Intuition.. people who made you go cold

[hollybollyy]

Right so I'll preface this with it's my night off I can't sleep so I thought I would listen to 'let's not meet' do not listen to this podcast when alone at night! and god the stories have creeped me the fuck out.

My own story is that I once met a coworker on his first day. Something about him just made my blood run cold, I didn't want to be around him and I absolutely didn't want to work late alone with him.

6 years later he was in the news for being a serial rapist.

Mega creep.

Share your 'no this person is bad I cannot be near them' stories

Also my dog is an amazing judge of character if he doesn't like something or someone there's a reason

I was driving through the outback with my boyfriend on a trip around Australia backpacking. On a very remote road there was a man at the roadside and he was waving at our car. I told my boyfriend I didn't like the look of it and not to stop, keep driving. A couple of years later there was that case of the backpacker who was murdered in the same sort of area. I still get the shivers thinking about it.

My mum had what we thought was an irrational hatred of the man who lived next door but one to her. They lived in a group of four rural terraced cottages, with my parents’ house being on the end, with a lot of land to the side. The neighbours had right of way down the side of mum’s house, through her land.

She kept chickens and ducks, and had an orchard, and said that someone was picking and throwing fruit, and opening the chicken coop. Mum liked a glass of red, and was big on conspiracy theories, so nobody took much notice- then her chickens were all found with their necks wrung, and a duck was flattened in the lane.

Sadly, we only believed mum when her immediate neighbour put up cameras because she was sure someone had been in her house. The neighbour mum hated was seen letting himself in and going through stuff in her bedroom. He was arrested, spent time in prison, and given a restraining order on his release, which meant he had to sell up.

Years back I worked in an office building with a lot of other civil servants. One chap gave me the creeps but I seemed to be the only one who got such strong negative vibes off him. He later murdered his wife.

I used to do a paper round and this one guy used to always open the door and tried to speak to me. I always felt uncomfortable.
One night I was in my bedroom and heard a noise outside my window. My bedroom was on the second floor but It was above the garage with a flat roof. I looked outside and I saw the man looking in through my window.

I have exactly the opposite to whatever reaction this is.

I have HATED some people irrationally on first sight. Just seen them and had this impression that they were not nice people.

Quite a few of them have gone on to become very good friends of mine, and have never put a foot wrong. I feel guilty because of the way I behaved towards them when we first met.

So, yeah. I have the 'dangerous person' instinct about innocent lovely people. Not yet had it go off about someone who was a 'wrong 'un' as far as I know.

This was a good twenty five plus years ago. I was working as an au pair in Italy and was at the airport in Pisa in the queue for a flight back home. I got the most creeped out fight-or-flight feeling about the man in front of me even though my logical brain was telling me I was being irrational.
He was maybe in his 40s, dressed smart casual professional, absolutely no different from almost every other man of that age group in the queue. He had his back to me so I couldn't even see his face or his expression but the feeling got stronger and stronger that there was something off about him even though I couldn't identify anything tangible.
Further ahead the queue was splitting off to two different gates. I could see mine and I came to the decision that if he was going to my gate, I was not getting on the flight. I was having this really agitated internal argument with myself but I decided - sod the money and the inconvenience, I'm not getting on if he is.
He got to the split and walked to the check point for my gate and I was gathering up my bag and just about to turn away (I really was going), when I noticed there was a delay processing him and a bustle and some armed police/ officials arrived and he was physically grabbed and hustled off.
My heart was beating like crazy. I was relieved I could get on my flight but so weirded out that there had been foundation in my instinct. I kept running through what I had seen of him, what he had done to set my radar off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The only thing I ever concluded was he was too normal - almost like a carefully studied disguise of being a middle class professional. A type rather than an actual person.
Listen to your gut people!

Living in a bedsit when I was 18, old bloke who lived upstairs gave me the creeps. He hadn't actually done anything, in fact I'd hardly interacted with him - since he made the hair on the back of my neck stand up I avoided him, and had figured out his schedule well enough not to be in any of the shared areas when he was. Which lasted until I got a new boyfriend who he for some reason took an instant dislike to and started to complain (to the landlord, and by walking out into the hallway and shouting it) that we were too loud when we were having sex. Then he started complaining that my cat meowed too loudly, by pacing around the kitchen and slamming his knife down on the table and shouting that he was going to "do something about that cat" in the hallway. At which point I decided that I couldn't ignore how creepy he was any more and went to stay at my boyfriend's house, taking the cat with me.

Rang the landlord to tell him I was moving out and explain why and it turned out that creepy bloke upstairs was a convicted murderer on some sort of release scheme. Why the landlord thought that it was appropriate to house him directly above an 18 year old girl is anyone's guess, and apparently it was rude of me to ask that question because "he deserves a second chance".

