Every single person lives their life differently than their peers, and that tends to become obvious when we visit their homes. These Redditors offer their stories of times when they visited other people’s homes and it hit them just how different their lifestyles were. From forbidden rooms to extravagant décor, exotic pets, bizarre house rules, and eerie human behavior…there’s some seriously weird stuff out there.
1. Raw Kit-Kats
My friend was like, “Want a Kit-Kat”? I said sure. What he did next made me sick to my stomach. He proceeded to unwrap the candy bar, set it on a plate, and then put it in the microwave until the chocolate had melted off the wafers. I was freaked out and said I don’t need mine microwaved. He looked shocked and said, “You eat them raw”?!
2. Heebie-Jeebies
I worked at a place where we rented out houses/apartments for the owners. I once set up a showing at a house with three tenants, I think. I let them know we would be touring in advance. Seemed like tenants were not home at first. The final upstairs bedroom, the door was shut. I knocked, a deep voice said, “come in”. I open the door, hold it open to let my customers in first.
They just stood there and stared. I finally look in. Some old dude wearing a cape and a wizard hat was standing in the middle of the room, stirring a huge steaming cauldron that was on an electric hot plate or something. It was wild. All bubbling over, like what on earth? I was stunned. Smelled like sulfur. I’m like, “Ehhhh”. The wizard guy said, “Come in, come in, close the door”.
I’m like, “Eh we’re good, thanks”. Usher the people out, they race back to their car. I’m still trying to close the deal. Lady was like, “This place and that guy give me the heebie-jeebies, I will never live here”! Fair enough. So then the owner calls up, he asks how it went. Well, you have a potential fire hazard in the master bedroom and it’s possibly cursed, but other than that, a fine property indeed.
3. You Won’t Like What You See
I had a friend who had one chilling house rule: Never go into his basement from 3:30 am to 5:30 am. Luckily, I never found out why.
4. Mysterious Screeching
I worked as a furniture delivery guy for a rent-to-own place in Iowa for a couple of years, and I saw some absolutely crazy stuff. We were delivering a couch to someone and when we arrived, there was no answer to our knocking. We called our manager back at the store and explained that no one was home. He tells us to hang out for a minute while he tries getting in touch with the customer.
While we’re waiting, we start hearing this weird sort of screeching sound coming from a detached garage. We decided to investigate the noise. We turned the corner to the front of the garage and came face to face with the meanest, scariest-looking monkey I’ve ever seen! It was in the garage, but they had this wire fence keeping it inside.
The entire garage was its cage. I have no idea what type of monkey it was. It was large and very angry.
5. Hair Bag
I work in home health. I was brushing one of my patient’s hair one morning (first morning I worked for this particular woman) and put the brush down on the side table so I could braid her hair. What she said next will haunt me until the day I die. She said, “Wait, wait! Go to my dresser and get my hair bag please”. I said, “What’s a hair bag”? And walk to the dresser. “Top drawer”, she says.
I open it up and sure enough, there sits a Ziplock bag full of hair clumps. She asked me to pull the hair from the brush and put it in the bag. I asked her why she was keeping it and she said, “I’ve been saving my hair since I was a girl. It’s all in the closet, go look! It’s beautiful”! I opened the closet to find an entire shelf with various sizes of Ziplock bags full of hair.
Dozens of bags, going from dark brown to light brown and then to varying shades of gray and white. Beautiful was not the first word that came to my mind.
Flickr, Marco Verch Professional
6. New Korean Neighbors
When I was a little kid, we had new neighbors move in. They were Korean. They didn't speak any English at first and the twin daughters were in my brother's class. By the end of the school year, their English was decent enough to communicate and actually play with the rest of us. They invited me over to hang out and their mom was making some snacks.
She handed me a bowl of rice with some type of sweet potato, and one of the twins told me that back in Korea that's all they had to eat in a day and now they could have that for a snack. I was too little then to realize it, but they were North Korean. Their growth was severely stunted, and they had moved in with strangers after they made it to the US.
