bit woo- but have you ever met anyone you have felt scared of for no reason?

[crochetmonkey74]

I'm fascinated by stories like this- when you meet someone and they don't necessarily do anything - more that you just feel scared- intuition etc

I'm nearly 50 and it's happened once very strongly (was justified I later came to find out) and once not as strongly - so it's not a regular occurrence, but stories like this really interest me

Yes, the 'man/men with a van' who did our house move a few years back. I had a real skin-prickling no-no-no reaction to them, and insisted that DH was around at all times. Can't remember ever having such a strong reaction to anyone. Was very unsettling.

It's really strange isn't it- especially when it's not a regular thing or you are not prone to it.
It is just like a deep knowing that something is very wrong

I’ve had this too. More than a bit ‘woo’ in some people’s eyes but in my view it’s due to encounters we’ve had with them in past lives.

I met a man in a psych ward. We were both patients. He was very affable and normal but I felt more worried about him than any other man there, some of whom were frankly intimidating. I couldn't bear to be near him.

A week later it turned out he was pretending to be insane to avoid the consequences of dodging taxes.

My friend did. There was a man who kept pestering to buy her a drink and wouldn't take no for an answer. A few months later,she recognised him on the news. It was Levi Bellfield.

No. Not even when I met the man who would eventually traffick me. He seemed perfectly nice and normal- that's what I think is scary about people like him.

My brother did. He met a woman when he was volunteering at a Centre for unemployed people many many years ago. One day another woman had an interview and needed childcare. First woman said "you can bring them to my house". My logical, IT Programmer non parent brother's hackles raised immediately and he said "no, bring them here. We'll all watch them and they're used to this place". He didn't know why, but he just knew he couldn't let them, or their Mum, go with this homely looking woman.

It was Rose West.

Once, guy who interviewed me for a job. I don't know why but the minute I sat down my hackles were up. No obvious reason for it, he was charming, polite, warm, calm and chatty. Physically un-intimidating, very soft spoken, gentle body language. But something in my monkey brain was just screaming at me to get away from him. He offered me the job and I rejected it, based solely on that gut feeling of DANGER. We have instincts for a reason, I always trust them!

I am horrified that there are mixed sex psychiatric words. I can't imagine how you felt safe and can't see how you could recover. I hope you are okay, that must've been a really tough experience.

I was working one evening, I work in a hospital and walked over the walkway that connects the actual hospital to the outpatient rooms. My car was parked in the basement below the rooms, the only way of getting to it without walking a circuitous route was taking the lift down 3 floors.

Also waiting for the lift was a man who, if anything, looked pleasant. Tall, nice suit, sandy hair. He smiled in greeting and every sense was, “Fuck no, do NOT get in a lift with him!”

I fled, of course, but I still don’t know what happened there. It’s never happened before or since.

There is an interesting book on this ‘the gift of fear’ ( read it ages ago and no idea if it’s been debunked or anything but made sense to me).

It basically says these generally aren’t irrational feelings, but that we pick up on lots of tiny things without consciously realising . And that you should always listen to ‘instinct’ like this.

Many years ago I had a chap come round to measure and quote for window blinds.
He was polite, smartly dressed, efficient and absolutely terrified me.
He just had an aura of hate and anger.
I was so relieved when he left and knew that I would not be ordering the blinds.
A few days later, a young woman from the office rang and quizzed me about him, nothing specific but did he say or do anything which put me off. I really felt she wanted a reason to ‘let him go’. I should have said the truth but I just kept thinking he knows where I live and didn’t say anything negative about him.
My DH was very surprised as it’s not like me at all. I actually felt he would kill me if he thought I’d got him the sack.

I worked with a guy a couple of years ago that I absolutely knew from the second I met him something was off with him. I was on edge every second I was in his presence and many of my female coworkers felt the same.

I was working late one night and he came into my office, without saying anything, and closed the door behind him. I told him immediately to open it and made my excuses and left. It just felt really menacing.

It turns out he really was a dangerous guy but I always think it’s funny that I knew that from the instant I met him.

Yes. A woman. Slightly built and groomed to within an inch of her life. You could have eaten your dinner off of her hair it was that perfect.

Friendly and chatty, very chatty.

I met her at my stepdaughters wedding. Her husband worked with my step daughter and they were there for the evening.

Without any reason I felt repulsed by the woman. I didn't speak as much to the husband but he seemed pleasant enough.

Some time later he came into work and broke down and was in physical pain and it turned out she had been beating him for years as well as verbal and emotional abuse.

I can't remember the ins and outs but she did get jail time but not a lot considering what she has put him through.

A few:

my Uncle (mum sister husband) always wanted me to sit on his lap. I’d run a mile. Turned out he’d beat my aunt naked and also beat his kids. Also slept with their female lodger. He’s now in another country newly married.

my grandfather’s best friend. Who is out of prison now, I knew him before he went in, went to his house and his wife and kids looked utterly miserable. He later went into prison for killing someone. Now almost 80 he and my grandfather are friends still.

a few others as above.

