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

708 replies

crochetmonkey74 · 22/01/2024 08:55

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

OP posts:
Riverlee · 22/01/2024 12:49

Used to work in a shop, and there was one customer who I felt very uneasy about. If I saw him walk down the street, I would cross the road to avoid him.

In another job, a client gave me the creeps. I found out later he was sectioned, so he obviously had mental health issues, but I would never like to be alone with him in a room.

Urcheon · 22/01/2024 12:49

ManateeFair · 22/01/2024 12:27

Bear in mind that most of the 'I met someone and got the creeps and they turned to be a very famous murderer' stories are oft-recycled urban myths.

Yes, this. As distinct from the ‘He gave me the creeps initially until I realised he was brilliant, though shy, and we were friends for thirty years/I married him/am his child’s godmother’.

Or ‘he gave me the creeps but was just an ordinary twit I didn’t take to’.

PumpkinsAndCoconuts · 22/01/2024 12:50

ToMeToYouAndBack · 22/01/2024 12:45

So in fact he was the least afraid you should have been of 🤷🏻‍♀️

Well, because it was simply about dodging taxes.

A "sane" man in a psych ward? There are some fairly sinister reasons that come to mind.

ManateeFair · 22/01/2024 12:50

I feel that way about Dominic West and not just because he played Fred West (though he was spectacularly good at it). He looks like he'd kill you for sport if he thought he could get away with it.

Dominic West does kill foxes for sport, so it doesn't actually feel like a big leap that he'd enjoy hunting down humans too. He strikes me as someone who would burn £50 notes in front of poor people.

Jovacknockowitch · 22/01/2024 12:51

No.

RunningAwayToJoinTheCircus · 22/01/2024 12:53

VeryInteresting12 · 22/01/2024 10:11

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

I get this too! No idea why, but even if I see a picture of him I get a visceral reaction and feel really "RUN! NOW!"
Luckily I'm never likely to actually meet him, thank god! I can't watch anything he's in, he makes my flesh crawl.
It is weird I know, but it's just the reaction I get to him.

iamwhatiam23 · 22/01/2024 12:57

@Redlarge i get that vibe from Rita Ora as well! I literally cannot bare to watch her on tv or listen to any of her music!

Mikimoto · 22/01/2024 12:58

Michelle Keegan.

Sometimes, from a certain angle, her face looks like a human being.

misslooloo · 22/01/2024 12:59

I work in a building with a bloke who makes me feel so uneasy and I have no idea why.

He’s middle-aged, short, and appears completely unthreatening. But I hate being anywhere near him.

We’ve never talked so 🤷🏻‍♀️

AngelinaFibres · 22/01/2024 13:01

Yes newish male member of our walking group. He makes the skin on my arms want to curl up like a roller blind when I am near him. He is just too 'nice'. It's utterly fake. He has started seeing a female member of the group. He has moved into her house after only a few weeks if dating and is referring to her and her 19 and 20 year old autistic daughters as his family.He is cloying and needy and never allows her out of his sight. Creeps the hell out of me.

iamwhatiam23 · 22/01/2024 13:03

Apolloneuro · 22/01/2024 11:43

I worked with a man once, who terrified me. I did everything to avoid being on my own with him.

You get the same thing with buildings. I was in a babysitting circle years ago. Once I went to sit in a house for the first time. It was terrifying and I refused to go down the corridor into the kitchen.

I also get this with certain buildings and also certain areas of the country!

annemac101 · 22/01/2024 13:03

Oh my goodness that's really scary.So glad your friend had the feeling about her.

Pudmyboy · 22/01/2024 13:04

😨

HerculesMulligan · 22/01/2024 13:04

Yes - there are some workmen I won't book again, not because of a problem with their work but because something about them made me feel uncomfortable and I trust my own judgment enough not to want that person to be in my home again.

Separately, I walked past someone in Soho last year and in the half-second that I saw him before he passed, was suddenly absolutely sure that he was dangerous. Nothing about his behaviour or clothing, as he was just walking along a street just like I was, but I got a sense of evil. Again - I trust that my brain and senses are making unconscious patterns that I can't articulate but won't ignore.