I learned all this years later when I talked to my mom about it. Apparently, the people who took them in were part of a Korean church and semi-regularly took in North Korean refugees.
7. A Drawbridge
I was invited to a friend’s house in high school and that’s when I learned that his parents weren't just well-off like mine were...they were loaded. His house was not a house, it was a compound. They had the main house, a pool house (where he lived), a casita (where his older sister lived), and a clubhouse. They had an eight-car garage AND a yacht garage, with their yacht in it at the time.
Oh, and as if that wasn't enough, they had waterways that ran in front of their house, which meant they had a bridge over which was an honest-to-goodness drawbridge.
8. Not Any Ordinary Apartment
I went to a bougie prep school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I was a token scholarship kid. I’m from Queens and I remember the first time I went over to a friend’s house. He said he lived in an apartment. I thought, okay cool, I have plenty of friends that live in apartments and even projects. I walked into the building, took the elevator up to his floor, and when the doors opened, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I was in this humongous living room/ballroom. His parents didn’t live in an apartment, they owned the whole floor. His bedroom alone was the size of my house. I remember thinking how funny it was that we were in this tiny little corner playing video games in this giant room. It felt like such a waste of space.
Also, one time I ended up at a very famous fashion editor’s house. I was definitely from a completely different world than these kids.
9. Posed Mannequins
I found fully clothed, positioned, and posed mannequins all throughout their entire home. Posed to watch television, sat at the dining table, holding wine glasses, etc. It was…very strange.
10. Partially Renovated
I went to a friend of a friend’s house after a few at the pub one night. I walked into the house and it was bare. No walls, no real flooring, the kitchen was a random sink and there were two chairs to sit on. There was also a stereo and funky lighting to go with the literal bones of the house. After some time I really needed to pee, but I had been trying my best not to have to use the bathroom. I mean, who knew if there were even walls? Well, I was in for a big surprise.
Finally went and wow, it was like walking into a presidential bathroom suite. The tiles, the lighting, the bidet, stained glass window—it was the best bathroom I have ever seen. I asked my friend a few days later what was up and she said that they were doing really well in life, bought the best house on the best street, started renovations…then got bored. They decided to use their money on holidays and other fun things.
11. Natural Water Supply
I grew up in a very secluded, mountainous area of West Virginia. I once knew a family who built their home over a small stream that they used for a water supply. It was dirt floors with the stream running through the middle of the home.
12. “It Was Normal”
It was normal. That’s what shocked me. I grew up in a two-bedroom apartment with four brothers, whom I shared a room with. Only my dad worked a paying job. We had a depressed pitbull and only ate plain Cheerios, sometimes Honey Nut, for breakfast. We also had to ask before we got milk or a snack, and usually had to eat it or drink at the table. We didn’t have a backyard. Instead, if we wanted to play outside, we’d go to an asphalt parking lot downstairs.
It definitely wasn’t the worst living conditions—we had a roof over our heads and food—but it wasn’t all that pleasant either. When I went to my friend’s house for the first time, it was an actual house that they owned, with three bedrooms. He had a trained golden retriever, and two cats. He had his own room, which was the biggest shock to me, especially since he could put up movie posters and whatever he wanted in them.
We ate snacks and drank milk in his room without asking. His gaming console was also in there, unlike mine, which was in my living room. He had an older sister and two parents, all of them working jobs. He had a giant backyard. Best of all, we had crêpes for breakfast.
I would’ve visited every day if I could. When I went back home, I realized how cramped it was where I lived, and how sad my dog was. Luckily, there was a happy ending to it all. We eventually sent my dog to live with her sister, where she’d have a front and back yard to run. She’s a lot happier now. A few years later, we moved to a bigger condo, and got a smaller dog (still a Pit). So we’re doing better.
