You think you know someone...but you really don't. No matter how close you are, whether it be a family member, a friend, a colleague, or a romantic partner, you just never know what's actually going on in that person’s life. The following stories tell of the shocking moments when people found out the true nature of their loved ones, leaving them conflicted and embroiled in drama. Will they get out for their own good, or keep fighting to save their relationships?
1. Almost Rock Bottom
One of my best friends was always a hard worker. Great student, smart, popular, all that. We were in the same class from second grade all through high school, but we weren't ever really friends until we both went to the same college and started dating people back in our hometown. We spent many long trips talking and became close. Eventually, she became the sister I never had.
Then, she got dumped by a guy she thought was going to propose, and a couple of weeks later, she started dating another guy who suddenly passed. It was awful—but she went off the deep end. She dealt with it by sleeping around with random dudes, each one sketchier than the last. Soon, she wouldn't even tell me about them, because she knew what I'd say.
We didn't live in the same town anymore, but we still kept in touch. Even from a distance, I could see that she had changed for the worse. Her spelling, grammar, and word choice were horrible whenever she'd text, which didn't make sense because she was always a very good writer. Then, she lost the job that she'd had for years. It wasn't long until her house was taken away from her and she was forced to couch surf.
At one point, it got so bad that she started squatting in an uninsulated shed with a sleeping bag and a Coleman lantern for heat and light. I knew she did substances from time to time, but what I didn't know was she was on prescription medications since college and had been keeping a pill habit under the radar for nearly a decade.
A few shakeups broke her balancing act and sent her tumbling. I didn't even invite her to my wedding when I got married because she was just...gone. But! The story does have a happy ending. She's almost three years sober now, engaged to a seemingly decent dude, and is due to have a baby in a few months. It was quite eye-opening to see someone close fall apart like that.
2. My Sister Is A Monster
In my fifties, I realized everyone was right when they said my sister was awful. I always told them, "She’s not like that!" But then she betrayed me, and I'll never forgive her. She lied to everyone and said that, after caring for our mom with dementia for ten years, I took all of her money. She said she was going to make sure I'd be put behind bars.
But it gets even worse...When my husband was fighting for his life in the hospital, she took over as executor of my mom’s estate, even though my mom didn’t want her to handle it. She never once paid the mortgage and I was freaking out because the bank would call me about the missed payments and no one would believe me when I told them she let the house go into foreclosure several times.
I live 900 miles away. I had no fight left in me. Eventually, the house was sold, and when money was distributed, my inheritance check bounced. When I called my sister and told her what she did was a major offense in our state, she sent me a money order right away. I also sent a letter to her attorney pointing out all of her lies, with proof.
I told her I never wanted to talk to her again unless she went to AA and gave me a public apology.
3. The Scheming Son
I was friends with this guy for 16 years. We had a lot in common as we are both into the outdoors. We would hang out together with our spouses and we even traveled a little together. All was fine until he got me a job with him working for his parents. They were so kind and generous, and they treated me very well. He, on the other hand, was the total opposite.
He lied about everything to his parents—about being overwhelmed with work (which is why I was hired in the first place), about money (he pocketed their hard-earned cash any way he could), and so on. I tried telling his parents about it and it ruined my relationship with them. I think they had an idea about how he was, but they were in denial.
4. The Bad Ones
My mom worked with disabled kids. She had a colleague who was one of the caretakers of the kids living there permanently. He was a great teacher, husband, and loving father. Or so she thought. When the truth came out, she was horrified. Every week for almost a decade, she would drive this one kid to the psychologist because she suspected he went through something traumatic, but he never told them anything.
Then, one day, the local authorities started an investigation because one of the night guards was allegedly touching the kids inappropriately. People start digging and the puzzle pieces eventually came together. Turned out, the teacher was behind it all, and because he was present during the kid's psychologist sessions, the kid never dared to say the truth.
After this, my mom got a lot more vigilant and actually caught two more offenders while working in that school. She never again gave them the benefit of the doubt. She never again thought, "Oh, he is such a kind person; he would never do that." Remember: the bad ones are usually people you love and trust.
