out.
It's Always Easy To Join
"Not being able to cancel a subscription online. I can subscribe in 5 minutes but I need to call your service agents and am forced to be rude to them to cancel it because as long as my voice sounds friendly they try to resell the damn subscription."
– Hardi_SMH
Gym Membership
"Try canceling a gym membership. Some want you to prove you've moved more than 25 miles away before they'll cancel you even when your contract is up. And unless you actively cancel the contract when it expires, they'll automatically renew your contract."
– LadyBug_0570
From A Different Perspective
"My wife and I took over ownership of a small, local yoga studio a couple years ago (ended up being terrible timing, as we took over about the time Covid started up). But one of our first tasks (started before we even took over) was replacing the old, terrible member management system."
"We wanted, among other things, for members to have the ability to sign up for a membership (which was easy enough) and edit or cancel their membership at will, on their own, with no interaction from us. We looked at probably dozens of systems, and not a single one had the ability for members to easily change membership levels or cancel their membership."
"I get that a lot of people want to make it harder to cancel as an effort to discourage cancelations, but it's ridiculous that so many softwares don't even give the option. Our philosophy was to keep members by keeping them happy, not by making it a pain in the a** to cancel."
– justahominid
I remember buying concert tickets from Ticketmaster and was offended after seeing all the service involved. It's highway robbery.
I've since found better, more reasonable deals, through second-hand markets like eBay. Yeah, even scalpers know they're not as bad as certain online ticketing agents.
As frustrating as it is though, obtaining a product or service is difficult unless you resort to paying those well-hidden fees.
Just remember to keep track of any memberships to services you've joined that are still charging you monthly, even though you think you've canceled them.