September 13, 2023 | Nur Karageldi

Strangest Encounters With Strangers


Every morning, people with backgrounds as diverse as ever fill up the streets, trains, and cafes. Therefore, stupefying encounters become inevitable. From the most unexpected street shows to troublesome dialogues between two people, these stories will force people to think twice before stepping out of their safe, cozy homes.


1. Special Car

I worked at a radio station and was doing a remote at a car dealership. A woman walked up to us, and we were shocked at the sight of her—she was wearing a shirt, an apron-type skirt, no back, and men’s boots...and nothing else.

She had spray paint all around her mouth and kept asking to buy the ‘special car’. It freaked me out.

Man looking shocked wearing red shirt and glasses.

2. Plant Man

I was walking through the town I live in a few years ago, and some guy was walking just ahead of me looking like Hagrid from Harry Potter, in a long brown wool coat, long hair, and beard, and he reached into his pocket and pulls out a plant, with roots and everything, dropping soil everywhere.

He looks down, reports the plant in his pocket, and reaches into the other side pocket for his wallet. Since then, I've been totally in awe of him, and I often wonder what he was growing in his coat.

Man in background is holding a plant with roots in his hand.Kampus Production ,Pexels

3. Things Got Heavy In The ER

I’ve seen a lot of crazy people in the ER, but one memory takes the cake. A young female came in complaining of a headache, so we triaged her to the less serious, more “clinic” side of the ER.

Now wait times in the ER can be long, especially when you come in with something that’s not really an emergency. Sometimes patients pull the curtains over the glass door of their room for a little more privacy or quiet. 

I go to enter her room to discharge her and fling back the curtain. There is no reason she should or would be indecent.

She never had to even put on a gown. But yet some guy was in there doing it with her while she was sitting up on the counter leaning back wide open. They jump apart and apparently believing he wasn’t really supposed to be there, the guy goes “It’s okay, I’m just her brother!”

Shocked doctor is looking at camera.Krakenimages.com, Shutterstock

4. Extravagant Fashion Trends

There is a coffee shop located In the building I work in. When it was time to close, at midnight, I was told a guy was sleeping in the coffee shop. 

I woke him up and told him I was going to lock the doors and he had to leave. His next move caught me totally off-guard—he stood up and opened a bottle of water and poured it on his jeans on his calf.

I said, “What are you doing?” meaning like “Hey, you’re getting water all over the floor, what the heck” and he just politely said “That’s how they work man” and then left. It still confused the heck out of me.

Man is holding a water bottle in dark room.Спиридон Варфаламеев , Pexels

5. Strangers On A Train In Berlin

I live in Berlin, and this is not the weirdest thing to happen on the trains. Once I saw a guy sitting on a bench, chewing his toenails. 

Another time I saw an approximately 60-year-old buff dude with his hair dyed black, black sunglasses and a black leather vest without anything underneath, and a huge white cockatoo sitting on his shoulder.

One time I saw a group of five cross-dressing men get into a fight with eight other guys who were offended by their attire. 

Another time, I witnessed a homeless woman running up and down the entire length of the train while screeching at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason.

Another time one man was sitting on the train, visibly distraught, when another man entered. The new guy sees the distraught man, sits next to him, and offers him a hit from his vaporizer, then goes on to give him an epic life lecture about failure and living on with past mistakes, and making the most of the future.

Six stops later the distraught guy has to get off, hugs the vape guy, and thanks him for making him see the light. And that's just at the top of my head.

Young man is holding a cell phone and looking inside a train.Ketut Subiyanto, Pexels

6. What’s Happening Downstairs?

I was walking back to my apartment after getting some munchies one night and my attention was drawn to this man sitting across the street on a bus bench and struggling to keep his head up. 

The entire time I was waiting for the light to turn green, he kept wavering. As I was crossing the street, he fell backward.

I approached him and tried to get his attention, but I didn't want to touch him in case he had suffered some sort of injury. I got back to my apartment, which was right above where he was sitting, and told the front desk to call the authorities.

I watched from my balcony above as the ambulance came, finding him unresponsive. They worked on him for a while. Soon after they took him away in what I assume was a mortuary transport.

It was surreal, I had never seen a person unalive or their body before. And the subsequent conversation with the officers was quite hard because I was tipsy throughout this whole process, the munchie run was for the munchies. 

Weirdest night of my life, the weirdest thing I ever seen.