13. The Dog’s “Peeing Zone”
Their dog urinated on my shoe because I was in her “peeing zone”, which happened to be right in the doorway to their kitchen. She just let the dog pee there instead of bothering to teach her to go outside. Sadly my interactions with this woman weren’t up to me, but I think that was the last time I went to that house in particular. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst part.
She also let her cat poop between the wall and dishwasher in her next house for about two years straight and didn’t even notice until she moved out. She’s also a hoarder and her place is always crammed to the brim with furniture. This person no longer has animals, thankfully. The dog went to another owner. I hope they treated her better.
14. Number One Fan
I install blinds and curtains. So far the weirdest thing I have ever seen in seven years would be a woman who decorated the entire second floor of her home with pictures and posters of Hugh Jackman. Movie posters, newspaper clippings, photos of him, photos of him and her at fan meet and greets. I counted over 30 posters, and well over 100 framed photos, many of them signed. Stacks and stacks of the playbills you get at the door, but only of plays that Hugh was in.
15. Couldn’t Physically Enter The Basement
Former cable guy here and...oh boy...I have some stories. The one I always remember is the lady who told me she had called us five times and the previous four techs could not complete her install, so this time she wanted me to install it in a way that DID NOT encompass the basement. That didn’t seem good. Well, I tried, but essentially her drop came up from the ground, and literally the only way I could hook her up was to go into the basement, install a splitter, and pick up her network throughout the rest of the house.
I told her this and she sighed and said, “Well, I guess this isn’t happening”. At this point, I was morbidly curious and a little worried, so I told her I at least had to try or else my boss would be mad. Surprisingly, she agreed to let me try, but said there was no way it could be done. She leads me to the basement door and opens it and turns the light on.
Right away I understood. Stacked on literally every inch of her floor and including two-thirds of the stairs were magazines, newspapers, and other assorted papers. They were stacked LITERALLY floor to ceiling. It wasn’t like a giant stack here and a giant stack there and lots of little stacks all over the place. Literally floor-to-ceiling stacks of papers, magazines, etc. covering literally every inch of floor and two-thirds of the stairs.
I went down the one-third of stairs I could access, with my eyes above the level of the ceiling, and shined my flashlight through a small space created by a steal beam and a rafter too small for the stacks near the ceiling and it went all the way to the wall in both directions. It was as if her basement was filled up like a bathtub, only with paper. Unreal.
She told me that she just had a hard time throwing any of it away and was planning to read it someday. I apologized for not hooking her up and quickly left.
16. In Case The World Ends
I do insulation and I’ve sprayed some impressive pepper spaces. My favorite was a 1,200-square-foot house with a 2,000-square-foot basement, concrete ceilings and walls. Part of the area was under his porches. It was a dang bunker. The dude even installed hydraulics on the vault door “in case the house falls on it, I can still open the door”.
17. Too Many Dirty Dishes
I once went to a house where they had accumulated so many dirty dishes, that they just put them into the bathtub.
18. Absurd Rule About Water
I was around eight when I went to a friend’s place for a playdate and asked for a cup of water. My friend’s mom pulls out one of the biggest glasses eight-year-old me had seen and filled it to the brim. I was only used to the small plastic cups at this stage, so I was not used to such a large amount of water. After drinking just over a quarter of the glass, I went to go pour it out because I didn’t want the rest. I was full up.
My friend stopped me and said that we weren’t allowed to pour out water, we had to drink it. Eight-year-old me thought that was weird, but looking back…sure, good way to teach kids not to waste water, especially here in Australia where droughts are so common. So if I wasn’t allowed to pour it out, what could I do with it? I thought I would just leave it for later. I was, unfortunately, very wrong.
My friend once again stopped me and explained I wasn’t allowed to leave it, I had to drink it all. I said I wasn’t thirsty anymore when her mom walked in and told me that water wasn’t allowed to be wasted in this house and I’d better drink it all. Like right then and there. If you wanted water, you weren’t allowed to leave it and come back later. You had to sit there and finish it.
