Ever have a totally insane/surreal encounter with a stranger that

[henslee]

you will never forget and to this day, not quite not understand? Alone in a TV repair shop, I once politely called out the owner who wanted to charge me 70 dollars to solder a loose connection on my radio. He got so mad he screamed and started throwing handfuls of connectors and crap at me. He cursed me in a foriegn language as I ran from the store. I never went back there but I drive by all the time.

[snacker]

1. My daughters stopped at a McDonald's and had a strange encounter.

A man came up to them and started talking. He told them each about their futures and what kind of personalities they each had. He actually "guessed" at what each of them did for a living. They were in awe of this stranger and ended up listening and talking with him for about 30 minutes while a group of other McDonald customers sat around. The guy was right on a lot of the things he said about each of them.

[Jara sang]

2. I was hitch-hiking in Zion National Park in the early '90s

I was at the east entrance trying to get to Kanab. This guy, also hitching strolls up. I asked him where he had been. He said he started out in Newfoundland, had hitched across Canada into Montana and was making his way down to Mexico and South America. I thought I had hitched a long way, from Jackson Hole to Zion N.P. He was from Holland and had a ragged out backpack and appearance. I walked further down the road, as two dudes hitching togther will never get a ride. The next day I saw him at the hostel in Kanab, he had spent the night before in some caves up on these sandstone cliffs outside of Zion.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Yeah

Once I was walking down the street, and this totally unknown to me guy came up to me to bum a cigarette. He then started callimg me names, 'fag, homo', because I smoked menthol. Then he asked if he could move in with me.

[henslee]

5. good story... you menthol smoking fag.

[EstimatedProphet]

10. It was YOU!

Still homeless?

[DemoTex]

4. Yes, I was threatened on King Street in Old Town Alexandria (VA)

The guy went bonkers because I had my dog, Sirius, leashed to a bike-rack (in 60-degree weather) while we ate breakfast in a restaurants front window not six feet away. The guy comes into the restaurant screaming about animal abuse, yada-yada-yada. I stood up to him. He went totally assholic and told me he had friends at animal control and would call them and have me arrested. I was calm. He was insane.

We ended up out front, because he said he was going to take Sirius. He threatened me again (with physical violence), but a crowd had gathered so he finally sidled off. He was bizarre, but the strangest thing was to come.

About a month later, I had jury duty in Alexandria. I was empaneled on a jury in a criminal case. The judge called in the bailiff (or court clerk, I can't remember the exact title) to swear in the jury. Guess who? Mr. Street Nazi himself. He recognized me, too, and look like he dropped a load in his panties. He instructed us to raise our right hands.

At that point I cleared my voice and said very loudly, to the judge, "Your Honor, I must talk with you in your chambers immediately" It must have been the biggest WTF moment in that judges career. All hell broke loose. The judge was furious. He asked me what was going on. I replied that something had just happened that rendered my unfit for duty on that jury in his court. We went to his chambers.

I told the judge my story. He was appalled that an officer of the court had acted that way in public toward a law-abiding citizen (and not a half block away from the courthouse, to boot). The judge agreed that my experience would be too distracting to me to serve on a jury with that man exercising official duties in that court. A sheriff's deputy escorted me out the back way and the judge returned to his court.

I never found out what happened to Mr. Street Nazi. I saw a few days later that the defendant in that trial (a medical doctor) was convicted of drug offenses. I never saw Mr. Street Nazi around Alexandria again.

[hobo_baggins]

7. Old Town has some strange folks in it...

I get approached daily by homeless people who have obvious mental disorders, its more sad than anything, but sometimes it can be really scary.

And I had words once with one woman who for over two years would ask me at least once a week for money because she was homeless and pregnant. I asked how long the fetus was gonna gestate.