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5. Fighting Demons
A close friend of mine got tipsy and wanted to drive 800 miles to his cousin's house so he could end his life. A few days afterward, he confided in me that his cousin took advantage of him as a child. I don’t blame him for that, and I also don’t even blame him for the number of substances he consumes. The man has demons to burn.
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6. A Dangerous Man
I knew this cool, laid-back Brazilian guy from seventh grade. We all liked him, but he and his family missed living in Brazil, so they went back the following year. We stayed friends on Facebook and he'd post jiu-jitsu tournament pics every now and then. Then, years later, a schoolmate found a Brazilian news article about him beating a woman for refusing to get intimate with him on a date.
He almost ended the poor girl. There was also a follow-up article about him having beaten his disabled brother for years.
7. Person Of Interest
This guy I know was always a little weird, but we got along well. But then, during a break from college, while I was at my parents' house, his mug shot showed up on the local news as a person of interest in a child exploitation case. I still remember my dad asking, "Isn't that a friend of yours?" The next day, I ran into a mutual friend who gave me a few revolting details about the case.
And then, it was like all of the weird stuff he did over the years immediately made sense in my head and I realized just how messed up the guy really was.
8. A Changed Man
A guy who I knew was a thief, but he never took anything from me or my family. We had been best friends since we were 12. We even went to prom together. One time, I invited him over when we were 19 or 20 and he said he was going to use the bathroom, but I never heard the door close. I left the den and sneakily watched as he was looting through my backpack.
When our eyes locked, he walked into the bathroom. Neither of us mentioned it, and I didn’t see him again for like five years. We still hung out every day for a while, until he disappeared again. We are in our early 30s now and we have finally reconnected. He has a very successful career and he told me he’s changed. I hope it’s true because I freaking love that guy.
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9. What A Dirtbag
My mom's adopted brother, a.k.a. my uncle, is younger than me, so growing up, I always saw him as a little cousin. He was a really funny and energetic guy, and we’d hang out during the holidays whenever I visited my grandma. I went off to the army and I found out that he was sent to prison for hitting a guy with a skateboard in a fight.
Supposedly, the guy pulled a sharp object on him but got rid of it before the authorities came. My uncle went to prison after the whole incident. He did a few years in prison and when he got out, he became an aspiring rapper with a great outlook on life trying to better himself. At least, that's what he said. The truth was so much more disturbing than I'd imagined.
He was out for two weeks before he was taken in again for taking advantage of a minor. He's trash.
10. Two-For-One Jerks
I have a family member (my second or third aunt) who everyone always claims to be a nice person. That's all anyone had to say about her. I didn't know anything about her; just that she's "nice" and lives far away from everyone else. So I reached out to her to hang out once, just to get to know her while I was in the area.
Turns out, she's married to an actual KKK member, and all she had to say about it was that "it's just a silly little thing he does." She followed that statement by describing how he almost ended a teenager's life for sitting on his couch. She LAUGHED during the whole altercation. Um. No. He's a jerk and she's a jerk.
11. Bad Influence
I used to be the cool high school rebel with a serious attitude problem. I did all the usual bad stuff and people generally thought I was cool. Then, I robbed a store and spent the next 11 years in prison. What's worse is I ruined my best friend's life too by strong-arming him into committing the deed with me.
My brother used to idolize me. I protected him from my dad and his oppressors at school. I was his hero because I defied everyone. After that incident, however, he now thinks I'm a sad, pathetic loser and doesn't believe I've reformed.
12. The Predator
When I was in high school, I was part of the theatre program. I was 15 when I joined. There were two guys: one my age who was really nice, and one 18-year-old who I, at the time, thought was nice as well. Most of his friends were 15-year-old girls and he would often make weird comments about them. I was naive and thought he was a decent guy due to his acting prowess alone. Then I saw his dark side up close.