Eight-year-old me tried to argue I could leave it for later and the mom got angry. She had me sit at the kitchen bench stool and finish this massive glass. I sat there grumpily for ages trying to finish this thing so I could go back to playing. I remember getting really uncomfortable because I needed to pee, and sure enough, immediately afterward, I was dashing to the toilet.
I get teaching kids not to just waste water, but let them leave it to come back later. It’s water. It won’t spoil and they will drink it later.
19. Sacred Cats
I was cleaning a huge condo for a wealthy book publisher. The owner felt that cats were sacred, so they had suspended walkways through the entire 6,000-square-foot condo for the two cats to walk on. They could move through every room without having to touch the floor. Additionally every 12 feet or so, in each room, they had a cat balcony the cats could sit on made out of real crystal. We weren’t allowed to touch them as they were valued at $10,000 apiece.
20. Eccentric Multi-Millionaire
I do property management for multi-millionaires, one of which has a plaque in her house from when she sold her shares in a company in excess of $50 million. It’s not as strange as a lot of the stories here, but it always creeped me out. Her house is extremely nice, right on the beach, but it’s a pretty old house. Inside everything is pretty old, from the furniture to the wallpaper—but that’s not the scary part.
She has an abundance of creepy pictures dating back to the 1800s on her walls, on her tables. Even cup holders have creepy-looking people on the bottom where you’d put your cup. I imagine it’s all old pictures of her family, but it’s really bizarre. She also has really old dolls that look creepy as heck, some of them resembling Annabelle from the movie. She has probably three to four in every room of her 5,000+ square-foot house. I hate going in there.
21. The Kitchen Wasn’t For Cooking
I do appliance repair. I walked into this mansion in West Austin and in the kitchen was 20 Persian cats. They lived in there and were not allowed to leave. Cat beds everywhere. Granted this was a huge kitchen, but eight cat beds on the island. Cat beds on every surface possible. There was also the smell. I was covered in hives within 10 minutes.
22. “‘Twas Very Cute”
I work in EMS, so I go into homes on the regular to help patients. This one call I had was a routine call. We get to the house, but my two buddies went in before I did because I had to grab some things from the rig. Somehow I couldn’t find where anybody went. It was kind of a confusing house setup. As I’m going from hallway to room, I thought I found the right door. Mind you it wasn’t a very large house, just a confusing layout.
When I opened that door (it was a screen door, but I couldn’t see through too well), I walked forward and was immediately met with the largest potbelly pig I have ever seen in person. This chunky boy was massive. Cute as could be, but I was VERY confused and wondering if I’m in the right place. I look around and see two birds in a cage and a snake in a cool tank.
I swear if somebody saw my reaction they would’ve been crying in laughter because I just said, “What the bleep, who’s got a big pig INSIDE their house”? After that I found where everybody went; they too went past the pig room and out a side door. I was confused for a long time as to why they had the pig and animals in the room that connects their house to the outside door. Crazy stuff.
I’ve always wondered what the name of the pig was. ‘Twas very cute.
23. Fifty Shades Of Green
Everything in my one friend’s house was in shades of green. Green carpet, green couch, green walls, green dishes. It was surreal.
24. A Super Scary Pet
They had a full-grown African Lion caged in their garage, and said they’d had it for over seven years. It was filthy and super scary. Every time it growled or roared, the sound was so loud it rumbled through my chest.
25. Something’s Missing
It’s pretty tame in comparison to the rest of these stories, but it took me about three visits to my friend’s house before I realized they didn’t have any mirrors. Still not sure if it’s a deliberate choice or what the deal is, but it’s kind of weird to me.
26. Tape Recording Equipment
There was this tape recording equipment my friend found under her bed during a sleepover that we all initially thought was her brother’s. Later, we found out the disturbing truth. Nope, her dad admitted to it, so he could keep “tabs on you girls and all your boy talk”. Yeah, no. He raised my hackles the minute I met him.
I always had an excuse after that not to go over there.
