Most of the memories that stick with us are of pivotal moments in our lives, perhaps getting that job that kickstarted your career or the day you met your soulmate. However, memories are a fickle thing and some people have the unfortunate experience of meeting a stranger so horrible that they still carry the story with them.
An internet user, out of morbid curiosity no doubt, wanted to hear other’s worst experiences with total strangers. And people delivered, with stories ranging from bizarre to downright terrifying. So be warned, some potential unpleasantness ahead. If you do stay, be sure to upvote your favorite (however you choose to interpret that) and share your own stories in the comments.
#1
Me, a child: playing with toys in Walmart
a random stranger: "I'd like you to play with my little boy toy."
My Dad, just on the other end, watching me doesn't say a word to the man just grabs him and throws him across the aisle. Then screams out, "If you want to play with him. You're gonna have to play with me first!"
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436points
#2
When I started 3rd grade, I transferred to a new school. The school I went to prior was an abnormally small private catholic school. I think they only had about 5 teachers and under 30 students total. This school was so small, the cafeteria doubled as an art classroom. With the size of the school, it was also very protected. Everyone in the school was friends with each other. There were no such things as bullies, because everyone's parents were friends, and those parents were also great friends of the teachers. Aside from the occasional pre-pubescent children nagging and whining amongst ourselves and outbursts that young kids have, it was pretty great of an atmosphere.
When I got to my new school on the first day, which was a public school in Pittsburgh. I was so out of my element it was insane. I couldn't comprehend why everyone wore different clothes, why there were so many people, why the teachers were so brash and somewhat aggressive. Nobody seemed friendly, nothing made sense. It was a total culture shock.
Fast forward to lunch, they announced they had a salad bar. This was the most normal part of the day for me, because at my old school we usually had lunches like salad bars. I made a few acquaintances prior to lunch which gave me tremendous relief as the biggest worry I had that day was wondering if i'd have to eat lunch by myself or with a table of people i dont know. Me and the two other kids at the time made it through the lunch line and got to the salad bar. I started to fix up my tray with the most wonderful salad a kid could ask for - lettuce, ranch, croutons, bacon bits. As soon as i turned away from the salad bar, a very tall and lanky girl with zany pigtails in braids just stood in front of me and practically made sure i would "accidentally" walk right into her. The obvious outcome; My tray collided with her tray, which sent the salad flying, covering her mostly in ranch dressing. I lost all of my salad, and everyone was f*****g chuckling about it. She decided to start crying and it went from bad to even worse, because i had the teachers rush over to me and grab me by my arm and drag me to the principles office.
I got yelled at for about 10 minutes and was told that my first impression was certainly not a good one, and the girl had to have her parents come in and bring her a change of clothes. Nobody would listen to my side of the story, and this idiot told everyone that i threw my salad at her so she would "get out of my way". I never met this girl in my life, i didnt even know she existed prior to her sabotaging me and making me go hungry. When i explained that it was an accident, they would retort with "how? You saw her standing there".
I sat in the office, starving, crying, and scared that my mom would beat my a*s. She came down to the school shortly after, and this was the light at the end of the tunnel. The principle takes her into her office, and i start to hear yelling. I start crying harder, because now momma is in trouble... but then i realized the yelling wasnt from the principle, it was my mom. My mom went the f**k off on the principle. I heard things such as "It's his first day, do you really think he would throw his f*****g salad in her face?" and "How dare you not let my son eat?!"
My mom took me home, got me mcdonalds, and i lived in total fear for the rest of 3rd grade. Mom cant always be there to save me, but goddamnit mom... you f*****g killed it.
Happy mothers day.
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358points
#3
My grandmother was at the movies, and a guy walked up the aisle and punched her on 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?
275points
Unfortunately, there are people out there who are somehow entirely blind to social norms and will flagrantly break them without a thought. In a few cases, this could be simple ignorance or lack of ability to read social cues. Everyone knows someone who is probably well-meaning but ends up being downright annoying to be around.
But many of the cases listed here go much further than, say, a loud belch at a dinner table or an awkward question about one’s love life. These encounters veer into downright antisocial behavior, which at “best” are a nuisance and at worst, could be seen as a crime. Traditionally, this is seen as part of a personality disorder, but more contemporary psychologists believe it could, instead, be a result of certain issues in upbringing.