Man wearing black coat is waiting a bus at night, seating on bench.Tahir Osman, Pexels

7. Ring Ring

When I worked at PC World, I had a customer come in and start browsing landline phones. She then got a call on her mobile phone so decided to take off her jacket and kick off her shoes, take off her socks, and lay on the floor of the store whilst talking on her phone.

After a while, she put the phone down but continued to lie on the floor looking at all the types of landline phones. I ask if she needs a hand, and she says she needs help. 

So, I sat down on the floor with her, kicked off my shoes as well, and had a good old chat all about landline phones.

She ended up buying one with an extended warranty, so management didn't care that I just sat on the floor with her.

Young woman is seating on the floor and texting.Racool_studio, Freepik

8. Hope You’re Doing Okay Sir

Okay, so, a couple of years back, the day before Thanksgiving, I went to a show with a friend. We both become heavily tipsy. Somehow, around the last call, we got separated, and I started looking around for him.

The venue closes, and I start walking the streets of a strange town after midnight. Most places are just little dive bars or Brazilian places serving food—no sign of my friend though. I'm walking along, and I find 50 bucks wrapped around a money clip on the ground outside a shady bar.

As I go up to the bouncer to inquire about my friend, some other poor soul, no shoes, and pupils like dimes, walks over to the guy like he can’t bend his legs, holding his ID at arm’s length in front of him. It was weird—but it got even weirder.

Me and the bouncer just stare, and he comes a little closer and says “This is me. Do you know me? This is me, see?” And then just walks off, barefoot in freezing weather, to some other place.

I wasn’t in much better shape and was too worried about my missing friend to even think I’d be able to help this stranger. I hope he made it home okay.

Around dawn, I came to my senses enough to inquire with the local constabulary. They said, “Oh, you mean Mr. Big Mouth? Bail is $100 bucks, and he’s all yours”.

Sure enough, said a friend had left said venue just before closing, thinking I had already left and was promptly taken down when his tispy-laden acid-babble was mistaken for disorderly conduct, which, though harmless, it technically is.

He had to spend the night locked up tripping and irritating the officers to no end the entire time with his continued babble.

Man is seating behind bars at prison cell.Ron Lach, Pexels

9. Teacher By Day, Stalker By Night

Not really a stranger but this guy is freaking me out. So, I am renting a room for the second year in this kind of prestigious district. I live with a lady who is in her years, who owns this whole house. 

She is single which naturally means that she usually invites her friends/neighbors over to chat. Everything seems normal at first.

But there is this one guy in his 70s... He used to be a history teacher, I heard. He is her friend—of course. The thing is that when I see him randomly somewhere in the district, I usually try to act like I don't see him, but I feel him staring at me.

I sometimes even see it with the edge of my eye... And when I suddenly turn my head to him, he just looks somewhere else right when I look him in the eye.

Not only that but the balcony in my room faces the street. Sometimes I go out to have some fresh air and see the man walking down the street and stare at me as he walks.

Usually, he roams when it's getting dark so I think he may not see me noticing that he stares at me, since he's old and may not see things. And then he just turns around and goes in the opposite direction that he came from.

Always. A few days ago, I was in the kitchen and saw the guy walk past my house staring at the house side. He probably didn't know I was inside and then changed direction to go back where he came from.

It's not like I'm scared, it's more like I'm angry. He is a shady guy.

Unrecognizable man is walking on sidewalk at night.Erik Mclean, Pexels

10. Mysterious Old Man

A few years ago, I came home from partying, at about 3 am. Right as I was walking up to the front door of the house, I noticed some rustling noise coming from the bushes near the door. 

I figured it would be some animal, so I didn't think anything of it, until some older guy—I'd guess around 80 years old—stepped out of the bushes.

He was holding a plastic bag and looked a little shocked to see me, or rather, I'm guessing, because I saw him. I just politely said “Hello”, he did the same, and I entered the building. He just kept standing there. I was a little confused but didn't think of it any further.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I was packing my car early on Saturday, around the same time that I saw him before. After the second trip to the car, I was just walking up to the front door again, when that same guy came out of the building with his plastic bag.

Again, we exchanged a quick "Hello" and I went back upstairs to my flat. He just kept standing in front of the door, looking at what I was doing. When I came back down with the third load, he was gone, but there was that same rustling noise again, coming from the bushes. 

I coughed, so he would notice that I was there and the noise stopped immediately. I've seen him once again, since, doing the same thing. I never asked him, but what would some 80-ish-year-old guy with a plastic bag do in the bushes in the middle of the night?

