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

People have mentioned weird feelings at Glastonbury. I had something similar at the Church Henge at Knowlton. I went with an archeology group on a beautiful summers day, blue skies, birds singing. The second we walked into it I had this feeling of unbearable dread, my stomach was churning, my heart was pounding and I pretty much ran away. Once outside of it I felt fine again but just couldn’t make myself go and join the others. I’ve never felt anything like it, before or since. Never gone back their either!

Arrrggghhh! There, not their. 😩

Yep. My friend when we were about 13 said she had an older boyfriend. Obviously at that age you might be a bit impressed or whatever. He arrived in his car and offered me a lift and I said no, it just felt wrong. I went home and told my dad about him and all hell broke loose
He was grooming my friend. Arrested for possession of child abuse images, grooming, rape, incest, he had raped his daughters, his step daughter, other girls on the estate, a couple of them were pregnant by him, thousands of child abuse images and videos. It went on and on. He was sentenced and in strangeways for (I can't remember the exact term) about 15+ years

He sent me a letter from prison, I don't want to remember the contents but it wasn't pleasant. I heard on the radio when I was about 19 he had applied for release and I threw up where I was standing

I had this very strongly as a child. My uncle had a friend who I just couldnt bear to be around. I was told not to be rude, to smile and say hello but I just couldn't. On my 6th birthday my uncle bought me a tortoise and this man was with him. I locked myself in the loo until they had gone. My mum was livid. Fast forward a few years and this bloke was sent to prison for burglary. One of the houses he burgled was my grandfathers.

Yeah I had it when I was 6 hated my aunt's neighbour with a passion he made my hair stand on end. I didn't like going near him at all and my aunt was his and his wife's friend so would take us down. On my seventh bday he sexually assaulted me.

No one believed me in my family when I reported it to the school, ironically after watching a video they showed us on paedophiles by Rolf Harris called kids can say no.

When I was 17 it came out he had been abusing many children in the school toilets and changing rooms he was a janitor in and sexually abusing the children he adopted with his wife for years.

As an aside this is an article about the Rolf Harris says no video www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10935963/Rolf-Harris-starred-in-video-warning-children-about-paedophiles.html the saying a wolf in sheep's clothing seems apt. I always also hated Jimmy Seville it made me feel uncomfortable the way he would sit kids on his knees and tickle them and things as it reminded me of the neigbour and I felt the same way about my dad's step uncle who done the same. All the kids loved him for the tickling and cuddling and sitting them on their knee and I hated it.

Found it. 16 years
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/5999706.paedophile-fails-in-conviction-appeal/

I have had a couple of times when I have had a person creeping me out.
No revelation that they then went on to become a serial killer

However ddog was the most friendliest dog you could meet except for one night when I collected Dp from the train station as usual.
Normal waggy tail as she watched everyone come out of the station and she was trying to spot Dp. Then her heckles start to rise and she is snarling. As this guy walks past the car she goes into full on barking and snarling.
Never seen anything like it before.

Same thing happened the following week and the week after.

Didn’t see the guy again. No idea who he was but all I know is ddog didn’t like him.

I have a certain place that creeps me out and I will go out of my way to avoid.

It is a very posh area of London that i sometimes need to drive through as the quickest way.

I would rather sit in a huge traffic jam rather than go through this area.

Has anyone had the situation where regardless of taking the sensible option you know in your gut you have to do something different.

I know my gut was telling me to do something which would have left me with very little but I went with the sensible option with every fibre of my gut saying no.

Biggest mistake of my life.

Laiste trust your instincts. The children who choose to stand off from this man do so for a reason and are probably picking up on the same vibes as you. Every school is different but I don't think this is usual behaviour for a caretaker? I've never heard the caretaker at DD's school call any children by their name let alone play fight with them.

I had this about 8 years ago when we went to Tintern Abbey, there was a really odd man there and I think he was playing a flute. I looked at him and my blood run cold, I said to OH keep the children well away from that man as there's something not right. OH rolled his eyes at me but it was only maybe a year later that he was in the Sunday papers as he had been found at as a paedophile , still makes shiver just thinking about him.

I have experienced this two or three times in my life and still remember the sensation vividly.

Once, on a train to Worcester Shrub Hill. A man sat down a few seats in front of me and I felt an inescapably malign energy. I moved to another carriage, then thought I was being silly and returned to the original carriage, then felt it again. It made my skin crawl. I got off and got the next train rather than stay there.