[DemoTex]

15. I lived in O/T for about 10 years (north end on N. Pitt) Another C-Z story

I rented a quasi-indoor parking place from the Old Colony Inn for my mint 1978 Porsche 911SC coupe. I watched a homeless guy walk into that garage one day (lots of cars there, so I didn't think anything about it -- much), and then I heard a loud crash. I ran over from my town house in time to see him running out of the Old Colony Inn's parking garage. The back part of my car cover had been lifted and he had kicked in the rear deck (engine cover) of my freshly restored 911SC. He ran out onto Washington at Bashford Lane and tried to break into the car of a woman who had stopped for that light.

She called 911 and I called 911 and the cops came. From our descriptions of the guy they said he was from a camp of homeless men, mostly winos, in the low woods on the west bank of the Potomac between Marina Towers at the end of Slaters Lane, and the federally run marina between that condo and Washington National Airport.

I was based in Washington then on the Boeing 737-300/400. I watched that area for weeks, from the air on approach and takeoff, like a hawk from about 500 feet. There is a clearing back there with a park service greenhouse and piles of bark mulch. But I did see smoke from campfires (Viet Nam recon trained) in the denser, more swampy areas of that little parcel of land.

Ended up, several women were assaulted along the bike path in that area. A couple of them were raped.

A few months later, I was in my kayak gliding along the west bank of the Potomac, when I spotted the guy that I had seen go into and out of the Old Colony Garage (I did not see him actually kick my car). He was on a park bench, asleep, with a wine bottle nearby. I saw two cops on bicycles at another close-by park, and alerted them. I told them my story.

They got the guy and found out that he had a long list of sexual assault complaints and charges against him. Many of those crimes were on the bike path between DCA and Alexandria. They arrested him there, drunk, and locked him up.

BTW: This dangerous hoodlum was about 25, medium build, and lily white. Eh, Rita?

[rockymountaindem]

6. Not insane, but meaningful

I don't remember who it was that said this to me, but I remember it being in a bookstore with my mom when I was about 14 years old. I started chuckling to myself because I remembered something funny I had seen on TV before we went to get my class reading list at the store for the upcoming school year. My mom remarked to me that I go around like that, laughing or smiling to myself, a lot, and asked why.

This old man with a beard who overheard us talking piped up and said "Always smile, kid! People'll wonder what yer up to!"

I still think of those words of wisdom when I catch myself smiling in public for my own reasons.

[politicat]

8. Good Friday, 2003.

I'd stopped at the grocery store to pick up something (I can't even remember what, now), and it was late.

The woman in front of me started chattering at me that it was ridiculous that the store was going to be open on Sunday (Easter) and I shrugged in my usual liberal way and said, "Well, not everybody's Christian, you know." (Note: I live in a liberal town in a liberal county in a fairly moderate state. Colorado's purple, and pretty solidly so. My county is 70% Democrat, and my town is about 60% with 15% either liberal independent or Green. I've lived in conservative places - this is not one of them, and I usually don't have to keep my mouth shut about these kind of things here.)

She FREAKED. Wigged. Went totally Batshit Loony, yelling at me and telling me to go to Iran if I was that type of person and that I didn't deserve to be alive, much less living in the United States.

It was so fucked up, and the clerk refused to do anything - I said, "Would you call for your security? (Because I thought she was going to hit me) and he said, "Well, I'm Catholic." Like that excuses him from dealing with the utter psycho in his lane.

I dropped the stuff I was going to buy, walked out - getting my phone out on the way, ducked into the liquor store next door, and dialed the cops in case the looney psycho followed me. She didn't but it definitely freaked me out.

The next day, the manager of the store wouldn't look at the tapes or even talk to the clerk who had been such a dickhead.

I do not shop at Albertson's anymore.

[hobo_baggins]

9. a friend and I had a very good encounter with a stranger once

I think he must have been a guardian angel or something.

We were at a phish concert in hampton VA, and it was below 0 outside. We got there late and couldn't find parking in the lot, so we ended up parking in a McDonalds parking lot. We left all our stuff in the car because we didn't want to deal with it in the show, so we had on short sleeves in the freezing cold.

Well halfway through the show my friend got sick and wanted to go lay down in the car, so i gave him the keys and he went out(once you leave you can't get back in the show). I didn't find him till after the show, turns out the car had been towed, and he was stuck sitting in the freezing cold in his t-shirt.