He obviously lives in my building, but I have never seen him during the daytime. It's a big building with like 30 flats, so it's not that unusual, but I definitely thought that was weird!

Adult man standing against car looking at side at night time.WK Lai ,Shutterstock

11. Having Fun In The Rain

A few years ago, I was visiting my old college campus for some paperwork and for some reason or another, I decided to have lunch in the university food court. 

It wasn't a bad thing. The seating area is along the edge of this big building and has big floor-to-ceiling glass windows, so you get a good view of everyone going past outside.

This day in particular it was raining very heavily, so there wasn't much foot traffic, or people in the food court, for that matter. I see this one woman come by wearing a raincoat with an umbrella, but she stops at this giant mud puddle. 

She let her intrusive thoughts win—and I was not prepared.

She looks around to see if anyone is watching but doesn't spot me because the food court is on the second floor, then carefully takes off her shoes and starts splashing around in the mud puddle like a five-year-old. 

She does this for about 30 seconds, then puts her shoes back on and continues on her way as if nothing happened.

Young woman with umbrella is dancing on the rain outside.Try_my_best ,Shutterstock

12. Packing Is A Serious Thing For Some People

When I used to work at Whole Foods, this woman came and got a box of food from our hot bar. She asked for a rubber band around the container, which is normal, so I wrapped one around. 

She said thank you and she proceeded to go to the next register which was empty because it was where we put our schedule and things at.

She took about 20 rubber bands and wrapped them around the container. I thought it was overboard and so did my co-worker next to me.

She didn't stop there. She took our tape dispenser and started wrapping it around the container. At this point, I was super confused, and you couldn't see the container anymore.

Note that we were using packing tape because we were given the wrong shipment. I wonder how she will get to her food.

Woman's hands are holding a rubber bands on grey background.Pixel-Shot, Shutterstock

13. Like A Scene From A Movie

I finally have something good to contribute to one of these, I hope I'm not too late. Sit down and buckle up because this is going to be a wild ride!

I grew up in a fairly rural area. One day, while I was on the school bus, I saw the strangest thing I had ever seen. The bus stopped to let some kids out and I looked out the window and saw some guy sitting on a toilet in his front yard.

Not an outdoor setting. Just a porcelain toilet. Pants around his ankles, just straight doing his business and reading a newspaper. Next to him sat a plunger with three rolls of toilet paper on it.

As my young mind was struggling to comprehend what I was seeing, things got stranger. He quickly folded his paper laid it in his lap and stared at his lawn with great intensity and a gopher began pushing up a mound. 

He slowly reaches behind his lawn toilet and pulls out a very dangerous tool...

BOOM!

The guy calmly puts the tool back, unfolds his newspaper, and goes on as if nothing had happened.

I rode by that house many times over the next few years and never saw anything even close to that level of weird again. Also, I feel like I should say that this all happened in the United States.

Adult male is sitting on the toilet seat outside.Viacheslav Nikolaenko, Shutterstock

14. Eww

My friend's mum works in London, so she gets the train a lot. One evening she was getting the train home from work and all the seats were taken so she had to stand. There was a very well-dressed businesswoman sitting opposite a homeless man who had a very bad cough.

The businesswoman was asleep, and the homeless man coughed black phlegm across the table onto this sleeping businesswoman’s collar! 

Weirdly, the homeless man didn’t say a word and when the woman woke up and saw this phlegm, she thought it was her dribble... so she slurped it up so no one could see it.

Tired businesswoman sleeping in subway returning late from work.DimaBerlin ,Shutterstock

15. Communicating Through The Window

We were out for lunch one afternoon, and there was a group of us sitting in a burger place. The table is placed near the window so we can all see out onto the road. They’re full height too.

So, a man walks up to the window and just stares at us for about two minutes. He then walks off and starts arguing in the middle of the road with someone. I couldn’t hear what was being said. He then comes back to the window and stares at us for a bit longer. 

Something was cooking in that brain of his.

Everyone’s feeling pretty uncomfortable at this moment and are looking anyway but the window where this lanky stranger is staring at us. He then turns around and is fiddling around with the waistband on his trousers. 

Then he whips them down, bends over, spreads his behind, and starts gently tapping his himself. What the heck?

Man wearing brown coat is standing by shop window and looking inside.2Design, Shutterstock

16. All Day Every Day

At my previous apartment complex, there was this lady who would regularly walk around the complex, taking the same route every time. And I'm not talking like, "I'm just on my daily stroll", She would walk the same route every day, multiple times a day, regardless of weather.

Every time I'd cross paths with her, she'd give me this horrible glare.