27. Can I Have Salt, Please?
At a friend’s sleepover in middle school. His mom made everyone scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon for breakfast. They looked at me with complete horror when I asked for salt for my eggs and potatoes (nothing was salted when cooked). His mom gave me the bulk salt container from the cabinet for me to use. Who doesn’t have salt and pepper shakers or even, at the minimum, salt their food when they cook?
28. Baby Powder
I wasn’t allowed to walk into my friend’s room unless I covered my feet in baby powder because his mom believed baby powder could clean everything.
29. “We Lock Doors In This House”!
When I was in college, I was friends with a family of five. All three kids were teens or younger adults. It was a very busy house, with lots of friends coming and going. The first time I was over and used the restroom, they very seriously told me, “We lock doors in this house”. I thought I understood. Lots of people around, someone might forget to knock on a closed door. Lock the bathroom door to protect your privacy. Got it.
I thought I understood until the first time someone barged in on me in the bathroom. Incredibly, he was mad at me! “We lock doors in this house”! I came to understand that this family completely lacked a sensibility I'd been raised with, that if a door is closed you should knock before entering, especially if it’s a bathroom.
This family, and all their friends, didn’t just fail to knock. They all would enter the bathroom like Kramer entering Jerry's apartment, flinging the door open and charging through. There was no concept that a closed door was itself some kind of signal. You had to physically prevent people from entering by locking the door to get the message across.
I, a habitual door knocker, confused people multiple times by knocking on closed doors. If I remember correctly, this even extended to sleeping. If you were asleep, you had to lock the door, otherwise, someone could just walk in the room, usually mid-conversation. Overall, nice family, but weird boundaries.
30. No Playing In The Bedroom
When I was little, my neighbor’s parents would never let us play upstairs in her room. She did have a playroom with toys downstairs that we were allowed to play in, but I was never able to even see what her room looked like and she could never tell me why (I'm not sure she knew either). To this day, I still have no idea what that was about. Otherwise, they were a pretty chill family.
31. Restricted Access
My best friend’s parents have a rule where anybody who is not immediate family isn’t allowed to go upstairs in their house. If my friend wanted to show me something in their room, we had to get special permission and go straight to the bedroom, keep the door open, and then go immediately downstairs. If we weren’t in the kitchen, we had to be down in the basement (which meant if we were hanging out, but another sibling had friends over, we were all just in the basement). But that wasn’t the weirdest rule.
They had a rule that lights had to always be off. The only lights you could have on were the kitchen lights or the basement at night. The house always looked abandoned when you drove up to it at night because the kitchen was at the back of the house and no light could be seen from the front.
32. Dog Before Guests
If the dog sits in front of me, I have to get up and let him have the seat I’m in. I respected it four times before choosing to leave. I’m not a fan of dogs, but it was the dog’s home, not mine. But that, that was kind of strange and I quickly realized why the owner had been single for 9 years.
33. Ridiculously Strict Parents
I’ve got quite a few for this. These stories are all about the same friend and her parents. They were seriously the weirdest. Don’t know why it took me as long as it did to stop playing with her, but I was a kid. Any time I had a glass of water or used the bathroom, I had to do a chore. Walk their dog, sweep the kitchen floor, water plants, whatever. Her mother would stand and make sure I did it correctly too.
If I was at her house and they were making dinner, I was never EVER allowed to eat. Her mother accused me of “timing it so I would be there to eat”. I was eight. They bought a camper one summer; a little outdated camper. Any time we got within five feet of the camper, her dad would hang out the front door red-faced, screaming for us to get away from it.
That was difficult since it was in their driveway and we were in their front yard. I was only allowed in two rooms of their house: my friend’s bedroom and the living room. If I was found in any other room, I was told to leave and I wasn’t allowed back for a while. I was a very anxious child. I didn’t tell my mom any of this because I was afraid of my friend’s mom.
She would yell and make my friend cry and I didn’t want any part of that. When her mother berated me for reaching back into their house to grab something I left by the door, I finally told my mom. I never hung out with her again after that.