#4
I work in retail and once a customer jiggled my belly and said 'I see the diet stuff doesn't work here' I know it doesn't seem much but I keep comeing back to it. It was just so IDK invasive?
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253points
#5
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.
207points
#6
Back in the '70s, I was riding in a car that my best friend's mother was driving on a highway. There was me, my friend, her brother, and a couple of other kids in the car. The age range for the kids was about 7 to 9 years old. It was a warm day, and my friend's mother had her window rolled down (no air conditioning). A car full of teenagers pulled alongside of her, and someone threw a full cup of ice water through the window at her. I got hit by it, too, because I was sitting in the front seat next to her. She managed not to lose control of the car. In retrospect, it was incredibly fucked up to try and cause a lady with a car full of kids to crash.
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200points
The generally accepted cause of antisocial behavior is upbringing or a lack thereof. This is a sort of double-edged sword, as it lets us pinpoint how to prevent it, but unfortunately, it offers little hope for people who are already adults. The upside is the policymakers, social workers and just people who live in a community can all do their part to help, but it also means they generally have to suffer at the hands of existing, antisocial adults.
#7
A guy sneezed in my face on the subway, and after s******g on him verbally he just shrugged and made it out to be no big deal. Since i couldnt do anything but verbally abuse him i left to find another seat. 2 days later i almost reachter 41 degrees.... Havent been sick like that my whole life. Literally and figuratively. Im still wearing masks in subs cuz of this s**t.
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197points
#8
I was in London on business and my hotel was hosting a Christmas party for a bunch of Russians also there on business. I was sitting at the bar by myself and one of the Russian women invited me to sit with her and her friends. Her table had her, three other women and two men. I don’t speak Russian but they were all very nice and welcoming to me. The woman sitting across from me was passed out drunk with her head on the table. No one paid any attention to her. After 30 minutes me and the woman who invited me were flirting pretty good. Suddenly the drunk woman sits up straight, points at me, scowls and begins yelling what obviously were Russian swear words. She does this for about a minute while the rest of us just stare at her and say nothing. Then she plops her head back down on the table and goes to sleep. I asked everyone collectively “what was that all about?” One of the guys replied “she doesn’t know why you are sitting with us, she hates you and she called your mother some very bad names. But don’t pay her any attention, she’s a crazy Russian. We’re happy to party with an American.
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191points
#9
Complimented my penis. I was at a camp shower at a campground. I was around 12 some random guy walked in and just stared at me and watched me take a shower making weird small talk. This was the late 70's, early 80's. Kids werent special yet and we basically were raised you just be polite to adults so I was "yes sir" and "no sir" the creep. The Adam Walsh TV movie changed all of that and parents were like, hey, maybe we should watch our kids a little bit? He didn't rape me so I guess that's a plus.
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174points
The rapid social changes brought on by technology have made it hard to track exactly what stimulus ends up causing kids to start behaving poorly. In the age of regular TV consumption, some studies found that for every additional hour of TV a teen watched, the risk of them exhibiting some antisocial behavior rose by roughly 30%. However, as most parents now know, young people aren’t really watching hours and hours of TV, but it’s unclear if, say, video games or streaming has the same effect as TV used to.
#10
Dude parked his 18 wheeler in the middle of the road and started walking into Dunkin Donuts. I told him to move his truck, and the guy ran to my car and started punching my drivers window calling me a “f*****g liberal pussy”. Then he stopped and rubbed his hand in pain and I pointed and laughed at him and said “Try the other hand now!” He said something else I didn’t hear because I was still laughing and he walked away. Cops came and gave the guy a summons and made him move the truck.
173points
#11
I was with 2 of my friends walking out of a Walmart at 10pm. I was about 17/18 years old at the time. Some dude came out and full on made out with me. Just beelined for me and grabed the back of my head and proceeded to kiss me for about 30 seconds. I froze, my friends froze and then he ran off laughing. We stood there in disbelief for a minute or two. I went home and brushed my teeth repeatedly. F*****g strange and very invasive.
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160points
#12
I was sitting at a cafe with my then partner. A man came up to our table, held finger guns at my temple and whispered "I wish I f*****g could." And then yanked my hair and rushed out. It was completely unprovoked. I've technically had more violent and scary things happen to me, but that's stuck with me for a really long time. I think it's because I had been having a lovely day until that point. I was so excited to be sitting in a cute cafe, eating pie with my date. And now I can't get the image of her face falling as she looked at the man out of my head. We went home after that.