Pretty glad that I bolted before he decided to take a knife to either me or the cat.

Also, former coworker who creeped me out so much I refused to be alone in a meeting room with him. Ridiculously handsome guy, superficially charming, but there was just something off about him, I used to say he reminded me of the guy from American Psycho.

Turned out he'd raped multiple women when he was at uni, which all of our male coworkers knew about and had decided to "handle" by keeping him away from their female friends (which explained why whenever it was time to take a taxi anywhere one of the other blokes always just happened to hop in next to me so I was never next to him). I guess they thought women who they didn't have a personal relationship with were fair game.

Shared this story before. Several years ago we were buying a second hand car from a dealership. I took an instant dislike to the salesman. Refused to talk to him. DH had to do it all. Wouldn't shake his hand. Wouldn't sit in the car beside him. Wouldn't let him sit in the back with the kids on the test drive (DH and I swapped instead)

My DH thought I was being ridiculous and was taking the "don't like car salesman" trope to extremes.

Then a year later he sent me a link to a BBC news article about the car salesman (at this point I didn't recognise the photo). He'd murdered a prostitute, then raped two others, while high on drugs and when his youngest son was at home.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/13208417.car-sales-boss-murdered-prostitute-and-raped-two-others-beside-her-body/

Oh my DH trusts my instincts now.

When my son was a baby, I had a knock on my door and was asked by a very well spoken school boy (wearing the uniform of the local high school) if he could use my toilet. I foolishly let him and knew straight away I shouldn't have, my baby was having a nap in his room.

I stood at the bottom of the stairs, he was ages, then came out and dodged side wards onto the landing, I shouted its this way out, he came downstairs, thanked me and left.

I watched him, knock on other doors, he did gain entry to another house, I immediately phoned her, she outed him straight away.

Word went round the village, he'd done this a lot and was taking underwear to sniff.

Next incident, he impersonates the Doctors son, who he went to school with, was knocking on doors and doing a survey for his Dad, on women's sex life and periods. I think he was quite successful at gaining info, but one woman phoned the Doctor, complaining. The doctors son was hauled out of school by him and taken to the complaining woman's house. She confirmed it wasn't the same boy, but they quickly realised which schoolboy it was.

Police were involved and the family left the area.

I can't remember his name but I'm sure in later life, he would be a sex offender.

I once had a housemate who creeped me out. At first I thought he was nice but he stood too close unnecessary etc and I started to feel uncomfortable. By the time I was moving out I decided to tell the landlord he was a creep because I found out he'd been using my bedroom with his girlfriend when I was away.
Mentioned this to former housemates. One had come home to him masterbating in the living room and another had woken up one night to find him there watching her sleep.
All got reported back to the landlord who soon decided it was to stressful and gave up buy to let.
I don't know why the other two women never complained.

I had a child in my class that i just had a bad feeling about, he was cold. He was continually nipping children under the table or getting them into a corner and telling them in a very quiet menacing voice how much he was going to hurt them. His Mother came to us in tears one day saying she couldnt cope with him. She had ran into the livingroom where she had left him and his weeks old brother one day as she had a bad feeling something was wrong, the baby was in his moses basket and the older one had taken a cushion from the sofa and was pushing it hard down onto the babies face. There was a whole list of the things he had done from stabbing the dog with a pencil to the Mum waking up and finding him in he bedroom with a kitchen knife. Social services didnt want to know and in the end she had to lock him in his room every night. One day his name will appear in the paper, he was pure evil.

A friend I was very close to when we were growing up - her mum got a new boyfriend when we were about 11. Very meek, apparently in awe of the high flying mother, quiet, gentle voice. Gave me the absolute shivers. He just wasn’t being genuine. They were together for ages, but when they broke up about ten years later he insisted on keeping in contact with the girls. My friend had been very unwell with her mental health, was particularly physically and emotionally vulnerable and agreed to meet with him for dinner. He asked her out. On a date. She said no.

Bornfree
I agree about Sir Patrick Vallance.

I used to work in a hospital, starting at 4/5 in the morning and often just me and this guy. I never liked him and he always gave me creepy vibes.
He started being very vulgar, bullying and intimidating me, then telling people I wanted to be gang raped in the laundry etc.
I reported him many times and nothing ever happened - I never found out everything because I quit but he was under some protection order and literally couldn’t be fired. So no matter how badly he behaved towards me and others, he was safe.

Creepiest guy I’ve ever met.
(Ironically years later I met his brother, and he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met - but has no contact so never figured out the whole story!)