A man approached him while he was out there freezing and just gave him his jacket. Didn't want it back, just said here, take this.

So when I got out of the concert, theres my friend with a jacket, and he tells me about this man. So we call the place who towed us and its about 5 miles away, and we have to walk.

As we start walking a man pulls up in a car and its the guy who gave my friend the jacket, he offers to give us a ride. which we take...really nice guy.

Maybe hes a guardian angel or something. Who knows.

[SeattleGirl]

11. So insane ones, but several really cool ones

All involving car breakdowns.

Once I was stranded on Interstate 5 in Oregon, while driving to Eugene to see my family. A big rig truck driver stopped, picked me up, and drove me to my mother's front door, 50 miles from where I was stranded (the motor in the car blew, so no quick fixes).

Another time, my fan belt broke on my way to work. A man stopped to help, and when he saw it was the fan belt, he drove me to an auto parts store, bought me the fan belt (my bank account was close to empty at the time), drove me back, put the new belt on, and wished me a good day.

Then there was the cop who was behind me in the lane that turns onto the freeway. My car died, so he pushed me over to the side of the road, and gave me a ride to work. I had to sit in the back seat, and he and I were cracking up at the looks I was getting from passing cars.

In each case, I had no qualms about accepting rides from these guys. And they gave me no reason to feel any qualms. I call them my Angels in Human Suits.

[bertha katzenengel]

12. Yep. I was, i dunno, 8 or 9. My sisters and I were in the station wagon,

left by our mother and her husband when they went into the store. It was hot and the windows were open. I was in the driver's seat, my sisters in back. My mother's purse was on the floor, next to my foot and the gas pedal. A hippy walked by and bent over and asked us the time. Before we could answer, his whole body was in the front passenger window and he was pulling my mother's purse (it was white) out by the flap cover. As it flew past me in slow motion, I grabbed the strap and flew with the purse, slapping the strap against the car door. The hippy ran off with the flap in his hand and I was left with the purse.

I don't remember my mother's reaction when she got back to the car. But she'd bought us each a smiley-face pendant in a different color. Mine was blue. When she gave it to me I asked her "is this because I was a hero?" and she said, "no, everyone got one." I wished that the hippy had gotten the purse. I had some small revenge, though. In the mini-melee, her glasses flew out and were lost forever. :evilfrown:

edit: Okay, I've just read over the other responses and see that mine doesn't really fit. :shrug:

[nytemare]

13. At JFK's grave at Arlington

This guy started yelling at Kennedy to rise up, and yelled that if we all believe, he will rise again. All I could picture was a pissed of corpse rising from the ground and punching this guy in the face.

Surreal, indeed. I think Dali might have done a painting about it.

[Idylle Moon Dancer]

14. This big eastern european guy,

I think he was from Bosnia, whom I had met only once or twice at community college, persuaded me to go get some beer with him (this was about 9 o'clock in the morning, I should have been in class. He probably should have been in class as well.) I don't remember all the details, but there was guzzling of beer in the parking lot, with me desperately trying to keep up with him against my better judgment. There was a trip to a nearby strip club (at 10 o'clock in the morning! I was amazed they were even open at that time) where he bought me a burger and fries and seemingly endless pitchers of beer. By the end of all this I was staggeringly drunk before noon and he seemed totally unfazed.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. Lesson: don't go drink to drink with Eastern European dudes. Important

safety tip.

I, also, have learned this lesson, the hard way... ;)

[AlCzervik]

16. yes with a LaRouchey in San Francisco, i finally had yelled at a cop car

in the area, i asked her to watch my daughter because i didn't want to kick this womans ass in front of my kid. It was unreal, her at table with all her Larouche crazy pamphlets and she's trying to give me some of them, "no thanks" she starts following us and then i finally stop and she's in my face screaming about corporations and the jews running everything, my daughter started crying, it was really ugly but on the plus side the cop said i could beat her ass silly and i wouldn't get arrested. the woman finally backed down once she realized i had about 50 pounds on her.