Nestofwalnuts · 22/01/2024 13:05

My son's first partner. Made my blood run cold. They lied brazenly and said really horrible things with a smile on their face. I was so relieved when they coldly broke my son's heart because having them in the house made my flesh run cold but I thought keep your enemies close, so I was always very civil to them.

Sharontheodopolodous · 22/01/2024 13:05

As a child I had 3 grandparents

My grandad on my father's side brought me up as my mother is a narc (and an evil cow-ive known that since I was a kid)

His wife,my granny and fathers mother died before I was born so I never knew her

My grandparents on my mother's side-i never wanted to go near them as a child

She looked like an evil frog (my memory as a child) and he was tall,uncaring and nasty-both had evil pouring from them

I remember getting my arse smacked as a child because I tried to refuse to go near her,let alone cuddle her-i was forced to do both (which is why I will never force my own children or force myself on a child-its freely given or not at all)

Years slid past and when I was about 19,my family on my mother's side started to tell me stories of what both had done

My instincts where spot on-both where pure evil

Not Fred and Rose evil,but not far off-the whole family where scared so had covered it all up for years until both where too old and ill to do anything

Both where dead within the next two years-id be glad but they simply passed on the baton to my mother,who in turn has given it to my brother-who will pass it to someone else in time

Evil slides through my family and will do forever as everyone is too scared to stand up to them-i tried and was outcast

ChocolateCroissantCafe · 22/01/2024 13:07

I've had this once about a car, or it's driver, I don't know but it was the weirdest feeling. Listening to the radio in the back of the car, looking down at my phone and got a feeling of dread about a car that was approaching to overtake. It felt like if I looked at it I'd see something awful, I can't explain it. Looked around because the feeling was so unexpected and of course, just a regular car, regular driver.

Went back to my phone and could just feel this car there until we were separated by the traffic. Ten or so minutes later, I got this same dread feeling, I could sense this car approaching again and there it was. Loads of other cars on the road so no reason to pick this one out, and both times I was looking down so wouldn't have even noticed it passing. I've never had anything like this happen again, but the feeling was so strong and almost repulsive.

Cicchetti · 22/01/2024 13:07

I get this feeling a lot - or at least a feeling that someone is off and I want to get away from them.

My cousin had many bad relationships and ended up with this guy whom everyone in the family thought was great. I instantly feared and distrusted him. He turned out to be a sex-offending wife beater. (They are still together).

All that said, I used to ignore my instincts and try to intellectualise away any reservations I had - I ended up in long term relationships with men who were controlling/abusive as a result.

ILoveNigelTufnel · 22/01/2024 13:10

It’s only happened once with a person and a couple of times with buildings. It’s a very odd feeling.

The man who made me feel incredibly uncomfortable was someone a couple of years younger than me growing up we went to the same church and secondary school. Lovely family, he’d always seemed nice etc

We were Facebook friends and there had been a couple of messages that I had felt uncomfortable with. It was just all a bit intense and intrusive but I couldn’t put my finger on what.

But when my divorce came through and he sent me the weirdest voicemail. Like really cheering and shouting “yes! Oh that’s amazing! Fantastic news!” and it was just all a bit odd. Having divorced an abusive husband, the abusive arsehole / creep / idiot / red flag detector was on high alert and there was something that just did not sit right.

It was just really off and writing it down, it just sounds daft but there was definitely something “not nice” / predatory. Not even sure of the word just complete unease at hearing his voice / the over reaction. No one else had reacted like that, not even me and I was divorced!

A few years later, he’s in prison having been found guilty of sexual child abuse. I had put the uneasy feeling down to it just being because he was a creep but this makes me feel really sick.

EdinaMonsoon · 22/01/2024 13:11

I have experienced this feeling several times. In my case, I firmly believe that when you are raised in trauma as I was (abuse) your instinct runs on high alert for any potential dangers, across all social settings/the way in which people present themselves. It can all be smoke & mirrors.