34. An Abundance Of Grapes
Before you ate anything, you ate a handful of grapes. Literally every meal or snack was preceded by grapes. And it wasn’t like they were the only fruit my friend liked and that made his mom keep buying them. He strongly disliked grapes, but he would still have them before every meal. It was weird how adamant she was about them, but I never really minded because I like grapes.
35. Fire Hazard
My parents own a rent-to-own store (furniture, appliances, etc.). One time when I was delivering a 55-inch TV to a trailer in the middle of winter, upon arrival to the home, the roach and rat infestation was apparent. That’s not the weird part, though. Once I made entry, I was greeted by an outdoor fireplace in the middle of the living room just ablaze. The smoke was thick enough I could barely see where to put the TV.
Oddly enough, they paid off the TV without a hitch. No idea if they ended up with any health defects due to the smoke inhalation.
36. Alligators Are Cool
This dude in Detroit had a seven-foot alligator in his basement when I came to fix his water heater. We spent, like, two hours looking at him and talking about how cool alligators are. Nice guy.
37. A Special Room For A Special Pet
When I was cleaning homes, I was told to not enter a specific room because it was the nine-foot pet snake’s room. This was a large home, with high ceilings. I just remember what my imagination painted in my mind. I dared not to open the door. I didn’t even want to peek through the window.
38. Funko Pops
Pop dolls. I knew people could be obsessed with them, but this was a different level. Everywhere in the house was a Pop. I went to find a plug, opened their bedroom door, and, no joke, thousands of Pops stacked everywhere except their bed. The worst part was their kid sleepy in a dungeon-like room on an air mattress... Screw those people. But yes, the Pops were all in their original boxes unopened.
39. Princess Diana
I used to do real estate photography. I did one large blonde-brick, tiled-floor house occupied by a single Mediterranean grandmother. It was a shrine to Princess Diana. Almost every corner had a portrait or statue of the people's princess surrounded by wreaths, candles, tacky angel statues, vomit-inducing inspirational plaques, etc.
Every room, even the hallways, I was squeezing past commemorations to the dearly departed Lady Di. This was when her passing was more recent yet still several years back. The old lady was buzzing around busily while I did photos, noticed me noticing them and said consolingly, "Wasn't she beautiful"? before continuing her unfathomable ping-pong from room to room.
40. Our Lord And Savior
In-home TV repair tech, when CRTs still ruled. What I remember most is the Jesus dolls everywhere. Every nook, cranny, surface, crevice.
41. Freaky Food Delivery
Late to the game, but have to share. I’m a delivery driver. Typically we just bring food to the front door. Every so often, we will get a request to come inside, typically because the person is disabled. You may choose to accept this request or just call and tell them no. We’d never had any issues and typically people are grateful and tip well when we do come in.
So we get an order. The customer says they’re in a wheelchair, gives us the code for their garage for entry. My coworker says she’s up for it. Off she goes. Ten minutes later, I get a call from her. She’s freaking out saying the place was creepy as heck. The garage that she entered had dismantled dolls all over, large life-like dolls sitting in chairs, and clutter all over making it difficult to walk through.
She’s about to nope on out when she hears a voice from inside that says, “I’m back here”. I have no idea why, but she followed the voice, though turned on the camera on her phone just in case something crazy happened (yes, I know that really doesn’t make a lick of sense, but it’s what she did) and started taking random pictures of the place. She goes through this horrible hoarder house, making her way to the voice.
When she gets to the bedroom, a man is there—and when she realized what he was wearing, she was stunned. He was dressed only in what she called “a toilet paper diaper”. She drops the food near the bedroom door and averts eye contact and goes to leave. She told management, but the rude boss told her to continue delivering there! Few days later, we get another order. This time she and I refuse to take it.
A man I work with went for it. Apparently, on his trip to the horror house, he had an even more deranged experience. The man told him to bend over in front of him if he wanted a tip. We went above the rude boss at that point and got the guy banned by corporate. The rude boss was actually fired a month or so later, so thankfully we have management that trusts our judgment now.
