AIBU to think this lady was nuts? Share your WTF interactions with strangers here

That really made me laugh! She probably thought you meant like "I'm mental, me!" when you pointed to the side of your head.

Can't believe there are still people picking at the squatting and pissing post. Actually I can. It's that most unpleasant of phenomena on MN where people love nothing more than a pile-on. If the first person to respond hadn't been such a dick about it, no one else would have thought twice about it.

@Lemonadeand

"There’s something about being a newborn mum that attracts intrusive comments. I don’t know if it’s because you’re feeling vulnerable anyway but it seems to happen a lot. A couple in a cafe had a go at my sister for being a teenage parent when she was breastfeeding a newborn. She was 30! She just laughed at them.*"
*
You're right! It's like they see an opportunity to shape the next generation of mums. I was paranoid for a while that I was supposed to be offering help with random nappy changes. Hope your sister took it as a compliment!

The frightening thing is: they walk amongst us without us knowing 😱

Not quite the same, but when I was shopping for a wedding dress the assistant asked me if this was my second marriage. I was 35, so yes I wasn't young, but I always thought that really rude.

@miniaturepixieonacid Are Lithuanian eyes the same as Bette Davis eyes? 😂

This thread must go in Classics surely. Amazing stuff.

Was having cancer treatment in my 20s next to a 70+ woman. As the nurses were setting my drip up she kicked off that she hadn’t been seen to first because ‘she’s young enough it doesn’t matter if she dies because she doesn’t know what she’s missing. I know what I’d be missing so you should prioritise me so I can live as long as possible’.

Truly one of the most vile people I’ve ever encountered.

Blimey... 😧

Three memories from 20 years ago, when I was heavily pregnant and working in a small shop.

1. One of the regulars, a lovely little old woman, was asking if I was nervous about the birth. I said yes, to which she replied "Don't worry, it's just like having a bloody good sh*te!" I just about peed myself laughing. Still makes me giggle.

1. I reached round to get a pack of cigarettes from the display behind me for a customer when a woman shouted that I shouldn't stretch like that because it could cause the umbilical cord to wrap round the babies neck. WTF

1. I dyed my hair and a woman told me I'd probably just severely damaged my unborn baby because the hair dye would have gone into my womb....

See.. this is why I love MN. For posts like this.

(and not for the sniping which seems to be more and more common).

I know so much more now.

You can keep it if you want.

There was a case in America where a storage locker was bought at auction and the found a human leg inside and alerted the police. Turned out it was the previous owners medically amputated leg so no crime involved. The original leg owner wanted it back but the new owners wanted to incinerate it as they found it 'creepy' and thought no one should keep body parts. It went to court and was reunited with the owner of the rest of the matching limbs. The judge said body parts can be kept but can not not 'sold' on as that would constitute a 'black market' so the leg could not class in the auction lot and needed to be returned.

I am stealing this one! Brilliant

Sat in a quiet lounge in a hotel in Amsterdam writing some notes with pen and pad. A man walked past, took the pen from my hands, inspected it closely for a few moments, put it in his pocket and walked off. Not a word was spoken.
I was literally gob smacked and just stared after him. He didn't return. I looked around for some candid camera crew laughing etc but nothing.
As I had no other pen I had to return to my room completely baffled. This was 15 years ago but still baffled to this day.

Be careful with the orangey coloured ladybirds one of them bit me the other day.

Yet people finding the fish up the foof post funny aren’t being called ‘creepy apologists’ are they?

Completely agree with you @Monkeybutt1. What I find bizarre in all this is that it appears no one else is allowed a different opinion on that particular post, but there's plenty of other posts where people say... I think that's funny.

To be honest I'd have laughed at both.... while silently being wary of the new colleague. With the man he's a stranger you'll never see again.

Some people might feel more comfortable with female decorators, in the same way they might feel more comfortable with a female driving instructor.

Sandi Toksvig is apparently quite handy round the house and I heard her say on QI that when she retires from the entertainment business she's going to set up a company called Dial a Dyke.

Some single women don't feel especially comfortable with "strange" men in the house. Even tradeys.
I don't particularly. When the man comes to service the boiler I always just sit awkwardly in the other room and wait for him to finish as quickly as possible!
Having a women or two in the house to do a job - especially one that takes longer, like decorating - can be a real plus to some people.

Deffo sounds like Tourettes to me.

DS1 (14) has tourettes and his vocal tics are fairly rare (it's usually physical tics) but he used to have one where he shouted 'STOP STOP!'.

Not so great when he was a wee child and we were in public toilets while i was trying to change him and people were outside not knowing what I was doing.

ETA- DS's classmates are brilliant with the tourettes. he was being mocked by a child and his class rounded on the child and said 'It's tourettes and he can't help it'. I, personally, am really grateful to live in an age where people know more about ND and differences and all that.

Not a WTF as such, but a LOL.

Fairly early one morning, I needed to go to the local post sorting office to collect a parcel I'd missed. As I pulled into the car park, a big burly rugby player type man pulls in behind me. He moves a bit quicker, so is out of the car first.
He gets to the door and pulls it. Nothing happens.
"Oh, are they closed?" I say behind him. Confused, as it's like 9:30am, they should be open.
"Seems to be..." he replies, and pulls it again. Nothing happens.
He then peers in through the window, "I think I can see someone in there..." He knocks on the glass and a voice from inside says "We're open!"
The burly rugby man calls back, "Your door isn't working!" And there's some indistinct call back.
At this point, rugby man decides to take matters into his own hands. He plants his feet, grabs the handle with two hands, and YANKS with all his strength. The door rattles disturbingly in its frame, but nothing happens.
Then a confused voice from inside calls out, "You need to push it!"
Rugby man gives it the most delicate of pushes, and it opens gracefully. He turns back to look at me, all sheepish, "It's a push door."

At this point, I can feel hysterical laughter bubbling up inside me. I just about manage to hold it in the whole time he's getting his parcel, and I'm getting mine, but by the time I get back to my car, I'm in hysterics. It just really tickled me.

@AtomHeartMotherOfGod

Death Man cracks me up to this day. It was one of the most baffling experiences I have ever encountered. He said "death!" literally 30 or more times during the course of our conversation. Whenever he agreed with me, he would nod enthusiastically and say "death, death!"

Not really sure this is a similar thing (or relevant to your comment or this thread completely 🤔) but this reminds me of a van that I saw yesterday in a car park, with the company name on the side - "M&S Female Decorators", which I thought was rather 🤔 I mean, do people really need to know the gender of their tradesmen (women/people?!) before they use their services? Is there something about female decorators that some might find (whispers) less able and competent? 😳😑

I got the 'go back to your own country' the other day, my name is not common so they thought 'name I haven't heard before = must be foreign foreign'. I pointed out that we are from the same city and his name (David) was Hebrew so not remotely 'English' either.

I litter pick while out walking my dog (he picks the route so I follow where he fancies going).

A lady stopped me, complained that I don't ever do her road and demanded that we go there together, right now, so she could show me the litter that has been bothering her (she had a children's garden party coming up and wanted the street to look nice too)

She was most upset when I refused, at first politely, and then when she pushed the issue, I told her to buy a picker and do it herself as I was not her staff. Thank you very much.

I'd have realised he was making a daft joke and laughed.