A family member tells a story of how they were approached in a park by a man on a park bench, this was in the late 80's. On appearance he was an ordinary friendly guy. Just a chance encounter. Roll on a few weeks later and same lady was walking children to school down a long path next to a river, a man on a motorcycle rides next to her on the path, which was unusual as it was a footpath. He speeds up and then pulls up sideways to her, blocking her way. He pulled up his visor and she recognises him as the same man. In her words, she experienced the worst feeling of fear ever, the circumstances, the look on his face. At that point parallel to where they were stood a dustbin lorry stops and the refuge collectors look over. At this point the man speeds away. Several years later she recognised the man again on the news, he was involved in a very high profile kidnap, rape and murder case. When she recalls the event she still gets distressed by it.

An old colleague of DH's. Only met him briefly about 3 or 4 times and on the surface he was perfectly polite and friendly but always had an instant sense that something was 'off' about him. A couple of years down the line he was found to be in possession of a large amount of indecent images of children.

Walking my dog on my usual woodland park route, I clocked a man sitting on a bench ahead of us who wasn't doing anything unusual at all but I just got a massive feeling that I should avoid him. My dog was off lead and though normally he trots towards every person he sees hoping they'll call him over for a stroke he literally walked in a semi circle to avoid him. He'd never done that ever before. I was edgy enough to look over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't following us. A few weeks later, a series of attacks took place in the woods on solo walkers, two of whom died of their injuries. I immediately thought of this person, and sure enough when he was caught & they put a photo of the culprit on the TV news it was him.

Years ago I worked with a man who came across as kind and generally nice but I just knew I wouldn’t want to be alone in a room with him.
One day, chatting with the other women in the office, his name came up and every single woman (about 6 or 7 of us) had got the same odd vibe from him.
I’ve never experienced that gut feeling before or since.

There is a man in our IT Security team who gives us all the creeps. As soon as we see him you get a shiver down your back. He's never anything but polite and professional but we have all said independently that we would hate to be on our own in a room with him.

Mines not a person who creeped me out but a letter that should have creeped me out. Years ago, before pcs or the Internet were a thing I put an ad in a lonely hearts magazine. I was very pretty back then so I got literally hundreds of letters from interested men. Quite a lot of them were clearly non starters so I developed a screening system. Anyone who was offensive (too overtly sexual/sexist/racist) the letters went in the bin. An awful lot who seemed nice but just didn’t appeal got a short letter thanking them for responding but I had reunited with my husband, good luck with life type message (I hadn’t ever been married but it seemed like a kind brush off).

To narrow things down further I bought a book on handwriting analysis and analysed the writing on the letters of men who seemed nice and then sent the kind brush off letter to anyone whose handwriting showed unpleasant traits....except one!

According to the book this guy’s hand writing indicated he was possessive, deceitful and manipulative, that he thought normal rules didn’t apply to him and that he was capable of cruelty. But I’d only bought the book for a bit of a laugh and he was handsome and literate and witty and his job as a US Air Force officer based in the U.K. seemed glamorous and exotic. I replied to his letter and we dated for several months. We spent holidays together and he met my family.

After a little while dividing our time between my London flat and his airbase I began to realise the handwriting analysis was spookily accurate. He was a very complicated man from a neglectful and abusive background with a distorted moral code. The more time I spent with him, the more I realised he wasn’t capable of a functional relationship and after about 7/8 months I ended it.

Then the shit hit the fan - he would make the 240 mile round trip to stand outside my flat and watch me come home at night - all in total silence. He broke in one day and stole all my underwear, my sanpro , my passport and my address book. He wrote to all my friends and family assuring them that our split was temporary and we would be reconciled soon. He destroyed and defiled presents I’d given him and sent me photos of the soiled wreckage. He made lengthy and vile abusive phone calls to my home and work. I eventually complained to the police who didn’t take it that seriously but mentioned it to his commanding officer only to discover I was the third woman to make similar complaints about him. He was demoted and thankfully, transferred back to the States. Only he didn’t stop there, his work was in telecoms and he used his expertise and contacts to continue the phone harassment. For a few weeks I got abusive calls from people all over the world at all hours of the night and it took a while for the penny to drop and link it to him. I complained to the USAF again and thankfully I never heard from him again.

My cousins dad scared me when I was little I think 6 when I met him. I remember if we went over sitting next to my mum the whole time because I was scared, I even told my mum he was a bad man. He never done anything to me and I was never left alone with him even for a moment. I still remember the feeling that something was wrong.

Turned out he had lots of mental health issues and had a breakdown where he thought people were trying to kill him in the end he kept my aunt and cousins in the house for weeks before she finally got a messege out and he was arrested and sectioned. He killed himself a few years later.