Strangest encounter with a stranger?

[elevenspowers]

Today I went to the cash point outside Tesco and a man walked in front of me diagonally and we almost clashed and so I moved back (assumed he was walking to the entrance) and he just stared at me.

He was on the phone talking, with his back to the cash point, staring at me carrying on his conversation. So after about a few seconds I was like “are you using the cash point” - he responded yes but then still carried on his conversation. I was just like 😬 ok ….

Probably not that weird, but it’s fresh in my head.

It was the late 80s and I agreed to wait for my then boyfriend now husband in the pub. I didn't like going into pubs on my own but it was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday and I thought 'what could go wrong?' I took along a copy of the Guardian to hide behind.

I was sitting there with my lime and soda and a man came up and asked me if I was one of those feminists. I said that I suppose I was in favour of equal pay for equal work and so on. He leaned close and said, so where were you in Kenya, 1956? I wasn't even born then!

I was never so glad to see DH in my life when he turned up to rescue me.

To the pp who had an identical waitress twin - my dd at primary school and dd at secondary school have identical looking best friends 😂 my daughters and I cannot believe the resemblance , it is uncanny. We've done our enquiries and there is absolutely no relation between them, they don't know each other at all. Older dd and I secretly have agreed that one of the dads has been up to no good 😂

@EnjoythemoneyJane and@SlightlyJaded you’ve reminded me of a similar incident.

I was in a restaurant with my DP, having a few drinks after a meal with a friend and her DP. This woman and her friend came over (probably my Mums ages) hovering a bit and then kept saying ‘hello?!hi!’ to me, trying to wave to get my attention. I had no idea who they were but then they pulled up a chair!

I was like, ‘sorry I have no idea who you are’ and this one woman kept saying ‘you were at X last week, why are you trying to pretend you don’t know me!’ Well I wasn’t at ‘X’ because I was on holiday with DP! I kept saying sorry you’re mistaken, but they wouldn’t move and kept staring at me and getting more annoyed I wasn’t chatting to them.

We ended up getting the bill hastily and leaving!

The doppelganger ones have reminded me of one, although it's not strictly speaking mine!

I was at a party at my sisters and one of her friends come up to me and said "Oh hi, I didn't realise you worked in JD Sports" I replied that I don't and she said, that she'd seen me there the other day. I said, sorry it wasn't me - I hadn't been in there in months. She looked horrified and said "But I was talking to you for about 20 minutes!" 😂
She was a good friend of my sister and we'd been to several partys/meals etc together so it's not like she'd only met me in passing before this!

I was also nearly refused entry to a club because apparently I'd caused trouble there the week before, when I hadn't been there in ages - so I've never met them but it seems like I have someone who looks just like me selling trainers and drinking too much round my way!

@Chubarubrub at least you didn't get twatted across the face by her 😂 seems like a win for me 🙌🏻🤣

I have name changed for these because they have been posted a few years back. There are two odd encounters. Both occurred in the same UK county and a short distance from each other, but years apart.

The first, about 20 years ago. We were on holiday in the UK as a young family with small children. As I walked with DD from the car across some grass to the dunes by a beach a 40 year old man with an Australian accent, bleached blond, surfer type was doing beach duties, picking up litter, emptying bins, getting deckchairs out etc. This was the first full day of the holiday and the first time we had ever been to this beach. He said in a really friendly manner to a toddler "Hello DD name. I hope you have a lovely day on the beach." Still puzzled to this day how he could have known DD's name. We were well out of earshot when we parked up and until we approached him he had one of those utility buggies running its engine. He could not have heard DD's name. It is a name we all know and there is a famous TV presenter who has it, but according to the internet only 2 people in 1,000 has it as a first name. Still puzzled to this day.

The second was a few years later. Like the poster above, this is another 'Jesus' story. I was on holiday on my own, newly single, having some peace and quiet renting an isolated cottage on a hill overlooking a small market town. That fortnight I never drove anywhere, just walked the hills and went to the town for supplies. It was a baking hot two weeks and midday I would walk down to the town and usually have a brunch in one of the cafes or a meal in a pub. It was one of those 'crafty - organic - alternate living' sort of towns if that description makes sense. Out of season it was busy but not rammed. One lunchtime it was a blue sky, balmy sort of day, just perfect weather wise, and the whole world seemed at peace with itself. I walked down to an organic produce store with a cafe on the side that served home made dishes from local ingredients. Having eaten, I went to the produce section to select various items to take home for the evening. Standing there, selecting some apples to put in a paper bag was this tall tanned man about 30-40, dressed in thin and worn beige shorts and a vivid brown t-shirt, worn mat sandals on his feet. His hair was long to his shoulders, straggly but not unkempt. His eyes were light brown and his skin tanned from years of being outdoors. He had this aura about him of complete relaxation and peace, with just the faint hint of a warm smile. When he looked at people he seemed to get right into the depth of them. Like hundreds of years of knowledge held into that gaze. His eyes had the small crinkles around them that come from lots of smiling, but the most striking part was his skin which was absolutely flawless all over. I often wish I could go back and grab a bag of those same apples!

