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?

Wow! She was RUDE!

Went with my two young sons to feed the ducks at a nearby reservoir. Had some stale brown bread and bird seed. Random woman comes up and started having a go that we were poisoning the birds. Explained that it was brown bread (🤣) and ended up showing her the contents of our bird feed!!!! She went off to have a go at another family 🤣 appreciate that birds do become ill if fed a lot of bread however isn't it better to feed them something???

🤣🤣🤣

Which did you choose?

Many years ago we ran a picture and framing shop. In the window we displayed the new print by Beryl Cook, Dancing on the Bar. A lady, who we had never seen before, stormed into the shop and lambasted DH for displaying such filth in a high street shopping centre. The shop next door was a newsagents selling fags that killed people and had a top shelf full of porn. I think she got the wrong shop.by the way, the smuttierr the picture by Beryl Cook, the better they sold.

🤣🫢

Sounds like the same kind of weirdo who would say to a woman they never met before 'Looks like you were about to squat for a piss' when she was just lifting the back of her coat up to get her phone out. 🙄

Some men are just weird perverts aren't they?!

Head.

Agreed.

I also worry about the social skills of people who think it’s normal/OK to just blurt out their every thought to random strangers. Comments about pissing aside, surely it’s generally just basic manners not to make personal comments about people to them as they walk past.

Maybe these are the sorts of people who also boast about ‘telling like it is’ and ‘calling a spade a spade’ and ‘having no filter’ as if that’s something to be proud of, when they are, in fact, just really fucking rude.

I believe that was from a children's programme called The Herbs. Sometimes on at lunchtime I think.
Parsley the lion was quite funny!

The Herb Garden! Loved Parsley the lion.

A woman stormed past me in the park where I was walking my two perfectly ordinary rescues and said crossly “Those aren’t dogs, they’re accessories!” No idea what that was about and I was too taken aback to reply.

She'd have hated the skirts I wore back in the late 60s early 70s then!

I also once caught a man surreptitiously pretending to be a horse in an alleyway behind some shops which made my day at the time but looking back I think it may have been mental health related.

Walking my dog last week along a local path that is narrow. The norm is a polite smile, Good Morning, let the dogs sniff and keep walking.
A woman I've never seen before stopped for a full chat. It quickly turned from the weather to the fact her male dog had been trying to hump so much that he had a swollen, red, infected penis! This then progressed about her husband who had a urine infection and all about his ailments. 😬
I feel she had no one else to chat to, but I needed to get to work, and really didn't want to know details of her dogs or husbands penis! 😱

Haha @mynameiscalypso , I did wonder whether I'd find a thread on here - 'AIBU never to go back to the park again? I shouted 'Chlamydia!' at a total stranger!'

While I appreciate my example is slightly due to ableism, I still think it was totally weird:

At a very professional conference with my entire colleague team, along with people from all the “company owned” places in the area (about 500 people). Sitting in a seat and chatting as we wait for the current break to end and workshop to commence. Old guy comes up and taps me on the shoulder and says “what happened to you?”. I ask what he means, looking down at myself totally baffled. He says “what happened to your leg?” And points at the walking stick propped up next to me. I’m like OH he means why do I use my stick! So I reply “I have a disability and I have to use a stick to walk”. He continues to ask me about my disability - “were you born with it?” Etc which is very uncomfortable. I’m vague in answering and he suddenly goes “well done for managing to work even though you’re disabled! Goodbye.” And walks off. My colleagues next to me are asking who he is and then dying of laughter when I’m like “ I don’t know” because he didn’t even ask my name or say hello or anything.

Twenty minutes later, me and two people sat next to me have to excuse ourselves from the hall so we can cry of laughter outside because he’s introduced on stage as essentially the head of the board of the company! I’m so far down the chain and there was NO WAY he knew who I was. We had to attend again last year and I avoided sitting at the end of the row that time round! I’m not going this year but every time it’s discussed at work, someone brings up the story! 😂

I was restocking loose peppers when I worked at a supermarket, a customer came up to tell me I should never eat the red ones raw because they "cut up your insides"

An old guy stopped me in a bus station once, made me take my headphones out, and said in a voice loud enough for everyone nearby to hear "I just want to say how good it is to see a lovely slim girl walking around, not like all these fat ones". Completely unhinged behaviour.

WTAF.

I’d go with head first, myself, though.

This and some of the other comments by men, like the 'squat to piss' one, remind me of the sort of things my elderly friend comes out with. He thinks he is HILARIOUS. I've pointed out until I'm blue in the face that it's not even slightly amusing and may well upset people, but he just stomps saying that it's people's fault for being too sensitive.
He's a complete dick sometimes, but he doesn't want to be educated.

It's an old children's tv show

I don't find that pervy at all. I'd have cracked up to be honest!

Commenting about it looking like someone was going to take a piss is not really a personal comment. It’s not referencing someone’s personal features or mannerisms and I doubt they meant it in a pervy way if it was said with a “haha”. It might not be something I would do but I wouldn’t give it too much thought if someone had said it to me.

This one prompted a memory for me!

I was 14 and out in town with my uncle (45ish) and my cousin (3) who were visiting from America. An older lady came up to us in a cafe to coo over my cousin and then asked if I was her mum! Hilarious and then it dawned on me that she must've thought my uncle was my partner 😅

On another occasion, I was walking up a high street and turned into a small newsagents to buy a newspaper.

Between the shop server and the public was one of those deep sweet counters. Squatted on top of the sweets, was another elderly gentleman pawing at the lollipops and chocolate bars. A young teenager then appeared and tried to coax him down saying "Grandad, don't do that please. You know it's wrong."

I was very unsettled for a while.