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

Whilst you’re probably right, the way he spoke to me was so gentle and sympathetic (hence why my coworkers thought I knew him!) that it really confused me for a while. I really thought that maybe I knew him and he’d seen me at work without the stick or something and so assumed I’d had an injury.. or that he wanted to ensure I was getting reasonable adjustments maybe, idk! Just really caught me off guard as I found out after there is no way I could have met him previously! 😂

My Dad used to sing that when the programme was on at lunch time. I would be in from school for my lunch and he would be getting ready to go back to work. I don't think he would sing it loud in the street, and he was a plumber so wouldn't have been dressed like a city gent.

Not even slightly rude. Wrong I agree but not rude

I don't think he was being "funny" he sort of broadcast it in a judgey way presumably so anyone fat in earshot would jump to attention and take notes. Like an 18 year old me wanted to be publicly acknowledged by a pensioner, blergh. Mortifying.

When I met dh's great aunt for the first time, I'd come on the train. She told me "nice girls don't travel on trains dear, get the coach next time". I've no idea why "nice girls" don't travel on trains though!

I was once scuttling across a vacant car parking space to get to my car. In the two seconds it was taking me a woman drove into the space behind the empty one and clearly wanted to park in that one, presumably so she could drive out. Fine; I often do the same. However, instead of slowing down to let me finish the three steps to my car (which I’d started before she appeared) she rolled down the window and started shouting all sorts of obscenities. I was a c, a t, a stupid b, had ruined her day, I was an absolute disgrace. Even my hair was subject to verbal abuse. She was still screaming at me when I pulled off. She spent longer screaming at me that it would have taken me to walk the three steps.

As a student working in a major supermarket I was well used to people thinking they were completely above me. I was actually a postgraduate student at the time which usually stopped the “You must be thick to work here” which was weekly. One day a man came to the till with an aubergine.

”That’s an aubergine. Au-ber-gine. That’s au-ber-gine. I’ve said it clearly for you because you’re clearly stupid. You’ll find it under “O” on your till. Got that?”

Not said to me, but sitting on a bench in the park, I see a man walking a dog and a woman with her teenage daughter approach him and say 'what is the breed'. He says 'I don't know, it is a rescue cross'. And the woman who is holding a piece of paper, says to him 'well, you have to take a guess then, my daughter and I are running a bet what breeds we are definitely going to see in this park and I said ..... and she said..... so it is a tie, so you have to decide'. The poor man took a stab and said it probably was a cross, an Alsatian and something else. The woman whooped with joy, ticked her list and off they went, having thanked him. Weirdos.

I don't think that's weird - it's just gross entitlement. Like the lord of the manor demanding personal info from serfs, he thinks his position in the company entitles him to be invasive and patronising.

On another occasion, I was walking up a high street and turned into a small newsagents to buy a newspaper.

Between the shop server and the public was one of those deep sweet counters. Squatted on top of the sweets, was another elderly gentleman pawing at the lollipops and chocolate bars. A young teenager then appeared and tried to coax him down saying "Grandad, don't do that please. You know it's wrong."

I was very unsettled for a while.

This one prompted a memory for me!

I was 14 and out in town with my uncle (45ish) and my cousin (3) who were visiting from America. An older lady came up to us in a cafe to coo over my cousin and then asked if I was her mum! Hilarious and then it dawned on me that she must've thought my uncle was my partner 😅

Commenting about it looking like someone was going to take a piss is not really a personal comment. It’s not referencing someone’s personal features or mannerisms and I doubt they meant it in a pervy way if it was said with a “haha”. It might not be something I would do but I wouldn’t give it too much thought if someone had said it to me.

I don't find that pervy at all. I'd have cracked up to be honest!

It's an old children's tv show

This and some of the other comments by men, like the 'squat to piss' one, remind me of the sort of things my elderly friend comes out with. He thinks he is HILARIOUS. I've pointed out until I'm blue in the face that it's not even slightly amusing and may well upset people, but he just stomps saying that it's people's fault for being too sensitive.
He's a complete dick sometimes, but he doesn't want to be educated.

WTAF.

I’d go with head first, myself, though.

An old guy stopped me in a bus station once, made me take my headphones out, and said in a voice loud enough for everyone nearby to hear "I just want to say how good it is to see a lovely slim girl walking around, not like all these fat ones". Completely unhinged behaviour.

I was restocking loose peppers when I worked at a supermarket, a customer came up to tell me I should never eat the red ones raw because they "cut up your insides"

While I appreciate my example is slightly due to ableism, I still think it was totally weird:

At a very professional conference with my entire colleague team, along with people from all the “company owned” places in the area (about 500 people). Sitting in a seat and chatting as we wait for the current break to end and workshop to commence. Old guy comes up and taps me on the shoulder and says “what happened to you?”. I ask what he means, looking down at myself totally baffled. He says “what happened to your leg?” And points at the walking stick propped up next to me. I’m like OH he means why do I use my stick! So I reply “I have a disability and I have to use a stick to walk”. He continues to ask me about my disability - “were you born with it?” Etc which is very uncomfortable. I’m vague in answering and he suddenly goes “well done for managing to work even though you’re disabled! Goodbye.” And walks off. My colleagues next to me are asking who he is and then dying of laughter when I’m like “ I don’t know” because he didn’t even ask my name or say hello or anything.

Twenty minutes later, me and two people sat next to me have to excuse ourselves from the hall so we can cry of laughter outside because he’s introduced on stage as essentially the head of the board of the company! I’m so far down the chain and there was NO WAY he knew who I was. We had to attend again last year and I avoided sitting at the end of the row that time round! I’m not going this year but every time it’s discussed at work, someone brings up the story! 😂

Walking my dog last week along a local path that is narrow. The norm is a polite smile, Good Morning, let the dogs sniff and keep walking.
A woman I've never seen before stopped for a full chat. It quickly turned from the weather to the fact her male dog had been trying to hump so much that he had a swollen, red, infected penis! This then progressed about her husband who had a urine infection and all about his ailments. 😬
I feel she had no one else to chat to, but I needed to get to work, and really didn't want to know details of her dogs or husbands penis! 😱

I also once caught a man surreptitiously pretending to be a horse in an alleyway behind some shops which made my day at the time but looking back I think it may have been mental health related.

She'd have hated the skirts I wore back in the late 60s early 70s then!

The Herb Garden! Loved Parsley the lion.

A woman stormed past me in the park where I was walking my two perfectly ordinary rescues and said crossly “Those aren’t dogs, they’re accessories!” No idea what that was about and I was too taken aback to reply.

I believe that was from a children's programme called The Herbs. Sometimes on at lunchtime I think.
Parsley the lion was quite funny!