But to top it off, she wore the same clothes every day—pajamas and a peacoat. I'm not sure she changed clothes because they started severely degrading. 

Her pajamas eventually had a big hole in the back, after which I found out she didn't wear underwear, yet she just kept walking! Every day! Without any covering!

I'm pretty sure there was some serious mental illness going on, but I still have so many questions about this, and wonder what happened to her.

Chinese woman in red pajama is walking on the street.Elizaveta Kirina , Shutterstock

17. New York Is A Different Animal

A very sane-looking guy, about 25, wearing a pair of underwear, and just that. Laying on the floor of a NYC subway car at rush hour.

Maybe not that out of the ordinary in NYC, but then ...

He began screaming “I’m peeing, I’m peeing, I’m peeing”.

While still lying prone on the floor. He proceeded to slide out of his now soggy underwear and began to sweep the said underwear over his head, leading to a trail of yellow droplets flying in all directions.

Luckily, we came to a stop, the doors opened, and the speed of light was easily topped by the train's hapless commuters running out the doors.

Believe it was the 42nd Street, Times Square stop.

I’ve seen lots of crazy stuff in NYC over the decades, but that’s in the top ten for sure.

Random people are standing in metro.Filipe de Azevedo, Pexels

18. Getting Undressed For No Reason

It was actually just this summer, sitting at this red light and I looked over and this middle-aged dude at the bus stop bench just stood up and pulled his pants clear down to ankles.

He pulled his shirt too, short to cover, and just let the old “Bojangles” dangle. He just stood there. It was the weirdest stuff I've ever seen a random stranger do.

Man is standing on bus stop and texting on phone .freepik, Freepik

19. No!

I watched a person sitting outside with one of those BBQ tins you can get at a market. This person was baiting seagulls, grabbing them, snapping them, and plucking them for cooking.

Given the way he was going about things, no one was going to walk up to him.

Man is feeding the seagulls.Tapas Das, Pexels

20. Challenge Accepted

A friend of mine was at some sort of Chipotle burrito eating contest with a gathered crowd around as you'd expect. About a minute later, some guy sees the contest and yells out to someone in the crowd, "Hey Portfolio, bet ya can't win this!"

Immediately, some shirtless hippy-haired guy emerges from the crowd, says "Watch this" and casually eats four burritos for the victory. 

He gets up and starts walking off as mysteriously as he had arrived, but a member of my friend's entourage realizes he had to capitalize on the opportunity and yells "Hey Portfolio! Bet you can't flip over this table!"

The dude spins around, performs a spinning front flip over the table, lands in front of the guy who yelled it, stares him down, then walks off into the sunset.

And that's the legend of Portfolio.

Man is eating a burrito at restaurant.KamranAydinov, Freepik

21. Moses Cosplay

I was at a concert and the area in front of the stage was filled with people dancing and moshing and having a great time. 

It was near the end of the show and this dude who looked like he was in his 40s caught our attention. His behaviour was so peculiar—he started walking through the crowd right up at the front holding a full bottle and talking on his cellphone.

It was so strange like. . . What is he thinking? Who is he talking to? His drink spilled, all over my poor husband, and this guy looked absolutely flabbergasted. He thought he was Moses and could part the sea of dancers or something.

Man is holding a bottle and walking at party.freepik ,Freepik

22. I Go Crazy For Math

I got on the bus, sat down, and after a few minutes noticed aggressive movement out of the corner of my eye.

Across the aisle was a woman furiously calculating on a large calculator. She was bent over, rapidly slamming on the buttons, her face contorted in the most painful expression of concentration.

This continued until I got off the bus ten minutes later.

Oh, how I wish I knew what problem she was solving.

Young woman is seating on the bus and holding a notebook and phone.Freepik, Freepik

23. Gross

When I was like ten years old, walking to school with my mom, we were waiting for the light to change so we could cross the street.

 There was a man next to us, he must've been in his 20s or 30s, he grunted and then shook his leg to let three perfect spheres of poop fall from his jeans' sleeve.

I asked my mom if rabbit people existed.

Mother and daughter are crossing the street on crosswalk.Kamaji Ogino, Pexels

24. Whip It

I was at a stoplight, and I glanced over to the car next to me just in time to see a fairly attractive woman reach down into her center console and pull out an extra-large can have whipped cream.

She tilted her head back and filled her face with whipped cream, popped the cap back on the can, and then had it back in the center console just in time for the light to turn green.

