To get an overwhelming sense of danger from a stranger?

[ThisIsCheese]

The weirdest thing just happened. I’m in the supermarket and as I’m stood selected and bagging vegetables I suddenly feel very uncomfortable.
There is a man about 50 something stood with his elderly mother a few feet away to the side of me and I felt very sick and uncomfortable when I looked at him.
Absolutely no reason for it but it was overwhelming, like a sense of fear he was not a good man.

Completely clueless why I felt that way I moved along quickly but I crossed paths with him again in another aisle and knew he was there before I saw him because the sick / anxious feeling returned.

Anyone else ever had this? I don’t have anxiety or anything but this feeling was so odd, like I could sense he wasn’t a good person.

Never met him before, he could be perfectly lovely but my physical reaction to him was so strong

Yes had it about a neighbour wanted to stay clear of him
He began a four year campaign of harrassment against me making up false allegations

I have had a few experiences like this. I will share one story so I don’t make the post too long.
When I was 19 and a student I had a part time job in a bingo hall. This night I was working on the floor (giving out change/ checking bingo cards/ handing out prize money). One of our regular customers (nice lady in her late 50’s) was in and calls me over to meet her son who she’s brought along to play bingo for the first time. The second look at him I felt really uneasy, I could feel all the hairs on my arms stand on edge. Definitely had the alarm bells feeling going off. The guy was maybe around 25 and dressed in the stereotypical ‘greasy long haired metal guy’ get up. That wasn’t the problem though, I was very much part of the metal/goth/alternative scene in my teens and 20’s so was used to being around long haired metal guys. This was different. I can’t but my finger on it but there was just something about him. So I politely excused myself from the table to get back to work.

Several times throughout the evening I could sense this guy was staring at me and every time I looked over he was. Just a really uneasy feeling all evening. End of the evening rolls round, customers leave and we do cashing up etc. Stay behind for a drink after with other staff and made a few joking comments about needing a few drinks to calm me down. That I was still feeling a bit unnerved and how creepy I found the guy.

By the time I leave it’s been over an hour since the customers left and it after midnight by this point. I was staying in a flat about a 10 minute walk away, down a fairly busy and well lit road (lots of traffic but not so many people). I start walking home, like I did most evenings, and after a couple of minutes I start to get a really uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach so I start to walk faster. I just knew it was the creepy guy from earlier but I was too afraid to turn round and check. I could hear the footsteps behind me, not super close but close enough. When I walked faster I could hear he was keeping up pace with me. Then I got to the part of the road where I had to turn a corner, down another street. I took a glance to the side as I did and sure enough it’s him walking behind me, staring right at me. As soon as I get round the corner I broke into a sprint and ran down another side street, then down another and into a doorway out of sight. I knew he wouldn’t be far behind and if I stayed going straight he would see me because it’s another long straight road. I could have ran all the way home and probably had enough of a head start to make but I really didn’t want him to see where I lived. I was hoping I could get away out of sight before he got the chance to see me again. So I stayed there for about 20 minutes in that doorway before I felt brave enough to leave. I took a few more side streets to get home (the longer and less direct route) rather than going back down the main road. I thought if he waited around outside my work for over an hour then he would still be hanging around on that main road. I was pretty freaked out by the time I got home and for a long while after that I always got someone to walk home with me after work. I never did see him again after that night but I heard through the grapevine a few years later he went into a psychiatric hospital because he got caught torturing and killing cats.

Obviously I've been interested in this thread or I wouldn't have read halfway through it. I'm sure I'm not alone in liking creepy stories.
But a lot of these anecdotes use that marvelous tool, the retrospectoscope. "He/she creeped me out and x amount of time later was arrested for doing something awful".
And a lot of others are just "Well, I know they were bad. No proof yet...."

I'm sure that instincts can be useful. I'm also sure that many of us like to feel special and empathic.

Now I'm going to go back and read more weird stories. I'm only human 🙂

Yes I thought that pp, a large amount of stories with no story which is good really of course but some probably lovely people minding their own business getting slated online lol
And the celebrity everyone is going on about is on tv on Saturday nights, writes kids books and is regularly the go to guy on here for a witch hunt.

@LondonJax I always say to DS to trust his instinct. If you turn around and walk the other way because your feelings are telling you to, no-one will know why or call you stupid. Better that than end up in danger. told DD the same as she is very friendly and polite - that an adult would not need to ask a child for help and if her tummy felt weird that running away was ok and not to worry about being rude! Also told her that if there was ever an emergency and I couldn't pick her up and couldn't get a message to her that I would only ever ask someone she knew to collect her - and even then that even someone she knows really well wouldn't be offended if she wanted to call me first to check - that a legit adult would be fine with that !!