42. Stuff In A Celebrity’s Bedroom
One of my pals is a gardener who works for big-money clients. He was working for a very famous UK male celeb (sorry, cannot say who), but said he walked into this celeb’s room and on the bed was a mask of the celeb’s face and three books about alien conspiracies.
43. Secret Tunnel Behind A Bookcase
We found a tunnel in a very rich man’s mansion that he made us promise not to enter under any circumstances. Lots of secret rooms, many lockers that were locked. Scalpels, human anatomy charts, and a real skeleton, which he claimed he got from an auction. The tunnel was hidden behind a very large bookcase that was built into the wall.
He lived 10 minutes outside of a city, with cameras everywhere on the premises and he always kept an eye on us while we worked. Always felt like someone was watching us while we worked doing restoration due to a sump pump failure.
44. Pet With Monetary Value
I used to install smoke alarms for the hearing-impaired (50% elderly and 50% deaf) all over the state of Oklahoma. I would get addresses for the installations the week before and plan routes accordingly, meaning I would just put the addresses into Google and check out the Earth/map views. This place I’m thinking of was in the middle of nowhere, which is saying something considering that the entire state of Oklahoma is in the middle of nowhere.
When my ASL interpreter and I made the trip, we had to ramp our minivan over a nearly washed-out bridge, bounce down a forest road, and choose which of three broken-down trailers these people were using as shelter. Looking back, we really should have just called it before ramping the bridge.
Once there, we met the people and they explained (in ASL through my interpreter) that they had a tornado rip through their home that ended up sparking a fire somehow. That explanation never made it through translation. Since then they had decided to be more fire safety conscious, which I applaud, but their home had holes in the roof the size of people.
One wall was just a tapestry of duct-taped trash bags. I didn’t feel right just installing fancy smoke alarms when they clearly needed much more help... But there wasn’t anything I could do. So I’m doing the only thing I can do, installing smoke alarms, explaining basic fire safety, teaching them to use their bed-shaking devices.
It was odd—but it was about to get odder. These folks were deaf. Then when I start to explain that they should exit the home without stopping to grab anything including pets, they stopped me and explained that their pet is very valuable. As in it had a monetary value. I’m not one to pry, so I took this at face value and reiterated the importance of leaving the home immediately if it is on fire, especially because it’s a trailer home.
They had a long, silent conversation with my interpreter during which she looked more and more concerned. The occupants go into a room I hadn’t yet entered and emerge with a bald eagle on a leash. That’s illegal.
45. A Suspicious Amount Of Locks
Phone guy in the early 2000s. I went to this guy’s house in Hammond, IN on a repair call. No dial tone, as in, when he picked up the phone, it was silent, no worky worky. When I opened the box outside and disconnected the wiring from the house, the line worked just fine. When I told the guy I would need access to the basement to look at the wiring and locate the offending wire, he gave me this weird look. Creepily said, “You need the basement”? I said yes.
As we both looked at this door that presumably went to the basement, I noticed it had five to seven locks on the outside of the door, as if meant to keep something, or someone, in. He then said, “Is there any other way you could fix it”? I said, “Short of throwing a cord through the window from the box outside, no”. He opted for the cord. I noped out of there as fast as I could.
46. Loads Of Cuteness
I do furniture assembly as a side hustle and find myself in all kinds of people’s homes. This one time I showed up at this sketchy apartment in a rough part of town to build a desk for a girl that was referred to me by a past client. They made me wait at the door for a few minutes after arriving, which had me uneasy since I was already in a bad neighborhood, then she opened the door and I was taken aback since she was wearing a full-on niqab. Just wasn’t expecting to see that and it sort of threw me for a loop.
So there I was in this small, quiet, sparsely decorated apartment and she says the desk is right here, you just put it together in the living room. And out of the corner of my eye another woman in a niqab walks from one room to another and, I’m sorry, but it was almost like seeing a ghostly apparition. But they were really nice and offered me tea while I worked, so that put me at ease!