[MissB]

18. Our van broke down on the way back from the coast once.

A couple in a motor home picked us up and drove us all the way to Portland- to our doorstop. We were extremely grateful, but they were downright odd. They didn't speak to us the entire time. And it was a good 2 hour trip.

But they didn't take money either. :shrug:

[clyrc]

19. I've had a few

The one I remember most fondly, though, is a blood test given by an Indian man. I had to get my blood tested every six months, because of a medication I took, but I hated getting blood drawn. This particular time, I had been sick for a long time and I was grumpy. The Indian nurse took my arm, looked deeply into my eyes, and gave me the blood test. I didn't feel the needle, and in fact I started to feel pretty good. We smiled at each other when he was done, and I left still smiling. I remember being happy for the rest of the day, a very unusual thing after a blood test!

[RumpusCat]

20. Standing on a corner in NYC a few years ago, waiting for a friend

A tiny wizened little guy comes up to me, points his finger accusingly, and hisses, "I used to be just like you!" I had just moved to the city and wasn't quite sure what to do about crazies yet so I hesitated, and he took another step closer and repeated: "I used to be just like you!" It was early evening and the area was busy so I bit and replied, "Well, what happened?"

The little guy broke into this huge smile and boomed: "I GOT OLD!" And then hobbled off. I'm... still not sure what to think about it all.

[1gobluedem]

21. I met human SPAM

I was waiting for the elevator in my building when a man I'd never seen before walked up to me and said "Are you happy with your mortgage rate?" (note: this is a building on a college campus). I said yes and he walked out the door.

Kind of pales in comparison to some of these stories but I found it odd.

[grace0418]

23. I had a totally different picture in my head before I read the rest

of your post. Human spam... *shudder*

[grace0418]

22. I was on the bus going home from work.

I was spacing out, looking out the window, when a man got on and sat in the seat right in front of me. I think he was a waiter or busboy based on his outfit, and he was probably on his way to work because he was freshly showered. I didn't see his face or anything, but he smelled so good and the way his hair curled at the nape of his neck was so cute that it was all I could do not to lean forward and kiss his neck. I have no idea what came over me.

But the weirdest part was a few minutes later. He got up to leave out the back door (I was sitting right in front of the back door), and I turned and looked out the window, embarassed by what I had been thinking. While the bus was slowing down and just before he got off, he reached out and stroked my hair. Normally I would be really grossed out by a stranger doing that, but I wasn't at all. I still never really saw his face but I could see that he was smiling, then he jumped off the bus.

[quiet.american]

24. A naked guy jumped out of the bushes, touched my behind and....

....flew back into the bushes! ....Years ago, in a small New Mexico town, at about 9:30 at night, I went for a walk to a grocery store which was about about three blocks away.

On my way back home, I was about 100 yards away from my door, when out of nowhere, a naked guy (in his 20's) leapt out from some bushes on the sidewalk, ran up behind me, touched my behind, and then disappeared back into the bushes.

Needless to say, I made it to my door in record time. I picked up the phone to call the cops, turned around, and I see this guy, still naked, looking in my front window. When he saw me, he took off.

The cops got there in about two minutes, and as far as I know, they never did find him, and I never saw him again.

[plcdude]

26. Matcom

you have some splaining to do.

[begin_within]

25. I was once kicked out of a Radio Shack store when I asked for a catalog,

and the guy didn't want to give me one, and he finally let me look at the store's copy of it, but wouldn't let me keep the printed copy (this was in 1982). I said, "Do they want my business or not?" and the guy grabbed the catalog and said, "Go On. Just Get Out. Go. Now. Just Get Out Now." I was shocked and just walked out, then later that night called the store and told the manager the story and he was very apologetic but I never went back there again.

[Lisa]

27. most bizarre one I can think of actually happened to a friend ...