And the celebrity everyone is going on about is on tv on Saturday nights, writes kids books and is regularly the go to guy on here for a witch hunt.

Oh! Ok. I'd been wondering if it was somebody in America. Sounds like the UK now.

I can't say I've picked up any vibes when that person is on television.

Many years ago my husband hired a man to be his PA. There was something about this man that made me believe he was empty inside and dangerous. I would watch him mimic other people. For example if someone came into the room and someone else greeted them with a hug he would do it as well. It was if he was copying normal human behavior because he wasn't normal himself. But there was something about his blank soulless eyes that worried me.

The feelings I had were so strong I asked my husband to fire him but he wouldn't just because I didn't 'like' him.

Then one day a young woman who also worked for my husband phoned me and told me that this man hit her but then insisted we couldn't fire him because it would 'look bad'. She actually tried to make me promise I wouldn't say anything because they had been sleeping together and she thought it would hurt her career.

I phoned someone in a very important position and asked for advice. After he made some enquires he told me this man had been on probation for beating a woman, in fact his probation had very recently ended. He told me he needed to be fired immediately. Which my husband did.

It turns out this man did more than just hit her the one time. He'd tried to kill her. The proper people were notified and he was dealt with.

Afterwards I was speaking to a couple of women who worked there and they said they felt like I did and one woman said he reminded her of her ex-husband who beat her. All the time this man was trying his best to fit in and to make people like him but he couldn't mask what he was inside.

What gave me chills was when one of the ladies told me she thought he had Ted Bundy eyes. So did I.

Funny thing though all the men thought he was doing one hell of a good job there.

Ah, that celeb. Yes, creepy AF!

I haven't had creepy vibes from that celeb. I think he's just got an unfortunate face. Small dark eyes and a big grin.

You can look like an angel and be a psychopath.

Whilst i also find that celebrity creepy af, and know of some 'minor' creepy things he's done, there's another actor who has been specifically chosen in the past for creepy roles, who i found really weird. Couldn't put my finger on it. Googled him and it turns out he has partial facial paralysis (i think in the muscles around his mouth, meaning that expression of his eyes and mouth don't "match". That's what i was picking up on - a mild disability. And presumably that's the reason he's picked for 'creepy' roles. The reason I'm sharing this particular anecdote is to urge you all to be cautious when jumping to conclusions about people - not in terms of who you go home with - surely it's just common sense to gtfo - but in daily life. Remember before we had criminal trials 'vibes', 'creepiness' and trial by ordeal were the preferred methods of justice in the west. How many people died undeservedly in witch trials etc?

The trouble with this “trusting your instincts” thing- which is mostly, if not entirely- reading micro body language, coincidence, retrofitting, confirmation bias and stories with no outcome is that it might make you trust where you shouldn’t because you don’t get a “creepy feeling”. Emphasising it to children is particularly dangerous. It is a slightly more complex version of “Bur he had a dog- he must be a nice man”

I was about 15 and walking over to the shop opposite school. A man pulled up in a car as I was walking past the post box and asked if I could post a letter for him.

He smiled at me and was old and looked kind so I said yes then went to reach in the car window. Pretty stupid of me really but I thought I was helping. His face suddenly changed. His eyes kind of popped and he was still smiling but it was a really strange, creepy smile. My hand was just inside the window and I noticed him pull the letter he was holding out back slightly. I pulled my arm out and said sorry I can't. As I did this a boy from 6th form was walking past. I didn't know him well but he grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the car and told the man to drive off.

He said that he saw the man's face and had a sudden feeling something was wrong. He was so lovely and apologised for grabbing me so quickly. Also made me promise to never reach in to a car like that again. He then walked me to the shop and back to school where he made me tell the head teacher.

I can still remember the face and the way it went from kind old man to a sort of Gollum type face so quickly!

I went on a self defence course many years ago taught by a psychologist. She said that if you got a weird or unpleasant feeling about a person or a place, to leave because it was likely your subconscious had noticed something wrong. And if you stayed, while you were spooked, you wouldn’t be in a good position to defend yourself or run away. If you were wrong about the feeling, then no harm done to leave anyway ... you would still be safe.

I can remember walking home in the dark, only around 6pm, and finding myself in a split second running across the road looking behind me. Somebody walking a fair way behind me had, I think, tripped slightly, but my spidey senses interpreted it as the first step of a run to attack me, and instinct was reacting before I could think. I think the person was rather surprised!