Young woman is holding a whipped cream in her hands.Serhii Bobyk, Shutterstock

25. Party Tricks

Earlier tonight, I was at a party. A girl came up to me, and said she was doing a project to see whether girls' feet or boys' feet smelled worse. I played along, took off my shoes...then I felt an instant wave of regret.

 She picked it up, sniffed the bottom of the sole, set it down, told me thanks, and wandered back off into the party.

Young man is seating on the floor with naked feet.freepik, Freepik

26. Hanging Out With Johnny Depp

I was in line at the bank, a woman started queuing behind me when I turned around and saw a disheveled woman carrying a well-worn out Johnny Depp autobiography.

She was talking about her tattoo on her arm which was Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. When I say talking, I mean she was talking to it as if he was real and there.

Hearing her say to her arm “When we get home, we can have a cup of tea and some cake”. It was weird.

Young woman is talking and looking at her hand.mdjaff , Freepik

27. Chicken O’Clock

At my University's library. There's me and one other guy on the top floor, and it's deep into exam season, so we're both pulling all-nighters. At about 4 am, I hear what sounds like the guy's phone alarm go off.

He mutes the alarm, opens his bag, pulls out an entire rotisserie-cooked chicken, and just goes to town on it. I sit there in wide-eyed disbelief for a good three or four minutes watching this absolute mad land. 

After he's done, he puts the bones back in the bag and goes back to his work like nothing ever happened.

Midterms hit everyone differently.

Man is looking and eating a roasted chicken.Andres Segura , Pexels

28. Get Your Car Cleaned Buddy

I was looking for a parking spot at the grocery store one day when a gentleman in a Honda Civic was doing the same but driving in the opposite direction. Traffic made it so we stopped with our drivers' side windows right next to each other.

The man then proceeded to blow his nose and throw the tissue in the back seat. To my horror, when I pulled forward, I could see that the entire back seat was filled with tissues, almost to the roof, blocking nearly the entire rear windshield. It was like a mountain of snotty tissues.

Mid aged man with flu symptoms sneezes in a car on snowy winter day.Fineart1, Shutterstock

29. This Is Very Inappropriate

In an airport, before the TSA era, I watched a guy approach the security scanner and lay his small child. He laid his young toddler-size child on the moving belt.

The kid went through the machine, and from where I was standing, I couldn't believe what I was seeing—I saw the kid’s skeleton appear on the scanner screen. The man walked away carrying the kid and laughing while the screen still showed those bones. Eerie.

Airline check-in attendant handing boarding pass to passenger.wavebreakmedia , Freepik

30. Random Questions

I was walking home from school in sixth grade, and a guy with a thick accent on a bench asked me, “Hey, you got a mattress?” I said, “What?” 

Because I couldn’t hear him the first time. He repeated himself and I said no. Then he just looked into the distance, and I continued walking super confused.

Man wearing back jacket and jeans is seating on the bench outside.Racool_studio, Freepik

31. I Don’t, Care, And I Love It

Just the other day in the pharmacy, a lady was frantically shoveling every container of almond roca into a handbasket, which was brimming. 

So, they were falling all over the floor while she was saying to no one in particular, "I've eaten two of these every day for the last month, but I just can't stop, I don't care, when you get past 45 you just don't care anymore!"

That was pretty weird.

I politely sidestepped her and got the chocolate for my kid’s advent calendar, pretending to be distracted so I couldn't hear her.

Woman is buying pills in pharmacy cash register.Freepik, gpointstudio

32. Old School

So, I live in a large metropolitan city. One day I was on the train coming home from dinner with friends but it couldn't have been later than 8 or 9 pm. 

I look over at the guy across from me and he is very clearly watching inappropriate movies with his headphones on, but the strangest part is that he's watching it on a portable DVD player and just has a backpack full of DVDs to rotate through as he makes his way through the city…

Man in blue suit is watching a movie on tablet in train.Drazen Zigic, Freepik

33. A Quick Workout

Once I was riding the subway, a guy walked in, and immediately started taking off his coat, changing from shoes to sneakers and by now everybody was like, "Okay, the guy must be late for the gym or something".

When the subway starts moving, things got weird. The guy, facing the door and with a look as if he was being a victim of an exorcism, starts jogging in the same place and with the same initial pace as the subway, and then as the subway accelerates, the dude did the same until he was now running for his life... But in the same place!

Then as the subway was approaching the next station, he started to slow down, put his jacket on, and walked out.

