AIBU to think this lady was nuts? Share your WTF interactions with strangers here

[BarbaraVineFan]

In the park with 4 year old DD today and she became fascinated with a ladybird which she found near the path. We were standing by the side of the path as DD let the ladybird crawl over her arms and hands. A lady went past with a little kid of a similar age and was looking over, so I said 'we've got a ladybird!' (Not sure why really but I felt the need to explain.) Upon which this woman sort of sniggered and went 'ah..,Chlamydia!' And then just...went on her way.

Having googled, I see that apparently ladybirds carry all sorts of STIs, which they transmit to other ladybirds and not humans. So I guess that's what she meant. But at the time I was like 'What the actual fuck?' 😂 Who even says that to a stranger?!

Does anyone have any similar stories of batshit interactions with strangers to share?

FFS. It may be annoying when people have poor recall of their pets but there’s nothing racist about the situation. And presumably you missed that it wasn’t OP’s dog ?

Oh I know. Sadly back in 2002 we weren’t quite where we are now and if I’d tried to report him I would have been laughed at.

Had a stranger interrupt a conversation and the topic was so completely different from ours we were just stunned. Then after we made polite noises, they went into conspiracy theories, international underground groups and how Bernard from Temu was sorting out a refund. I think I know more about Bernard now than anyone else as they basically re enacted their lengthy phone call.

Out with my dad and my first baby. Dad bursting at the seams for being grandad. This woman stares at us and spits "you should be ashamed of yourself, she is young enough to be your daughter." Dad laughs and says "she is" woman then says "that's even worse you pervert!" And stomps off. My poor dad, he was a calm and placid man, but he was visibly shaking with anger.

I was a teenager, married with a baby and still had braces. I had the opposite problem as people assumed I was son's big sister and would ask to speak to my mum.

Just realised it’s interactions with strangers, mine wasn’t, so here’s one that was.

so was attending friends wedding, we had all taken our seats, there were exactly enough for everyone, the groom was patiently waiting for his bride to be. I was seated on the isle at the back, next to the doors that the bride would emerge from. Suddenly a lady entered, smartly dressed and holding a camera. She was standing there, and a fair bit older, so I politely asked if she would like to sit in my seat, she instantly said yes thank you and took my place, I felt a bit self conscious standing, but couldn’t leave this older guest without a seat, except she wasn’t a guest. At some point she volunteered the information to me that she’s not part of the wedding party, she just loves to take pictures of lovely weddings. I stood there thinking what the fuck! I was standing right where the bride entered, and would probably give her a start when she entered the room, also I was in line with the camera filming the ceremony, so captured would be the brides gasp at first seeing me, then my blurred figure positioned in between the couple exchanging their love for one another, with their ghostly third wheel.

Luckily a friend moved his son to his lap and offered me his seat, but I just couldn’t believe it, still no idea who she was. I was still too non confrontational back then, but would totally call her out these days, I’ve lost all my fucks for weirdness.

That was funny to be fair

A friend lives in a block of flats, one of his neighbours has become known as 'Shouty man'.

Now he probably has mental health issues but some of the stuff he shouts from his balcony is, er, curious.

Apparently, "Everyone wanted to call me father, even Zeus, wanted to call me father, father of Rome"

He also, "Can't do anything about those Catholic women"

Love this thread but I now have tunes from the herbs stuck as an earworms, rotating between "I'm a very friendly Lion called Parsley" and "I'm Dill the dog, I'm a dog called Dill". 😁
Amazing how our memories work and how a simple reminder can fire up a long forgotten time from our childhood.

This did not happen to me, but I witnessed it.

Standing at a cafe waiting to order and there was a man with a pram in front of me. he ordered, got his coffee and turned left to leave. A woman behind me started screaming at him; 'YOU DON;T TURN LEFT, YOU TURN RIGHT TO LEAVE A LINE YOU TURN RIGHT'. She completely lost it and was screaming. he told her he would turn in any direction he chose and walked off. She started talking at me saying 'You try and explain things to someone and they don't listen'.

Anyway- if anyone reading is this man on Sandown beach, Isle of Wight- you were very restrained.

The piss one cracked me up and I'd have laughed. Sorry not sorry.

Walking around Park Lane on a quiet weekday morning with my DF when a car pulled up and the guy tries to sell us random designer stuff. Suits, watches etc probably stolen.
we politely declined, which set him off into a rant of expletives. Drove round the roundabout by Hyde Park and came back again to continue swearing at us about how we had no style.
This was my poor dad's first day in London.