I came down the escalator in M&S, and an Italian man at the bottom bowed to me and smiled. Really made my day!

Mine was with someone who turned out not to be a stranger (to my husband anyway!).

Sitting together in the park minding our own business, a random man walked past and threw 50p at us and said (with a fair amount of vitriol) 'sorry, I don't have any more change' (we in no way looked like we were begging!).

Completely bemused until it later turned out that one of husband's exes from a brief/casual relationship was now a transman and that was him - still clearly pissed off for whatever reason.

It was very surreal at the time!

I've just remembered an odd one. I was out in a shopping centre, around 16 years old. I noticed a flash and that a random, middle aged, woman had taken a photograph of me. It was in the days before we all had mobile phones. I turned round surprised, and she gave a big grin and said that she thought I looked Maid Marian, presumably by way of explanation, then walked off.

Yeah I suppose that’s how low the bar is with encounters with strangers … 😬

On the top of double-decker bus-to-work. Extremely-smelly person sat alongside, and fortunately left after about three stops ... to be replaced by another passenger who was also extremely-smelly. They also left after a couple of stops. When I got off the bus, both smelly-people were sitting together downstairs. ... After bus had pulled away, turned round to check if they were following, or for any other source of an unpleasant odour, but nobody there .... ... Just outside work called into the dry-cleaners, to have my coat cleaned after pint-of-beer had accidentally been poured over it the previous evening.

Looked like Maid Marian!

I'm autistic and the Tesco guy who's "weird" for not making small talk with supermarket cashiers and going straight to the products he wants to purchase rather than spending ages ambling around looking at biscuits sounds exactly like me

I don't think I am autistic, but it's exactly like me, too. I go in, get what I need, pay, leave. Usually use self-serve till, but don't get into lots of conversation if I use a (wo)manned till. Supermarkets are not social events for me! I also think that during covid people got into the habit of getting what they needed and leaving quickly.

A woman loitering in the space in front of and between two tills in the supermarket proper ranting and shouting at anyone who went in front of her that she was in the queue. Only there was no queue and she never actually went up to either till. Nor did she have anything in her trolley.

@Chubarubrub yes and unfortunately what happened to me ! Gosh I still feel that slap till this day and it's been nearly 20 years! But more than the slap I remember her hate filled eyes.
Nowt more scary than folk.

As a student nurse, we had a patient admitted with a head injury after being hit by a bus. Quite how was never established, I mean they are huge red things. Anyway, as he was three parts out of it, I had to make a record of his valuables which consisted mainly of an old but expensive heavy leather hold-all, containing at least £15, 000 in cash !. The strangest thing was, during his entire time in hospital, he never once asked about the bag nor did any of his relatives or work colleagues. The Police came to talk to him but left quite happily.

My immediate thoughts were that a bang on the head had affected his memory or that it wasn't his bag because if it had been stolen surely the Police would have confiscated the bag and arrested him.

I wasn't there when he was discharged but I was told he just picked the bag up, thanked everybody kindly, and left.

Years later I met up with friends I trained with and mentioned the man with the bag - it was a prop from a film production company, and the money wasn't real.

Not long after I'd had DS I went to the local precinct with him. After a mooch round I sat on a bench talking to DS. A bloke next to me started a rant about teenage mothers and what I disgrace I was. I told him my age (36). He blustered a bit then started going on about unwed mothers. I showed him my left hand with engagement and wedding ring. He starts on a rant about benefits. I told him I was on maternity leave (getting less polite).

He stood up, looked at me & said 'well, obviously I don't mean you and walked off.

omg that's actually hilarious

I was driving down this road and juts as I drove under the bridge a lady walking beside a man, it appeared they were together - hit hime side on with her handbag. The two kept moving walking side by side as if nothing had happened.

I wondered at the time what had happened, why she did this and why they kept walking as if nothing had happened?

so many unanswered questions

Nope not cigarette butts or litter, it's an exceedingly clean path! That's what puzzled me.

On reflection I think he was actually picking up bits of the gravel used which had small peices of the notable local stone in. Still utterly bizarre though.

@SlightlyJaded I think I'd be doing one of those ancestry dna tests if I was you! (If you do - please start a thread & tell us what happens

My unusual encounter with a stranger was really sweet. I was in Woolworths, so a few years ago. A young man with Down's Syndrome walked up to me and asked me to dance, there was music playing. His mother (well I assumed it was his mother) started to intervene but I said yes and we waltzed round the shop together.

We got lots of smiles and when the music came to an end we stopped, he bowed and thanked me and walked off. My husband shook his head and said, "It could only happen to you."

We were out walking our dog when a rolls Royce drove past. It stopped a few meters on and then reversed to where we were. The window rolled down and the elderly driver asked if we were free to attend his dog's birthday party that afternoon; there would be champagne and a cake.
we politely declined, as we were busy that day.

I’ve just read your thread! Bloody hell that’s awful!!

There was a road sweeper around the city who used to just stop, stand and stare at me with eyes of pure hate, so I know exactly what you mean!

I love this!