Young man is dancing on the train.freepik, Freepik

34. Fetch!

I once saw a shirtless guy wearing a dog collar and throwing/chasing after a tennis ball as if he was both the dog and the owner. I like to think it was just a street performance giving commentary on life, but I think I know deep down the guy was just bananas.

Man wearing black shirt and white hair is acting like a dog.Felix Mizioznikov , Shutterstock

35. What?

About two weeks ago, my girlfriend and I were sitting at a McDonald’s, waiting for friends, and an older man came to sit with us. He had a strange accent, almost like a lisp or how someone would talk without teeth, and no one could understand him other than me.

Anyways, after talking for a while about hockey, Donald Trump, and some run-down, ill-equipped retirement homes in Montreal, he picked up a Crayola crayon off the table we were at and ate it.

Young man wearing white shirt is looking shocked.Mikhail Nilov, Pexels

36. That Awkward Moment

I worked at a restaurant, and one day I walked into the restroom and saw a lady sitting on the toilet with the stall door wide open. It wasn’t a private restroom, there were several stalls.

Then, we locked eyes and she just stared at me intensely without any hint of embarrassment at all. I apologized awkwardly and noped right out of there. I am still confused by that year later.

Woman is seating on toilet on grey background.HomeArt, Shutterstock

37. As Disgusting As It Gets

An older obese man got on the subway, sat opposite of me, and he proceeded to ruin my day. He  to viciously picking his nose, before pulling out a gigantic slimy piece of snot and flicking it onto the floor away from him. 

I looked around at the other passengers to see if anyone else saw that horror show and made eye contact with at least six or seven other people giving me the same "What the heck?" look.

Young man wearing grey shirt is seating in the bus.freepik, Freepik

38. Doggie Mom

I used to take my lunch hour at a park, It was kind of a sketchy area, so I'd chill in the car and eat with the windows down. I watch people walk their dogs and stuff. One day this lady was walking her poodle. 

They sat on a picnic blanket and the lady ate some food that included a snack bag of chips. She didn't toss the trash.

She packed up her stuff and they kept walking, and the dog did the “number two”. She used the chip bag to pick it up. She got to the trash can and before throwing it away, she paused. 

Looked into the bag, mushed up the stuff inside, shrugged, then flipped the bag inside out and licked the remaining parts of it.

I was in the car with my friend and we both started screaming and asking the other person to confirm what we saw really happened.

Woman is seating in the park with poodle.Dragon Images, Shutterstock

39. Spaghetti Arms

This is a little late but, once I pulled up to a stoplight with just my girlfriend in my car, we saw this guy. There was only one other person at the intersection, just frantically flailing his arms around in his car. 

Think total freakout, car shaking, and everything. As I pull up to a stop right behind him, I lock the doors, and my girlfriend, and I both give each other a “What the heck?” look.

We watched him for not even 30 seconds. He then opens his door, jolts right out of his car, and continues flailing his arms and kind of jogging around for a minute. I thought he was going to come over and try my door.

Then, without a blink, he just takes off a full sprint down the road leaving his car there with the door wide open. When the light turned green and I got around his car to go, there he was still hauling his arms, spazzing like spaghetti noodles.

Also, this was in the middle of the day and a very busy intersection. Very interesting to say the least.

Man wearing black shirt is dancing wit open arms.freepik,Freepik

40. Salad Girl

This happened a couple of years ago at the outdoor seating area of a good restaurant in Copenhagen.

I was there touring with some friends, and we had just all had dinner and were getting ready to ask the waiter for the bill. 

One of my friends had had a salad, but she couldn't finish it all and two guys in the group who felt that their meals had been on the smaller side started having some veggies from her plate.

Suddenly, they grab at the same piece of salad simultaneously, and somehow it ends up flying across the table in a nice arc, bounces once, falls off the end of the table, and lands just under the little railing separating the restaurant's area from the street.

Then enters the stranger. Not two seconds had passed when this girl, who was our age, upper teens, and pretty attractive stopped by our table as she walked by on the street. She turns to us, looks at us for a split second—bends down—and eats the salad piece, now covered in street dust.

She then calmly turned around and continued her walk with a featureless expression on her face as if nothing had happened.

To this day the salad girl is mentioned in my friend group when someone plays with food, and I still wonder what she was high on.

Woman is eating a cucumber and smiling.Alliance Images, Shutterstock

41. Skincare Time

We were on a Caribbean cruise and went on one of the boat excursions.

On the way back to the ship, one of the passengers sitting in front of us on the upper deck decided that this would be an ideal time to squeeze the blackheads out of the pores on her husband's face. I've never seen anything more disgusting in all my life.