I'm one of those people who knows others are pregnant before they do or they tell anybody. One was because of the way she was sitting and her partner was tenderly looking after her at a Christmas gathering. I wondered then instantly was certain. They announced a month or two later. Another person, my best friend, I've known twice before she did! 😳 Pheromones and hormones or woo? I don't tend to worry about how I pick up some things, I just do.

Just a few people have really given me the creeps. I met one recently, a new partner of a friend of a friend. Took an instant dislike to him and did NOT want to even make small talk at a party, really unusual for me. Told my friend who gets it over instinct things and she's met him a few times and says he's fine, but I dunno, I'm waiting for news that he's violent or something.

Your gut instinct is right and should not be ignored.

My theory for along time is that very young children,dogs and vulnerable old people have very acute instincts.
When I walk my dog for no reason out of the blue she runs up to a person and barks and when I got to her my instinct more often than not would be they are weird.

I haven't had creepy vibes from that celeb. I think he's just got an unfortunate face. Small dark eyes and a big grin.

If I’ve understood correctly, I agree!

i dont think you can trust vibes from someone you have on seen on the TV.
i think you need to be physically there to get vibes otherwise you are just being prejudiced

Agree Bertrand - being with my ex felt 'right' - he had a great deal of charisma and of course i knew him in person - he wasn't a celebrity on the tv. Didn't stop him being a total creep who made an attempt on my life.

I detested my dad's ex from the start but overrode my instincts as just hating her because she was dad's girlfriend.

She turned out to be a raging alcoholic who regularly assaulted him but told her colleagues he was hitting her. She let him pay off her debts but "forgot" to put him on her mortgage as agreed, leaving him penniless when he eventually got out.
When he returned to get stuff a couple of days later she's already moved another man in - she'd been having an affair.

She was a nurse and was also stealing drugs from work. She was eventually struck off over drug errors that nearly killed several patients.

Worrying that I can't remember one single incident as one that sticks in my mind

Does the celeb you're all on about have the initials DW?

Yes, there are a couple of things here as PPs have said.

There's the visceral gut reaction - get out, get away, trust it and respond accordingly.

Then there's the basics of understanding risk as it relates to personal safety where there is unlikely to be any gut reaction - but it can still be unsafe. The two things are completely different.

There's the sensing danger, and in some of the cases here, because you've chosen to do something risky (not always, but sometimes). Like a PP who went to walk home through a narrow gap between two buildings - so that's a notch higher on the 'risk' scale if you do that. Thinking someone's possibly following you and taking avoiding action - again, this is not the same as that gut reaction to someone evil.

But both are important.

Obviously no one deserves to be attacked because they use a cut-through or footpath or whatever, but on occasions you have to accept that there's a need to manage your safety. I'm sure it's the case that the chances of something bad happening to you are way more likely with this latter group, than the chances of you meeting a twisted psychopath hellbent on mutilation and murder.

I always feel I've got to be super aware all the time and am (without obsessing might I say) always thinking about 'is this safe?' when I'm out and about. Having watched a programme about rapists (and again, no way should any of these women have been raped nor was it their 'fault' on any level) but the risk factors were being drunk, assuming people you knew yourself/friend of a friend/colleague mean you no harm when they clearly did, being alone in a room with someone you think you can trust.... very sad we have to think like this but this is what I'm trying to teach my daughter on personal safety. I think we need to teach our children about the need to understand when, despite it appearing innocuous (we're now not a girl in a park with a group of friends we're now a girl in a house with two male friends) and for them to understand that maybe despite them knowing them and thinkin they're nice boys, there's potential for an issue to arise. Crank that risk up if they might be drinking, etc.

I dont think you can trust vibes from someone you have on seen on the TV.
i think you need to be physically there to get vibes otherwise you are just being prejudiced

I wish I didn't need to check this, but this is a joke?

I do wonder how many innocent people have had a crap time at the hands of people who “just know” that someone’s a wrong ‘un?

I think there's plenty of people who are actually bigoted individuals with limited scope of understanding of the vast differences in people who would fall into that category Bertrand.

You've got to be careful - the real genuine gut reactions people are talking about on here (those that are talking about them!) are one thing, what you're talking about isn't genuine in that way, there's no gut reaction, they just have a need to single people out as it 'does not compute' with their limited outlook/experience of life and people. I agree this could be dangerous for people who've one nothing to no one.