He started trying to get me alone, I got creeped out and cut him out of my life. He later started dating a 14-year-old, who he took advantage of. I'm lucky I realized he was weird before he had a chance to do the same thing to me. To any young girl reading this, a grown man being interested in you at that age isn't okay. You aren't mature for your age, he is a predator.
13. Liar, Liar
A childhood friend of mine came to hang out one day when our mutual friend from out of state visited us. Immediately, we could tell something was off about him. He was clearly on something, and he also started making up stories about his dad working for the Irish mob. He also refused to leave even though we entertained him until 2 am that morning.
We had to physically put him in my car and drive him home so we could get some sleep.
14. The Wrong POV
We were catching up on our lives and he mentioned his son’s latest brush with the law. He had been convicted of attacking a woman who had been walking on the beach after sunset. I asked how he was coping with the reality of his son’s transgressions and if it changed his regard for him. His response made me absolutely furious.
He explained that he didn't understand what all the fuss was about because what his son did “wasn’t a big deal” and the victim was also “an old lady” and not likely a virgin. I was astounded—not only by his attitude but by the fact that I had been friends for decades with someone who held such an egregious view.
15. The Saboteur
After years of struggling to get hired, my wife finally found a great job in her field where she obviously thrived. Eventually, she asked to see her file from when she was hired, and she discovered that her go-to job reference, who she had been using for years, had given her an absolutely terrible reference based on one bad experience out of six years of working together.
This was someone who my wife really looked up to and had literally known all her life. She had been nothing but a model employee, but she confronted her employer on one occasion because she was treating another employee unfairly. It takes a messed-up person to allow one gentle and totally legitimate challenge to authority to sour someone's years of excellent work.
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16. Prom Date
As I was moving a year ago, I found my old prom pictures and decided to look up the guy I was dating at the time. We went out for 10 months and broke up when I went to college. He was super sweet and I thought it was one of the best relationships I’d ever had. I’d reached out to him several years prior on social media and he just gave very short replies.
He showed me a pic of his kids and then unfriended me. I just thought he was still bitter I’d broken up with him. So I Googled him a year ago to see if I could find out what he’d been up to. I was not prepared for what I found. Turns out, he’s serving a prison sentence for child exploitation with a second charge for using a mobile phone to access the internet. Needless to say, I was shocked.
17. Misaligned Beliefs
I'm hard of hearing and my condition is worsening every year. One year, a completely deaf kid entered my class. I signed, "I'm hard of hearing. I'm learning slowly, but I can help you." We really hit it off—I helped him learn since I understood where he was coming from. After college, we stayed in touch and Skyped occasionally. Our friendship went on for seven years! I felt like I really knew this guy.
But then, one time on Skype, he told me he wouldn't be online for a long time because he was joining his local KKK. It completely blindsided me. I then revealed to him that I'm trans, and all he could say was, "That is not funny." He told me that he doesn't have a problem with me or anybody who is LGBT, but he wanted his kids to be straight, and their kids, and their kids, until LGBT as a condition was gone.
18. Pure Evil
My closest male friend in high school turned out to be a predator. He and I had a deeply connected friendship throughout high school. I even set him up with my best friend and sort of pushed them together. He wound up forcing her to give up her virginity and pretty much took advantage of her for a few months before she finally broke it off.
He later did the same thing to another female friend of ours in college and tried to force himself on me after a long relationship of mine ended. I didn’t find out about the other two until years later. I still have deep regret that I pushed him and my best friend into a relationship. Looking back, it’s so clear now that she was crying out for help during that relationship and I was a dense and naive friend that thought she was being overdramatic.
It’s true that the worst people can be the ones you know and love. Anyone is capable of good and bad.
19. Wasted Youth
When I was growing up, my parents became involved with an MLM. They had noble intentions (they wanted to make money so they could spend time with us), but it backfired. They were so involved with it that they were gone four nights of the week, and we never took a vacation without them voluntarily spending time at meetings.
It wasn’t until I had kids that I realized how much of my childhood they’d missed.