This was not the first time we've experienced uncouth behavior among other passengers on cruises, but it's certainly the last. We'll never cruise big ships again.

Travelers are resting on benches at trip on ship.furkanfdemir, Pexels

42. The Statue Whisperer

I was visiting New York City last year and during the bus ride to Times Square, we came to a stop. Traffic in New York City? Who would've thought? 

I looked out the window and saw a man in, late 50s, wearing pajamas, had a cane, and was standing next to a building that had two lion statues next to the stairs.

He was talking to one lion, not having a conversation with it, but very clearly trying to incite a fight between the two stone lions. 

He favored the right lion, giving him pep talks and hyping him up, then walked over to the left lion throwing his arms out in the classic: "Come at me Bro" move.

Then move back to the right lion hyping him up again. It was great to watch, and honestly, I was very invested in this fight that would never happen.

Black metal Lion statue in the park.Wolfgang Krzemien, Pexels

43. That’s My Jam

A long time ago, I went to Pennsylvania to visit someone. A bunch of us went to the local hangout where there was a band and a pretty good one at that. 

While we were all standing around watching the band a young, heft-looking guy started slowly approaching the dance floor.

The girls all told me that this guy never dances unless the band plays a Michael Jackson song. They told me to keep my eye on the guy. We watch the guy sort of awkwardly make some slight movements and I guess it was a cue for the band to play something he could dance to.

They did. The guy started dancing by himself. Others joined in. No, he couldn't dance at all, but he enjoyed himself. When the song was over the guy went back to his little corner.

Man wearing black shirt is dancing in the club.RDNE Stock project, Pexels

44. The Kicker

I was on a field trip to the zoo in third grade. We were in this building that was a huge glass dome with trees, grass, and a creek inside. There were vending machines that dispensed handfuls of treats for the little animals inside the dome. 

Groundhogs were walking around in the dome and they were used to people feeding them, so they were pretty friendly.

As the class was leaving the dome, I looked over at this stranger. Just a normal-looking dude putting down treats for a groundhog. He set down several treats in a line and the groundhog happily followed the trail gobbling up those tasty treats. 

The stranger dropped the rest of the food down in a pile and took several steps backward. Out of nowhere, this dude takes several steps forward and a full-on field goal kicks this poor groundhog as hard as he could. 

The groundhog goes flying and scurries off into a bush when it lands. I'm sitting there in shock at what I just witnessed. The stranger looked at me and just smiled then walked away. I didn't know what to do about it. I just went back to my class group and didn't tell anyone.

Groundhog emerged from his burrow at ZOO.ElenaZet ,Shutterstock

45. One’s No Better Than The Other

I saw a group of Spaniards on the subway in NYC who’d bought some M&Ms from a kid who was selling them and then they proceeded to have a ball tossing them up into the air and catching them with their mouths.

We arrive at their stop, and they don’t realize it until the doors are about to close, so they jump up and run to the door but one of them is just about to make a toss. 

Cue the disgusting part. He missed, and it bounced off his face, fell to the floor, and rolled about 10 feet away so on his way to the door. He then quickly picked it up, popped it into his mouth, and exited.

I then turned to the woman sitting next to me who’d been putting on her elaborate eye makeup for the whole ride and said, “Did you see that?” 

And right as she was saying, “Yeah, so gross”, I noticed that the underside of her fingernails was so covered in black grime it looked like she might have been homeless.

Hand Picking up M&M Candy from the table.Andrew G. Davis, Shutterstock

46. New Item On The Bucket List

A large woman on the back of a motorcycle is completely undressed, giving a rather short guy who's also not wearing anything and driving the motorcycle a reach around.

To add to what I'm looking at, the first thing out of my friend's mouth is, "Never thought to add that to my bucket list, but it's there now". 

Without missing a beat my other friend said, "What, giving a guy a reach around or riding a motorcycle", and for the reply he failed to think through, "I own a motorcycle idiot!"

So, we still to this day ask him if he's got that reach around crossed off the bucket list. But with that joke comes the beautiful image of those folks enjoying life beyond what most ever dream of. Just one of many things I've seen during my small hometown's massive bike rally every year.

Two young man are talking and laughing on the street.Armin Rimoldi, Pexels

47. Supermarket Weirdos

Maybe not the weirdest, but this happened just yesterday, and I surely thought it was strange. I was walking to the supermarket.

I was about to pass a chubby man, adding this just to help picture the scene, walking in my same direction while a tall and thin guy was coming towards us from the opposite direction.