The second time was recent. A man offered to help me carry my pushchair up the stairs of my flat. It sounds so nothing-y but when I got in my front door my heart was racing and I felt sick with fear.

I don't have any interesting story about what horrible people they turned out to be, but I certainly felt some kind of really horrible energy in their presence and in both cases I instinctively reacted like a frightened animal. It is very different from disliking somebody or thinking they look or are acting suspiciously. It's a very visceral gut reaction.

I had this the other week, but it was a street! I was doing some leafleting with a couple of friends in a local village. I’d never been to this particular estate before. This one street, probably about a dozen house each side, made me sick with a sense of something being very, very wrong. Even the atmosphere and light just felt malignant. The air felt like it was coagulating and I got this sense of the uncanny. I told my friend that I could not be there and refused to go back down, instead going a longer way back to the car. I’ve never known anything like it. It was terrifying and I can only describe a nausea that seemed to originate in evil. No creepy looking stereotypical “haunted house” properties. A road of various 70’s detached and semis and bungalows.

I feel ridiculous because I cannot explain it and have no woo experiences or interests.

I've worked with prisoners who have been diagnosed with psychopathic personality disorders, but I have never ever had a reaction like the one I get with a particular man who lives nearby.
There is something very very cold about him. He smiles and tries to make conversation but he really gives me the creeps and I feel as though I want to attack him before he attacks me. Our normally placid dog wants to kill him and goes mad with fury if he comes near our home.
When the kids were little I warned them to stay away from him, I am so glad that he is now aging and the boys are over 6feet and could fend him off. DD is physically only little but does martial arts.
I have nightmares about him.

Yes this happened to me in a store too- can’t say as have shared the story with friends and v outing but I physically loved my kids away from them and got out pronto, meaning I had to go elsewhere for what I needed. I think feel incredibly uneasy thinking about it

Physically moved not loved!!!

I had the same conversation with a colleague today as there is a man who regularly comes into our work and makes us both feel very uneasy for no discernible reason. I've never even had reason to speak to him but even walking by him in a corridor makes be feel extremely uncomfortable.

I've read similar threads on Mumsnet over the years about similar feelings, but this is the first time I've experienced it myself. It is an odd feeling, disconcerting almost

Years ago, as I parked the car outside my house I was passed by a man who gave me a very bad feeling, but I let the children into the house and went back outside to finish cleaning the car. I could see him sitting on a garden wall a couple of doors down, and without looking directly at him, I felt him watching me and could see he was gradually sidling along the walls and sort of shuffling towards me. I’d only been outside for a minute, spraying fabric shampoo on the upholstery, but something told me to get inside immediately... I hesitated for a few seconds - shampoo foaming up all over the seats, didn’t want to just leave it - but the instinct to get away fast was so strong, I quickly shut the car doors, locked the car and ran down the steps into my house, by which time he was only a few feet away, still moving towards me. I stood by the living room window for a few minutes, because if he was just innocently making his way back up the street he would surely have passed my window- but he never did. I had such a feeling of relief, as if I’d escaped something really bad, I can’t explain it, but the urge to stop what I was doing and go back inside was practically physical, like I was being pushed by an unseen hand... I’m convinced something awful would have happened to me or my children that day if I’d ignored the feeling and not hurried inside.

I’ve come across quite a few men over the years who creeped me out a bit, and have known several men who have been either suspected for murder or convicted of it, but there are two in particular that freaked me out.

The first was when I had to interview a former police officer who had been accused of sexual assault/harassment. The way he shook my hand, touched my arm, repeatedly said my name and looked directly at my eyes without blinking was beyond unnerving. He gave off the weirdes vibes it made me shiver.

The second was when I was walking my dog. He is the softest idiot dog ever, he doesn’t bark, growl or seem to be scared or bothered by anything. One day he went crazy and I turned around to find a man walking directly behind me. This dog loves attention from anyone and would be straight over, but something about that guy sent him wild. He’s never done anything like it since so can only assume he picked up some bad vibes.

Yes I've had this a few times.

Vividly remember as a child my mum went to her friend's house to drop off something and I refused to come in as her friend's husband really gave me the creeps. I sat in the car with the doors locked (it was dark). Then to my horror, the husband came back from somewhere - he wasn't in the house all along. He saw the car sitting there and came and peered in the windows, and kept motioning me to unlock the door, mouthing 'unlock the door'. I was petrified and just kept shaking my head and he kept on and on gesturing and his face was.... twisted. After he gave up he apparently went in and told my mum cheerfully that he thought he'd given me a scare and had just wanted to invite me in, but she also got a bad vibe off him and didn't believe him and when I told her what he'd done we were both chilled. Easy to explain away if you wanted to - but I know he was evil.