20. Beneath The Facade
My cousin. He was one of the first people in my generation of the family to "get his life together." He got his degree, became an officer, found a great wife, and adopted a daughter. I always counted on him to be "one of the good ones," but it turns out that definitely wasn't the case. One day, my mom called me and told me he was taken in by the FBI for child exploitation.
He had been posing on Facebook as a 16-year-old, extorting sensitive photos from teens, all while taking advantage of his daughter. It was wild to have someone go from being your ultimate role model to wanting that same person to rot in prison.
21. Girl Next Door
I knew this one girl for four years of my childhood. She lived next door to my family and my parents would hire her to babysit me, my sister, and my brother. I didn't really realize anything was wrong when I was a kid, but thinking back on it now, a lot of the games she played with us (or with me, anyway) were oddly inappropriate.
She once brought an adult video to our house once and showed it to me. I was somewhere between the ages of six and 10 when all of that happened, and she was in her late teens. Be careful who you trust to watch your children and remember that not all predators are men.
22. Life Under Construction
I started to realize how many times my mom has meddled in my life when she thought it wasn't going the way she thought it would. When I was really interested in someone in my early twenties, she talked them out of dating ME while I wasn't around. She was a really sweet person and I liked her a lot too. Instead, I ended up with a psycho who left after our daughter was born.
That is just ONE instance out of many times my mother used intense manipulation on a person to mess up my life because I wasn't living it HER way. And she still has no idea she's done anything wrong. I'm currently trying to fix my life from the last time she barged into it. It's not been good, but I'm almost through this mess.
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23. Thwarted Terror
I was in a group of three best friends: me, C, and J. We were suburban tween Catholic school girls, in the same class, and we hung out every single day. In seventh grade, C devised an entire plan with some other kids in our group of friends to lure me into the woods and bash in my head with a rock. They were all just so edgy and thought that I was too “goody” for their group.
J and I were not speaking at the time, but she ended up sprinting home to warn me. I remember not believing her at the time because I was young and mad at her. Welp, five minutes later, my phone rang. I answered it—and my blood ran cold. It was C and the other kids “inviting” me over there. It’s been a very long time since then. They’re all pretty messed up people still.
I ran into one of the other girls of the group last year at a mutual friend’s party and she broke down crying, blubbering apologies over and over again. I’ve forgiven them because they very obviously have some serious mental issues that have nothing to do with me. I’ve remained friends with J over the years, and I’m still very grateful for her doing the right thing on what would have been a very dark day.
24. A Total Lowlife
I became friends with a guy from my new job. We'd get a drink sometimes and I had him over for a barbeque a few times. A few months after we met, he got taken in by officers for punching a girl and it became a pretty big local story. In the process of being prosecuted, a bunch of other girls (like about 10 or so) came forward saying he had threatened them.
A girl he had dated briefly said he had given her some serious bruises while they were being intimate. They also found a huge collection of upskirt photos and all the equipment he used to take them. He had been expelled from high school for pulling up girls' skirts. Yuck.
25. The Predator
I was best friends with a guy for like seven years, and there were not many days that we weren’t together. When his father passed away, he inherited about $75k. That's when I realized what a horrible person he was. He moved 20 minutes away, almost entirely stopped talking to me, and started living with some people he barely knew. He ended up blowing through the $75k in less than a year.
Anyway, I did hang out with him and his new friends a few times, and any time he would go to the bathroom, these people would tell me about all of the stupid stuff he was doing. He would send their GFs private pics, walk in on them and their GFs while they were in bed, hit on underage girls, and sleep with women who were way too intoxicated to fully know what was going on.
And, apparently, while he and I were friends (before the $75k), he was already doing this stuff. I basically became the person these people would confide in. At one point, I confronted him—I told him he was a terrible human being, a bad friend, and worst of all, a predator. I also told him that if I ever have proof of him sleeping with underage girls, I would contact the authorities.
Two days after that conversation, he moved away. No one knows where he is now.