As we were about to get all three aligned, I was the one in the middle, the tall guy looked up to the chubby one, and... I don't know.

His reaction was like the one you sometimes see in dogs when they're walking carefree and it happens that another dog approaches, but they realize that only when they're too close one to the other.

He first looked surprised, then proceeded to walk almost down from the sidewalk into the road to put distance between them. He kept his eyes on the other man as long as he got totally past him, us actually, almost trying not to turn his back on him until the very end.

I had no idea who the two guys were and what could have triggered this, so I turned to the chubby one to check on his reaction and try to understand if he knew the tall guy. 

Well, he—who by the way looked normal and harmless—was in total surprise, looking at me like "Have you seen that? What the heck?" All this happened in more or less two seconds: then we all got back to our businesses, but I wonder what that was.

Confused man doing grocery shopping at a supermarket .PeopleImages.com - Yuri A, Shutterstock

48. Not All Encounters End Bad

I was at the town fair with some of my friends, four of us in total. We were with all pretty big guys, and as we were going to leave, a guy hopped in the backseat and asked for a ride. 

We just kind of sat there in silence. We thought it took courage to jump in a stranger's car so asked him where he needed to go. We didn't have anything to do, and he only wanted to go two miles. He turned out to be a pretty cool guy and even gave me $10 bucks. Best random person encounter ever.

Hipster friends on road trip on a summers dayvectorfusionart, Shutterstock

49. Meat Lover

I was saying goodbye to a friend outside his apartment and a guy came by trying to sell us meat. He had a duffel bag full of 20 different kinds of frozen meat and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

I assume he had substance problems, but I can't for the life of me figure out where the meat came from.

Man wearing white shirt is holding a frozen meat in bag.socrates471, Shutterstock

50. Dinner For Two, I Guess

This isn't my story, it's my friend's, and it's why he refuses to go to Denny's anymore. He went to a Denny's in Orlando one night after a party, and some stranger—probably 18-19 years old—asked to sit with him. 

He said “No”, but they proceeded to sit with him anyway and order a steak. After their food arrived, he took his shirt off and ate the steak with his hands. 

My friend asked for his check and the guy was like "I'll cover your check, bro" so my friend started to walk out only to get chased down by a steak boy who told him he had no money. He says he has to pay for it and asks my friend to pay for his steak.

Young bearded man is having a dinner and looking at other man.Kiro Wang ,Pexels

51. Meow!

I was walking home one night, a few years back past an older mill/factory in my town. Then, a white pickup truck swerved into the parking lot, and a man jumped out of the car and started quickly limping toward the woods behind it while making panicked sounds.

I looked back over to the truck and saw a guy in the driver's seat, completely bald and with no eyebrows. He leaned out of the window and began making sounds to me like a cat.

Surprised man is looking at side.Ketut Subiyanto, Pexels

52. Plot Twist

One day my boyfriend and I decided to go to the park to play frisbee golf. We got to the park we were going to play at, and my boyfriend pointed out this group of people. 

At first, I questioned why he pointed them out, but then I noticed this woman who was in the ditch that these people were surrounding.

She hops out of this ditch and she’s holding something, it’s wrapped in a blanket like a baby...at first, my heart kind of drops cause I’m thinking, “Oh God...Someone left their baby in a ditch”, but she turns to kiss this thing and when she lifts the blanket to kiss it, I almost lost it. It was an opossum!

My boyfriend and I had to do a second drive-by just to make sure of what we saw. Yeah, it was an opossum. All these other people were surrounding this lady and acting like this was normal.

This story is now a memory that my boyfriend and I talk about every once in a while, and still wish we had an explanation for.

Woman is holding a opossum in her hands.Bob Pool ,Shutterstock

53. Don’t Put Things Into Your Mouth

About 12 years ago, when I worked at a local video store, there was a woman who came in once in a while who would always take forever to pick out her movies. He would get upset if we took too long to check her out because she didn’t drive, she only took taxis around town.

Well one day, she came in and had an open wound on her face with, what I pray to god was ointment and not puss or anything. Anyways, the ointment was melting down her face. 

She’s at check out and we’re making small talk and all of the sudden she takes her pinky, wipes away whatever was melting down her face from the wound site, and puts it in her mouth.

She then proceeds to thank me and leave, while I spend the next 45 minutes dry heaving into a trash can.

Disgusted man with finger in mouth is ready to throw up.pathdoc, Shutterstock

Sources: Reddit,


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