Anyway, while I set to work putting together this Ikea desk on their living room floor, I spotted some movement out of my peripheral and just assumed it was maybe a kitten. But then I saw it again. It was way too small and scampered weird, so then I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. A few moments later, I see another pop its head out from under the couch.
Sure enough, it was a cute little guinea pig! Now those things are adorable, but as far as I’ve ever seen them, they’re always kept in enclosures. But no, there were at least three that I saw just roaming around the apartment at their own leisure. And yes, that’s when I noticed leaves of lettuce and pellets just strewn about on the floor, and little droppings in the corner.
I mean, these people weren’t really living in squalor or anything, just a very different lifestyle than what I’m used to seeing! Again, they were super nice and did pay me more than requested, but it definitely remains one of the more surprising jobs I’ve done.
47. A Creepy Family
I had a new friend in middle school and I went over to her house for a sleepover. It was fun at first because we were just playing outside. Then she shows me her creepy, unfinished basement with a rabbit hutch and some bunnies. She tells me how sad she was when one of her bunnies died recently and how her older brother made her laugh by making its remains dance.
Her dad is drinking in the kitchen, big gut sticking out. Something about him makes me feel uneasy. We were about 12 years old at the time. My mom spoke to her mom over the phone when we made the plans. Her mom was a nice, seemingly normal lady. There was no reason for my mom to be concerned. I don’t think there would have been a reason for concern even if she had met the father. It’s not like the dude was some horrific character straight out of Deliverance.
Same if she toured the house. It was a totally normal house albeit old, big, and therefore creepy. She shows me a room with a big fish hanging on the wall and flies around its eyes. She says we can either sleep in here on the couches or in her bedroom. Then she tells me that her mom and brother sleep in her room with her every night and they lock the door. I ask why, she says ghosts.
I’m thinking, what about your dad? I don’t ask it aloud because I figure it’s really him they’re hiding from. I was still going to sleep there until my friend said her mom and brother slept in her room at night because of ghosts—but I knew something was off, so I came up with a plan. I faked a stomach ache and had her mom take me home.
And she told me about the “ghosts” with the same level of excitement that she told me the story about her brother making the deceased bunny dance. For all I know, she was just messing with me because she got a thrill out of being creepy. She was into the macabre and ended up being goth and working at Hot Topic when we were in high school.
48. Mistaken For Charred Walls
The first time I stepped into the house, it was like stepping into a black room. I could see patches of color on the walls, but the house walls were basically charred color. Didn’t think too much of it at the time, but at one point I was bored and alone and took a closer look at the charred walls. What I discovered was seriously disturbing.
The walls weren’t charred. It was MOLD. The dude was living in a mold-infested house. When I went home, I took the longest shower I ever took and washed my clothes there and then. It felt like I’d just walked into a radioactive area.
49. A Surprise In The Bathroom
I’m 32 now, but when I was about 11 or 12, I was invited to hang out with my brother and his friend at his friend’s house. We were there for about an hour when I asked to use the bathroom and when they told me where it was, they said to be careful. I didn’t know why at first, but it then became apparent. They kept their pet iguana in the bathroom. No cage. Just chilling on the sink. To this day I still have questions.
50. Living With Scorpions
I made the horrendous mistake of spending the night at my ex’s parents’ house. I woke up to the feeling of something crawling on me. I soon realized there were three somethings. I flipped on the light and discovered...scorpions. There are NO scorpions native to our area. I freak out, swat them off, and then run to the bathroom to undress and check for more.
When I turn on the light, several scorpions on the wall scattered like roaches. I wake up the ex because seriously, what did I just see? Apparently, when he was younger, he thought ant farms were boring and decided to order scorpions on the internet and make a scorpion farm instead. The survivors of his arachnid Mad Max setup escaped into the house where a few turned into an insane amount. The very wealthy parents chose to live with the scorpions rather than call an exterminator.
Never went back.
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