26. Blind To The Truth
I had a good friend for many years and he always seemed like a nice, sensitive guy. I knew some other guy friends of mine didn't like him and had issues with him, but I never really saw any of that. Anyway, I asked him to come down to where I was living to hang out a few years ago and I found out that he was charged with forcing himself on his ex-girlfriend.
I thought it was crazy, but he admitted to it and I found out the reason they dropped the hammer was there was another previous allegation against him with someone else. I had known him that whole time, and it turns out he was not only a predator but a repeat offender. Like, we had slept in a bed together on a vacation and I was very close with him. It really shook me that I had no idea he was like that.
He always had really bad break-ups and I always took his side, but clearly, there were some real issues I just was blind to.
27. A Lost Cause
When I was 12, I was at a party while my dad spent the evening at his new girlfriend’s house. He went to pick me up on his way home at the end of the night, also when my party ended. When we came home, we found my oldest brother really tipsy in the living room, all by himself. He threw up all over the place. My dad's first reaction was rooted in anger—he grabbed my brother and yelled at him to clean his mess up.
There was always some sort of tension between them. They just never clicked and after my mom passed, my brother was really angry all the time, so he and my dad were arguing all the time. They got into a pretty bad fight and were literally punching each other. My dad suddenly grabbed him and told me to open the front door, so I did.
He threw my brother outside, but after a minute or so, my brother started to punch through the glass pane inside the door. There was glass everywhere and my brother was all covered in blood since the glass cut his artery open. He was nearly bleeding out. Officers and an ambulance later came and carried him away. Since that day he doesn’t live at home anymore—we barely speak and I only see him once or twice a year.
His mind is still messed up with all the things he’s been through, and there's nobody to help him. I feel sorry for him every day and wish I could help him.
28. Point Of No Return
I graduated high school with a guy who was also my neighbor and my brother's friend. He was incredibly handsome and always a bit spacey. We all assumed he was a burn-out, but he was very sweet. He and I dated off and on, but nothing serious. We were just having a good time and were mostly friends; never in love or anything like that. If we found ourselves single at the same time, we'd date.
He ended up marrying my sister's sister-in-law and they had a daughter together. A few years after I moved down here from my home state, she told him she wanted a divorce. His reaction was so disturbing, I can never forget it. He ended the lives of both his wife and daughter with a 12-gauge that day. He treated her very badly. In fact, he had shown up that day to sign the final divorce papers.
After he committed the deed, he went outside and tried to end himself. It tore him up, but after a lot of surgeries, he survived. When he was healed up enough for court, he was found guilty and sent to prison to serve out two life sentences. Before that first weekend in prison was over, he hung himself with his shoelaces. A cousin of mine was in the cell next to him.
29. They Took Everything
When I was moving out, my three closest friends from high school came by my house and went through all the boxes that I had packed. Jewelry, books, video games, clothes—they took everything they wanted. What started out as 10 boxes turned into two mostly empty ones. It was like I'd passed and they divided up my belongings.
The things that hit hardest were my hardcover set of Harry Potter and the jewelry set (earrings, necklace, tennis bracelet) that I'd gotten from my grandparents before my grandpa passed away. They weren't expensive pieces of jewelry, but they were highly sentimental. They blamed the whole thing on my sisters for a while, then I confirmed with all my siblings that they didn't have anything to do with my stuff going missing.
I haven't spoken to those "friends" in over a decade now.
30. My Crazy Cousin
My cousin. For a long time when I was a kid, I thought she was kind of cool; but after a few years, my perception of her just got worse. First, she dropped out of high school, which at first I didn’t really pay any mind to. But right after, she married a guy twice her age. She and her husband came over to our house for a Christmas party and we found out that they had stolen money from my mother’s purse, pain pills from my dad, and Vivance from me.
We stopped talking to them for a while, but once we tried to reconnect with my aunt and my cousin’s kids, we went back to the house that my cousin had inherited from their grandparents. The kids, especially the youngest daughter, would barely interact with anyone and anytime that she would open up or start cheering up around us, my cousin would whisk her away to another room.