I think women are gifted with a heightened sense of perception

I was about to ask that, it does seem that women are more sensitive shall we say?. Can't say I've ever noticed it about a person at all some people I've naturely warmed to others seemed a PITA .

Also

There was quite a thread on here abiut people feelling very uneasy in some locations a few monmths ago now.

And.

Myra Hindley in hospital?.

Well wouldnt she have had a van load of coppers with her making her stand out from the crowd?

Glastonbury;

been there once or twice never ot the actual festiveal, but there do seem to be some rather odd folk there perhaos its just somerset;?

And the fest site has got some bloody big power lines running over it perhaps interfering with the lay lines.

Who knows;!?

I think I am the opposite and completely unable to read people.

The only person I have ever known to be convicted of anything horrendous was our family dentist. I never got a single bad vibe from him. His victims weren't his patients and I wasn't his target group so maybe that is why but was still completely shocked when I saw it in the paper.

I have experienced this. A neighbour when I was a little girl, he was perfectly friendly but when he looked at me, his eyes were black and cold, his mouth sneered, hard to explain and I was about 4! I suspect this was the paedophile look that others have described in this thread. I was terrified of him. I am nearly 50 and have never forgotten that face. Weirdly, years later, he came up in conversation when we were talking about our "old house", my Dad said "there was something very off about the chap next door"...so it wasn't just me.

A client of my Dad's who somehow managed to infiltrate our family by pretending to be a really decent chap. He'd send my brother and I record vouchers, invite himself over for dinner and on one occasion, turned up at the same place we were on holiday in Spain, uninvited and unannounced. He was a good looking, charismatic guy but had an underlying menace and made my skin crawl. I was in my mid-teens. Something that has never been spoken about happened on that holiday. We came back from the pool and my Dad was telling him to get his stuff and leave immediately. We never saw him again and my Dad wouldn't discuss it and never has since.

In 2002 I had been married for two years. A close family member employed a woman who immediately put my hackles up when I met her. I have never before or since had such an immediate and intense dislike of another person, she exhuded malice. She was polite and friendly but had dead eyes and a smile that didn't reach them. My mum felt exactly the same about her. I had little contact with her but was overwhelmed with relief when she left the job to move away and marry. In 2013 my husband left me. A few weeks later I found out he was living with the same woman. I had no idea they were in contact and she has turned out to be the most malignant narcissist I have ever encountered. I think I knew she was a threat to me from that first meeting.

I do think you have to trust your instincts, they are usually right. My Mum was very good at this and her opinions about certain people, even if they appeared to be nice human beings, always turned out to be correct. Funnily enough, she felt like this about my ex-husband...I should have listened to her!

I’ve had this a few times.
Once when DD was small - maybe 4 and a man came over to DD and started to talk to her. I pulled her back away from him. It was Jimmy Saville ( before we knew what he’d done).
More recently I was driving through the streets to come home and there was a big carnival about to start in our local park. I saw these two guys leaning on their car and as I looked at them I got a total feeling that they were bad. I drove away as quickly as possible.

Yes, I think clearly sometimes we have this reaction because we are picking up on aggression clues, that may be very small and hard to pinpoint consciously, but as a PP said, one must be careful, sometimes we are just picking up on somebody's social awkwardness, or maybe even a physical characteristic that is unpleasant, by all means walk way and keep safe, but be careful of spreading gossip that may ruin a person's life.

I remember this very sad story of an Italian singer who ended up committing suicide because of malicious gossip that had been spread that there was something wrong about her and she was "bad luck", this woman had never hurt anybody.

Not unreasonable at all.

I personally believe (and there's loads of research to back it up) that there's a lot we take in subconsciously about people's body language etc -

Posture, movement, tics, facial expressions, natural non offensive body odour...

That help us make up our minds about people.

I've always known if I "like" a person or not within a very short period of time of meeting and I've only been wrong once - and I'm actually not convinced I'm wrong on that one I'm sure that persons mask will slip eventually.

Various of the people I've felt were "off" and I didn't trust turned out to be violent, abusive or otherwise untrustworthy inc one woman who was overly friendly and welcoming of me into a charity group who then turned on me when I started asking questions about certain things. She managed also to turn the rest of the group against me, was a horrible time, then I bumped into the group leader about a year later - she was the treasurer and had basically robbed them blind! I got an apology but I never returned.