Oh my God, you sweet summer child.

Dont go looking up sexual kinks involving squatting or golden showers or other things. You dont want that on your search history.

In a local garden centre on Sunday and I was looking at the clothes. I saw top I liked and said to husband 'ooh this is nice', he said along the lines of 'you've got loads like that' and laughed. and this random man nearby said 'let her try it on and tell her she looks fat in it - works for me'. I actually wanted to tell him the 50's wanted him back and do a speech about body positivity or something , but instead just looked at him and said 'I actually don't know what to say' as he had a little laugh to himself.

I was in my local Morrisons choosing some cheese. A youngish guy came up alongside me, looked at me and enthusiastically proclaimed "Lovely bit of cheese, Gromit!" while wiggling his fingers Wallace style. It did make me laugh!

But the scales would lie head to tail so would be easier to go in. Not so pleasant coming out.
God I need a life!

That cannot be real....can it?????

I mean surely that's something to bring to HR's attention - the type of questioning being made by a new coworker, right???

Just being a disabled woman gives the population at large the impression they are entitled to be invasive and patronising. “What’s wrong with you?”, “have you been abandoned?”, “can I pray for you?” Etc

Coccinella in Italian. You said 'Ladybird'. She instantly translated it into her own language to her own child: 'Coccinella.' You heard 'Chlamidia.'

Ladybirds can bite, OP. I know they're tiny but it's not pleasant.

On a bus, one of those small, single deck ones, a few years ago. A very old man of around Eighty stood up and then collapsed in his seat clutching his chest and the bus stopped while the ambulance came. Some woman became near hysterical as she was going to be late for her board meeting. She had one of those authoritative, booming voices and was loudly demanding to the driver that the ill man should be taken immediately off the bus and left on the pavement so the bus could keep moving... When I heard her say, 'He's probably going to die anyway' I was filled with despair at how some people lose sight of humanity. The poor old man looked so frightened and scared...

@greektreacle you’ve reminded me of my own bus stop harassment. I was around 14 waiting at the bus stop on my own on my way home from my nanas house. It was summer so I was wearing a singlet (vest) top and a skirt. An old man stumbles up to me and says ooh, “I’d love to suck on those”… I was mortified and I didn’t really understand why he would want to do something like that, I only thought they were to feed babies. It was probably the start of too much unwanted male attention. Really sickening.

When my eldest was about 18 months I'd gone on a shopping trip with my Mum. Headed into a big store and someone behind me started making duck quacking noises. I initially decided to completely ignore it as who knows what's going through some peoples heads.
Then we stopped to look at something we wanted to buy. Next thing I know, the duck quacker has pushed in front of us and is shouting at my Mum. Properly yelling that my Mum needed to leave her alone and stop over reacting and calm down. At this point neither of us had said anything to duck quacking woman.
My Mum made the mistake of reacting to her. I can't remember exactly what my Mum said but it was along the lines of "What is your problem?"
Duck quacking woman only got louder. Really yelling at us to "calm down" and how it can all be sorted out if we calm down.
By this point I'm beyond baffled and a little scared. I tried to manoeuvre myself and my son in his buggy out of her way and get passed, but she wasn't having it. I told her she was being very rude. Didn't shout and it was literally the only thing I'd said during the whole encounter and she then went off at me, bellowing at me for "over reacting" and "how dare you, you've got a child!"
I was still trying to get out of the encounter when my Mum spots a bloke Duck lady is with. He's just stood there grinning, like he's getting off on the whole situation.
By this point my Mum has gone from confused to angry. I think grinning man could sense this and started pulling duck lady away. She carries on yelling and making duck noises, threatening to call the police on us, calling us unstable and unfit to be around a baby. Eventually grinning man pulls her out of sight and she is gone in a hail of duck quacks.
I wanted to report her to a member of staff at the shop, but my Mum thought it best we just act like it didn't happen.
I am still baffled by the whole thing years later.
If there's a very tall woman who decided to make random duck noises at two people in Clas Ohlson eleven years ago, could you please tell me why?

Sorry, but 'hail of duck quacks' is an hilarious sentence.

But that event is really creepy and unsettling.

(Edited because I'm hungover and can't recall is the correct grammar is ' a hilarious ' or 'an hilarious'. )

budnode

Your acceptance of this is a large part of the problem.