The dogs were extremely thin and never made any noise, and any time my cousin would enter the room they would shy away from her and go dead quiet in the corner of the room. If any of the dogs got somewhat excited or ran around a room, she would storm in and shout at them for the littlest thing. That's how you knew she was bad.
31. Ungrateful Woman
After my mom passed, I ended up with all her things. I gave away her plants, her books, her coffee cup collection; everything. I didn’t want to part with any of it, but I couldn’t keep it all, and it made me happy to pass it on to people who’d enjoy it. My dear friend, who lived out of state, requested her bread machine, juicer, and blender. I said sure, as long as she made margaritas so we could toast my mom the next time I visited.
I boxed it all up carefully and paid to have the things shipped to her. A few months, maybe a year later, I was flying down for a visit and she invited me to stay at her house. When I arrived, I invited her and her family out for dinner at a nice restaurant. She declined but told me privately that I could take her to the mall to replace the appliances I’d sent her. Umm, what?
She explained that I’d packed them so poorly, they’d all arrived broken and unusable. Smashed to bits, beyond repair. I was horrified. I’d packed them with plenty of styrofoam and everything was in its original box, so the only way that could have happened is if the mail sorters threw them off an eight-story building. I’d have gone to the post office for recompense, but it was so long ago, and she’d thrown them out, so no luck there.
On my third day there, her husband thanked me for sending the stuff. I told him I was sad they’d been destroyed by the mail guy, and he looked so confused. He showed them to me behind some stuff in her cabinet, in perfect condition. He said she’d been bugging him to get her nicer versions of all the items (it was a $200 blender and, she wanted a Vitamix that costs like $600 instead).
He’d refused, and apparently, she thought she’d guilt me into buying all new stuff for her. I wanted to scream. It took all my self-control to not repo all my mum’s things and take them back home with me. Instead, I just left them sitting all lined up on her counter when I left.
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32. A Deep, Dark Secret
I used to go to this bar in Vietnam on a weekly basis to play music. It was a great scene with some wonderful people. There was this guy in his early forties who eventually became a regular—he was a fantastic singer and just had that classic frontman charisma. After playing, we'd have drinks and chill. He was, as far as I was concerned, a pretty cool guy with some good stories and just generally kind.
Then, later on, I found out through some mutual friends after being away for a while that he was a child predator. He was caught by Vietnamese authorities who were onto him and had orchestrated this operation to catch him. He'd apparently fled Cambodia for the same reasons before coming to Vietnam. He was using a fake name and everything.
Needless to say, that guy's life is more than likely messed up right now. Good riddance.
33. Knife In The Back
One of my college sorority sisters was dating a guy who was not a good guy. She had me help her change her locks only for her to give him a key. She even told me that if she had to, she would choose him over her two sons. She eventually got engaged to him and that changed our whole friendship. She started ghosting me and would rarely reply to my messages.
I honestly had gotten to the point where I no longer even cared. Then, one random day, she asked me a question that was totally uncalled for: "Are you sure you actually have MS?" That one really hurt, because out of everyone, she knew just how much I struggled with my MS diagnosis. My closest friend. If she hadn’t been so caught up in this guy, she would have known just how much I'd been struggling.
We are no longer friends. Her sons are who I feel bad for. Thank goodness for their dad who she cheated on—he's pretty much the one raising them.
34. Nurse Narcissism
My best friend in my first year of college was a mental health nurse. She always spoke about how challenging and selfless her profession was. I always fell for it and blindly praised her. Turns out, she is the most manipulative person I have ever been close with. She used my anorexia, past trauma, and sensitivities against me that I had told her in confidence.
Also, she called the people on her psych ward during placement “mentaloids” and “attention seekers,” claiming she would never get to that point as though she is immune to mental illness. I don’t know what it is about some nurses that make them some of the most mentally unstable and cruel people I have encountered.
35. Creepy Carl
When I was about six years old, my brother was dating this girl. Eventually, her father met my mother and they became friends LONG after my brother and this girl broke up. He babysat me on occasion when my mom was busy, and he was always at family events, like birthday parties and Christmases. But when I was 16, he called for my mom and she wasn't there, so he decided to talk to me. That conversation is still burned in my mind.