The two incidents that really stick in my mind:

In a shop with DH trying to choose a mattress for DC; an assistant walks over and asks if we need any help. I honestly thought I was going to faint with fear. I have never experienced anything like it. I went really cold and dizzy and had to walk away without speaking to him. DH came to find me and wanted to know why I was being rude to the guy (ie ignoring his question). All I could offer in response was "he's a really bad person. Evil. He's done something really terrible." I'm sure DH thought I had lost the plot but he didn't pursue it and we went elsewhere to shop.

Running my regular route which is in an isolated spot but you will sometimes see other runners or walkers there - think coastal path rather than park so dunes on one side, ocean on the other - and I've never felt remotely concerned whether they were lone males or not. One morning this guy appears on the trail, strolling along, glances over his shoulder as if checking to see who else was around. There was something about his relaxed energy that really worried me. He wasn't dressed for actual running or coastal walking - I know that sounds silly but it was 6am and not really the time for chill strolls! I was scared and as I was mid-route on a narrow track I had to either risk running past him or turn back around and retrace my steps which would mean having my back to him. I decided running towards him assertively was the better option, picked up my pace and tried to stare straight ahead as I passed him. I kept on running for a minute until I felt safe to check over my shoulder and realised he was running behind me. Thankfully the trail meets the beach road shortly thereafter and I ran into the garden of one of the beach houses and hid. I could see him stop on the beach road, looking around for what felt like an age and then started walking off down the road. Yes he could have been lost, he could have had a million reasons for being there dressed as he was and behaving how he was but I have never experienced that fear before or since on that route.

Menomeno · 22/01/2024 13:11

I recruited a woman into a position I was desperate to fill at work. I had a bad feeling about her from the off, but on paper she had all the skills and experience needed for the role and I had no other contenders so I took her on. She was always professional and was good at her job but I’d find myself feeling really anxious every time I had to call her/meet with her. She worked out in the field so I luckily didn’t have to spend much time with her. I had fantastic relationships with my staff, and just couldn’t work out what was so difficult about her.

I discovered a year later that she’d been shagging my husband for four years. It was actually ExH who’d put her on to the vacancy. I’m remarried now to a wonderful man, but even now I seethe at the absolute brass neck of the pair of them! 😡

YetMoreNewBeginnings · 22/01/2024 13:12

I’ve had it twice. Once a parent at a school I worked in. He gave me the absolute creeps. He was killed in a car accident that was said to be caused in part by him getting road rage.

The second was a colleague. Again in a school. He gave two other, that I know of, colleagues the absolute creeps as well.
he’s never done anything that we know of. Polite. Unpushy. Helpful but not OTT. The only hint of something being off is that he never stays anywhere long.
Two of us, individually, declined a lift home from him in torrential rain. He left just after that. I sometimes wonder if he leaves because he knows he gives people the creeps.

the most dangerous person I know I’ve met gave no vibes whatsoever.

TitInATrance · 22/01/2024 13:13

Not many people creep me out, but there’s a woman at exercise class who scares the s*t out of me. She’s very pretty with a figure like a muscular Barbie, and is by all accounts a very nice person.

I think it’s because she’s had cosmetic surgery (obvious boobs, possibly facial too, or at least Botox) and I somehow perceive it as fake.

Balloonhearts · 22/01/2024 13:14

Twice. The first one my dog snarled at. She was as soft as anything, never snapped in her life, hardly ever heard her growl even in play.

She was full on hackles up, fur on end, teeth bared, snarling at him. He backed right up but she wouldn't stop until he left the house.

Other one turned out to be planning a murder.

Ecstaticmotion · 22/01/2024 13:16

FloofCloud · 22/01/2024 10:48

Not got anything with any scary outcomes but have had the feeling when people are just horrible.
I've always thought David Walliams was weird too - never met him tho but would go out of my way to avoid him!

David Walliams has a LOT of rumours about himself. I wouldn’t be buying anything he produces. I await the inevitable documentary.

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