Several times. A few times in a social context other people have questioned why I have seemed 'off' with a newcomer and I have just brushed it off, but later on this person would turn out to be nasty/dangerous/deceitful.

On one occasion I just instantly got the heebie jeebies around a person, everyone kept telling me they were fine and made excuses for some of their behaviours. For 4 years this person was part of a social scene I was involved in and I kept them at arms length.
Then they did a runner, with a lot of money from a collaborative project. Skipped the country. To avoid a court date, which would have seen a custiodial sentence handed over for various sexual abuse offences. Some of which were against this person's own family, including children.

Ricky Gervais does this for me.
Never met him in person.
I see him as a fizzy ball of risky anger somehow.

Yes when I was younger a couple up the road was known by everybody as being absolutely lovely they were my grandparents age

but even at 5/6 years old I got terrible vibes off this man and knew to not allow him to cuddle me he was always hugging children which at the time was unusual. His wife invited us in (about three of us) to look at the baby tortoises I couldn’t wait to leave I think I was about 8 then

as I got older I was aware that my granddad didn’t like him (I lived with my grandparents) and would say he was a strange man

years later after he died we found out he had been sexually abusing his daughters I have no doubt he abused children in our area too and the loving and jolly act was grooming

Not personally, thank goodness.
But I vividly remember reading about a well known actress - I’m pretty sure I remember who but not 100% so won’t name her - she’s old now, and AFAIK not generally given to sensationalism.

She said she’d once met a man and knew instantly not only that he was Bad with a capital B, but that she’d known him in a previous life, and that there had been something very dark and terrible between them.

She was very convincing about the terrifying sense of evil that gripped her - it certainly gave me the shivers.

At work

The handyman-everyone gets on with him,his mum and sister are lovely,his kids are really sweet and so is his girlfriend

He however puts every nerve I have on red alert

There is something,I can't put my finger on it,that sets me off

Hes never done anything to me-barely spoken to me but I just want to get away from him everytime he is in the building

Years ago I knew a family

Mum neglected the 3 kids,(sexual abuse,neglect and physical abuse) dad was in prison for sexually abusing a young girl and two of the kids where sweet enough (nice kids just very clingy to everyone which wasn't surprising)

The eldest however was a different kettle of fish

Again,I can't put my finger on it but I knew he'd grow up to be trouble-bad trouble

And again,I felt awful-i mean who says that about a 9 year old kid?

Ss got involved and all 3 went into care-I lost touch

About 10 years later a news article popped up on my sm

Same lad,had murdered his mums boyfriend

I firmly believe that if it hadn't been that bloke,it would have been someone else-he was always going to hurt someone,anyone who pissed him off

(its claimed he wanted to kill his mother,and for what she put him through i cant blame him,but for some reason he couldn't,so went for the next best thing)

A 9 year old boy,who was going through hell thanks to his parents and he made me feel like every cell in my body was made out of electric and to get away from him-I'm fully aware that makes me sound awful but it's how I felt at the time

A man once came round to service my boiler as part of a contract. When I answered the door my cat ran inside and jumped on top of the kitchen units with the fur on his back right up. He’s never done that before or since. I got a very uneasy feeling from him too, was on my own in the house at the time. He condemned my boiler, put this tape with “unsafe” all over it (which was how I felt) and aggressively tried to bully me into buying a new one from his company. I actually started crying and asked him to leave which fortunately he did after I mentioned my ndn was a retired police officer(I was in the middle of a breakup at the time and feeling vulnerable). Like pp I didn’t want to complain to the company as he knew where I lived and that I was a single parent.

Ha @VVeryInteresting12 , I get the same feeling about Jimmy Carr, can't watch him.

So sorry that happened to you @BBouleDeSuif , definitely goes to show that you really can't always rely on gut feeling.

To the pp who made the point about mixed sex psych wards - yes, yes, yes. I was an inpatient at 3 different psych wards in the past. I discharged myself from the 2 that were mixed sex because I felt so unsafe (one man offered to get me a gun so I could 'finish the job off'). I only got proper, lifesaving treatment when I was in an all-female ward.

@YeahBrackie @baileybrosbuildingandloan .

I'm trying to think of situations where I've met people like this but thankfully none. Or I've got away.

My school friend and I had been on a A level geography field trip in north Wales and were at Birmingham station waiting for our train to Reading.
A man approached us and asked where we were going, then said hie was going there too, his car was outside and he could take us. He just oozed evil despite looking fairly ordinary.
He became increasingly insistent but luckily two rail security guards came over and the man quickly walked away. We told them what he’d said and they said they’d keep an eye out for him returning, made sure we were ok and we got the train home.
Some years later I saw a photo of this man in the papers, it was Fred West.

Levi Bellfield. Fred and Rose West.

These are terrifying stories.