Honestly, I think he was tipsy. Even so, he started telling me what a fine young lady I'd become, and if he was my age, he'd have his way with me. He said I'd be "giving everyone a run for their money." The next time I saw him, he asked me to sit on his lap so we could talk about the first thing that popped up. My mom just thought it was funny. It made me feel uncomfortable and after that, I never looked at him the same way.
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36. After School Hours
My 10th-grade teacher was popular. Everyone loved him and he gave me his cell phone number. One day, I called him asked to set up a day when we could meet outside of school hours for tutoring. He said he was OK with it, granted that he and I met first at the local diner by ourselves to discuss what we would do. Looking back, I realize how dangerous that whole situation was.
37. Not-So-Humble Brag
I had a fifth-grade teacher who was freaking awesome. He had high energy and always had stories about his crazy parties and the girls that he’d bring home on the weekends. I thought he was so cool until I got old enough to realize bragging about hook-ups to a room of 11-year-olds is weird.
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38. Good Riddance
My close friend took $2,000 from his parents then blamed it on me. The worst part is, he came up with a plan to make it seem like I didn’t have an alibi. Luckily, I was online with friends and was able to prove it so his parents didn’t sue. I haven’t spoken to him since and last I heard, he was wanted for possession.
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39. The Second Family
My grandfather. I pretty much idolized him growing up. Then, when he got into an accident and passed when I was 15, the whole family found out he had a mistress and an entirely different family in a different country. No one batted an eye when he was gone for several weeks at a time on business trips. No one in my family talks about it, except after my grandma passed a few years ago.
My mom couldn't help but cry and ask why he would do that to her saint of a mother.
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40. A Very Wanted Man
I worked at a job for a year and I had a coworker who was pretty chill. We grabbed lunch a few times and hung out. The following year after I met him, I saw his face all over the news as it was discovered he had kidnapped and brutally ended the life of a young woman. Some pretty scary stuff.
41. The Machete Maniac
I'm not saying I knew him on any sort of personal level, but I worked at a gas station in Winnipeg and was filling in at a different store for a month while they trained a new manager. My midnight guy was this middle-aged Asian man who kept to himself and meticulously cleaned the store every night. Perfect midnight employee.
When the manager was trained, I went back to my original store, and the midnight guy eventually quit and moved to Alberta. A couple of years later, I read about how he cut off some dude's head on a Greyhound bus just outside of Winnipeg.
42. One-Way Street
A colleague I've worked with for years totally surprised me. I supported her in two projects and worked my butt off to get her promoted. We had a good relationship too. During our last round of evaluation, I asked for a promotion as well (to be on the same level as her roughly), thinking she would back me up. She didn't. Even worse, she claimed I wasn't doing well or working independently enough.
I later found out it was because she wanted to make sure I'd keep working for her...That was unexpected after four years of really helping her out.
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43. Knowing A Hypocrite
My friend got engaged. He's been very vocal in the past about not wanting to get married, and when our other friend got engaged after being with his girlfriend for six months, he went on a rant about how it was stupid to get engaged after such a short time. Well, come June, turned out he was engaged and had been for six weeks. He'd only been with the girl since February.
Oh and she is his best mate's ex, and that relationship ended just a month before they got engaged. The hypocrisy is staggering.
44. My Dad, The Jerk
My dad robbed a Blockbuster that he worked at when I was like 10 and didn't tell any of us. One day, I called the store to talk to him to see if he could bring me home Spyro for Playstation, and the manager asked to talk to my ma. He then proceeded to tell us that my dad robbed the store a couple of days prior and was taken in by the authorities.
He kept coming and leaving the house as if he was still going to work all those days. Needless to say, the divorce happened shortly after. He also flew a lady out from SF that he met online, only to send her right back when she wasn't what he expected...What a jerk.