She was riding the bus with a bag of groceries in her lap. There was box of doughnuts sticking out of the bag. A 40-something woman whom she swears she had never seen before suddenly leaned across the aisle, said "you're going to think I'm dreadful", laughed merrily -- and proceeded to take the box, open it, remove a doughnut and put the box back in the bag. She then got off the bus, eating the doughnut! No apology or explanation -- that was it!

My friend was so amazed that she didn't do or say anything -- just sat there in shock, with the open box still sticking out of the bag. (This being Canada, none of the other people on the bus did much either ... a couple of murmurs of "oh my god" and some head-shaking.)

We discussed it after, and the only thing I could come up with was that maybe the woman was a diabetic who was having a sugar low, and had no snacks or money to buy them, at that moment. And her need just overrode any natural caution or manners. (I have a couple of diabetic friends, and they have blurted out some things during sugar lows which would appear quite out of character ... and have no memory of this afterwards.)

[begin_within]

28. Here's an odd thing that we still talk about every Super Bowl Sunday...

We live in the hills right up above Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, and in January 2003 the Super Bowl was here. I thought there was going to be a fly-over right before the game, so I went outside (The Super Bowl was also held here in 1998, and we were at a friend's house to watch the game in another part of town. But when I came home, my neighbor had told me that the B-2 bomber along with 2 fighter jets had flown directly over our street, barely a couple hundred feet above the rooftops, before flying over the stadium right after the national anthem was sung. He said he was amazed at how low they flew over our neighborhood.)

So when the Dixie Chicks finished singing the national anthem at the game in 2003, I stepped out the front door to see if there was going to be a fly-over. There were no planes, so if they did do a fly-over they must have done the approach from a different direction. There was a man standing there at our front gate who was dripping with water, and he was wearing my Mom's light blue slacks and he had one of our bath towels around his shoulders. He had long "Jesus Christ"-style hair, and looked like he was about 40 years old. I just said, "Can I help you?" and he said he wanted to buy a pair of shorts from me. I said, "Where did you come from? What are you doing?" and he said that he had been looking for his dog, which was lost in the canyon behind our house. I said, "Do you live around here?" and he mumbled some kind of non-response. He said, "I just wanted to buy a pair of shorts from you." I just said, "That's our towel," to which he said nothing.

By this time my Mom had come out front and saw him, and she recognized her slacks that he had on, and she started talking to him while I went in the house and found an old pair of swimming trunks I hadn't worn in years. I came back out and handed them to him and said, "Here, you can just have these, you don't have to buy them. Where are you going?" and again he could not come up with any answer. He changed into the shorts and gave me my Mom's slacks and I asked him to give me the towel. He had no shirt, no shoes, no wallet, nothing at all except the short I had given him. I said, "Are you OK? Where do you live?" and he said something but he was walking away from us and I couldn't tell what he said. He disappeared around the corner wearing nothing except for the shorts I had given him, and we never saw him again.

We went back in to watch the game, and a few minutes later I went and looked around the backyard. The backyard was all wet, and the guy must have come up into the yard from the canyon, apparently naked, and hosed himself down with our garden hose while we were watching the Dixie Chicks sing the national anthem. Then he put on my Mom's slacks and put the towel around his shoulders (those were the only 2 items that were hanging on the line to dry in our backyard.)

If I hadn't gone out to look in the sky for the fly-over, we would have never seen the guy at all. My Mom thought he was an escaped prisoner, but there is no prison near us. I think he was on drugs or mentally unbalanced in some way. A few hours later I was taking out the trash and I opened up an empty trash can, and there was a strange pair of shorts in it. Inside the pockets there was $23 in cash, plus a printout from Mapquest, with directions on how to get from an address which was right across the canyon from where we live, to some place in Carlsbad, California which is about 20 miles away. Apparently he was going to walk the entire way, wearing nothing but those shorts.

My Mom wanted me to turn the shorts and money into the police department, and I went to the local "community storefront" office the next day to tell them about it, but they weren't there that day. So I just kept the shorts and the $23. After all, the guy did say he wanted to buy a pair of shorts from me, and that's essentially what he did. I kept his shorts for about a year, and my Mom laughed at me every time I wore them, but I finally threw them away.