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150points
It’s not fair, however, to pin all the blame on media. Media only raise a child if the parents are absent in some form, which might be a more significant trigger than, say, Cartoon Network or Minecraft. Even more significantly, parental abuse is pretty closely tied with the victim “passing on” the abuse to another, creating a spiraling cycle of violence and bad behavior. Even smaller things, like poor nutrition and poverty, can cause an environment where normal social behavior is not learned, leading to the sorts of adults we see in these stories.
#13
I was waiting for my girlfriend at the bus terminal in order to go to her home to meet her parents for the 1st time. This one random old dude aproaches me, askes me about the boat schedules (it's a boat and bus terminal), and I'm happy to help him out. Since it's still a while for the next boat and it takes a while for my girlfriend to arrive, the dude keeps talking to me and I didn't mind about it and was having a conversation with him. He asks me for a cigarette (I don't smoke) and offers me a beer (I don't drink). Out of the blue he asks me "Do you want to go to my house while you wait for your girlfriend?". I'm like "Is this dude hitting on me or something? wtf..." and try my best to be polite and shut down and move away from him because it was getting a bit unconfortable. Not long after, the bus is arriving and I use it as an excuse to gtfo of the conversation. By my face my GF can tell that something happened and I tell her wtf just happened and when I look back to tell her who the dude was, the dude just vanished like a ghost. I'm even more confused by this. Next thing I know, she's describing me the old dude "Is the man you talked to like this and that, and wearing this and that?" and I'm like "Yeah, how do you know?" and she blank stares at me "That's my dad and he's right there". Not a bad f****d up thing, but f****d up to do to an unsuspecting person in a stressing situation like meeting your SOs parents for the 1st time. In his defense tho, he did make a joke when we "officially" met and said "Well, we're going to my house after all!"
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141points
#14
I had just recently got my driver's license. I was driving down a back road going the speed limit (55) and I was the only car on the road. When I checked my mirror a few seconds later, a red car was directly on my a*s, so close I couldn't see his front plate. He began slowing down and speeding towards the back end of my car repeatedly. After a few minutes, he sped past me in a no passing zone and started brake checking me (speeding up and slamming his brakes to try getting me to hit him). After a minute or so of that, he slammed his brakes and we both came to a full stop. He got out of his vehicle and started pounding on the driver's side window screaming and cursing me out before getting back in his car and speeding off. I pulled over and stayed there for a few minutes to insure he was long gone before proceeding...
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134points
#15
I'm gay and my husband and I married in the rotunda of the courthouse. As we said I do and kissed a group of Mennonite kids started spitballing us and throwing stuff down at us. Hit the judge too. It was a really crappy way to remember our wedding. No witnesses, just us which is how we wanted - but then what was essentially a hate crime. The children's parents were amused.
My husband chased down security and they had it on video. Security stopped the family and then asked my husband if he wanted to prosecute. I was turning in our marriage certificate at that moment so I wasn't there to threaten 'yes'. My husband said no of course. I didn't want to really prosecute, but I wanted to put some fear in them.
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128points
There are also some genetic factors that ultimately might lead to people behaving in ways that others find annoying or downright horrible. The bottom line is that antisocial behavior, ultimately, needs to be cut off at the source. This means that all of us have to look for ways to help dysfunctional families, to make sure children can live in a safe environment and that psychological help like Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is available to those in need.
#16
Some asshole 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 a month. I always thought if they had stopped at a light, I'd have hurled that bitch right back (good thing they didn't — I wasn't in any condition for a fight)
121points
#17
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.
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116points
#18
Sit next to me on the bus when there's a single seat on the other side
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111points
#19
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 happened.
110points
#20
I work at a hotel as a housekeeper. Yesterday we had a baseball team checking out and I had a bunch of their rooms on my list. The rooms were reasonably messy, nothing too bad. But the last room…they trashed the place. Trash thrown everywhere and hidden in some places, food ground into the carpet, p**s on the bathroom floor, greasy hand prints on the windows and mirrors. The whole shebang. This was s****y, sure, but what made it f****d up was how they tipped me. They dragged a chair into the middle of the room, faced it towards the door, and left a stack of fake hundred dollar bills in the seat in plain sight.
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106points