45. Dirty Car Salesman
I bought a used car from a friend during my college years who was, himself, a mechanic. The car looked brand new. I thought I knew him well enough to take his word that the car was in "perfect shape" and did not need any money spent on it. Turned out, he used our friendship to unload a vehicle fraught with mechanical woes, including serious transmission repairs, brakes, and electrical issues.
46. Pretty Eyes, Evil Eyes
I didn't know him well, but I had met him a few times and he seemed really really sweet. He also had the prettiest eyes. I didn't expect him to load his car with dangerous goods and ammo and shoot up an army recruitment center, then drive to a Navy Reserve and end the lives of five people.
47. Prisoner Of The Mind
One of my best friends since high school totally surprised me. His mom, dad, and sisters all had mental health issues, but he seemed to be relatively fine himself. In his mid-thirties, however, he began having mental episodes that progressively got worse. I tried to help him and at first, it was working until he decided to stop taking his meds, which then led to a severe breakdown.
During that breakdown, he threatened his landlord, then went back to his house and shot both of his dogs which he loved like family. He was subsequently kicked out of his house (though the landlord did not press charges) and was apprehended for multiple animal-related offenses. That's when we realized just how serious his issues were. But they were only going to get worse...
After dealing with his issues, he went to therapy and got back on his meds. My friends and I also helped him get back on his feet by finding him a place to live and getting him a job at a friend's business. Things were fine for a while until he had another episode and completely went off the radar. He quit going to work, loaded up his car, and left the house where he was renting a room; not to be heard from for several months.
He finally resurfaced in the news for shooting someone during a dispute, and we still have not learned all of the details. We do know, however, that he'd been homeless, living at a roadside campsite several miles south of the city during the time we had not seen or heard from him. He's been in prison since then (almost a year now), and still has not had his day in court.
It's a really bad situation because he needs mental health care rather than prison time, but there's not much any of us can do at this point.
48. The Dark Truth
I had a cousin a couple of years older than me who lost his life in a car accident in his mid-twenties. My younger sister didn’t want to go to the funeral, and I tried to guilt-trip her because her excuse was that she was spending the weekend with her boyfriend. A month after the funeral, she told me the dark and shocking truth—our deceased cousin had taken advantage of her when she was younger.
We had a long deep conversation about it and we went over all the times we had forced her to spend time around him, not knowing what was actually going on. We’re good now. She’s kind of happy he’s not alive anymore, and I fully understand that. All the good memories I had of him myself are now soured knowing what he did, and my family doesn’t see his family often anymore.
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49. Down A Dark Path
Last year, I moved in with a childhood friend who's a year younger than me. He's a good-looking guy who is always well dressed. Over the years, I'd hear stories about messed-up things he did, but I'd just shrug them off. But after we moved in together, I realized he was problematic—he did not care about anything or anyone at all apart from his image.
He'd skip rent payments or his own groceries, but would still have money for the club, funnily enough. I let it pass hoping he'd change until I realized he wasn't going to. I started buying food only for myself because I obviously couldn't afford food for both of us with my allowance. Around that time, I noticed he started to spend fewer days at home and more time at his "cousin's" place.
It turned out that he had skipped rent payments for three months and the landlord was looking for him. I waited for him to come back and confronted him one night, but it spiraled into an argument about how selfish I was and so on. It became very heated and he tried to fight me, but I'm not a violent person, so I just kept it cool.
He eventually moved back home to another town and I found myself a new roommate. Months later, I found out he attempted to take advantage of a girl, and I honestly wasn't even surprised. I just hope he gets help because he clearly needs it...It's a shame to see him go down that way.
50. Wrong Side
My grandfather. My mother always described how good of a father he was, and he seemed like the nicer grandparent when he was still alive. Always calming down the situation my grandmother played up, giving advice and wisdom. When he passed, we said he probably immediately went to heaven, and as a kid, I genuinely believed it.
Found out recently a good 15 years later, that when my aunt was attacked at 13, he kept in contact with her assailant for years after the fact. He knew about it, just acted like it didn't happen. Disturbs me greatly.
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