He Dodged A Bullet
“I was invited to a party by a girl I was trying to date. I had a really bad feeling so I made an excuse not to go. I was kicking myself most of the night because I had a crush on this girl for years.
At the party, there was a dispute at the door. An uninvited guess was not allowed in. So he left grabbed a piece from his car then shot up the home. The homeowner grabbed his piece and returned fire and hit the guy twice. Several other people were shot. I later talked with my crush, it turns out she did not go either, because she had no ride.”
Something Was Off About The Guy, Google Proved It
“Our senior year of college, my friend (let’s call her Emma) called me excitedly after the first day of classes one semester to tell me about a cute guy she’d met in class. He sat next to her. He was super good looking, seemed a little bit older, and had invited her back to his dorm after class. Emma didn’t want to go back to the dorm of a guy she had just met, but they had exchanged names & phone numbers. She was excited to get to know him more.
A few days later, we hung out together and I asked about this new guy. I wanted to see a picture of him, but we noticed that we couldn’t find a trace of him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Strange, especially for undergrad college students in 2017.
I had this weird hunch and typed his full name into Google. The articles that popped up were terrifying. Apparently, this guy was nearly 25 years old. When he was 18 he attended a different state school in the Midwest and got kicked out his freshman year for assaulting a fellow student while he was hammered, who was walking home to her dorm alone at night. Not only was he convicted, he spent quite a few years in jail. I should also mention that in his confession, he asked that if the girl didn’t want to be assaulted, ‘What was she doing walking around a college campus late at night?’ It was later found out that she was walking home from the library.
I was so confused for so many reasons. How was he accepted into our school with an assault conviction and five years in prison under his belt? Not only that, but he was staying in one of our school’s co-ed dorms, which I found incredibly disturbing. Emma was equally as freaked out by this information.
She stopped talking to him, but the next time she went to class he had already switched his interests to another female in the class.
I anonymously let it slip to one of the school’s over-zealous social justice student groups that a convicted assaulter was living in the dorms. They basically raised heck until he was officially kicked out. It got to the point where he would’ve had to move out of the dorms regardless if the school officially kicked him out or not because rumor has it that one of our frats put a bounty for a couple hundred on his head to whoever could jump the dude.”
They Knew Something Was Off
“When I was a teenager, my parents and I (my mom especially) always thought the father of one of my classmates was kind of off. He never did anything overtly wrong and was always friendly, but he and his kids were always a tad odd. You just couldn’t put your finger on what it was, but it was there. He had strange mannerisms like staring a little too long at people or making strange facial expressions and staring off into the distance. He never stopped fidgeting with his clothes and clenched and unclenched his fists all the time.
My mom mentioned it to a few of her friends, and they all seemed to think everything was fine. Everyone in the community but us seemed to think so – I think we only noticed anything because we were new to the town and hadn’t had time to get used to him. Shortly before we moved away, he was busted for a pretty hefty amount of child smut. He’s in prison.
My mom is friends with the mom from that family on Facebook. She says they all look a lot better these days, now that he’s not in the pictures.”
She Was A Scam Artist From The Beginning
“My best friend from high school met this girl in one of her summer college courses, and they became fast friends. I heard tons about this girl, how much I would like her, and how the three of us had to hang out sometime. But because of all three of our work schedules and their school schedule, it didn’t work out for me to meet her until months later at my best friend’s engagement party. This girl brought her husband and from the second I met them, I didn’t like either one of them. I couldn’t put my finger on it because they were both nice enough and very charismatic, but I just had a bad feeling about them. So much so, that I spent nearly the entire engagement party hanging out with my best friend’s fiancé and his groomsmen as opposed to my best friend and the rest of the bridesmaids to stay away from this girl.
About a week later my best friend invited the two of us over for dinner. Since my best friend clearly liked this girl so much, I decided to brush my ill feeling about this girl off, and I went to dinner. As it turned out, I was totally fine with her that night so the three of us ended up making plans to go out to the bar the next evening. The next night, things were once again going great, no ill feeling about this girl, so when my best friend said she had to leave as she had work in the morning, I decided I would stay and continue to hang out with this girl. Now she had been playfully flirting with the bartender all night, I hadn’t been thinking much of it, and figured she was just doing it to get free drinks since she’s married. But AS SOON as my best friend left, her flirting with the bartender became very hot and heavy. At one point she got up to go to the bathroom, the bartender also disappeared, and when she returned 20 minutes later, she started bragging to me about how she had just hooked up with the bartender in his car. It’s safe to say, I made an excuse and left pretty quickly after that because I wasn’t about to be a party to her infidelity. I let my best friend know what happened as soon as I left, and told her that I wouldn’t be hanging out with this girl anymore, but she was more than welcome to continue being friends with her if she wished. My best friend was completely shocked and appalled and cut ties with this girl pretty quickly after that.
Now fast forward a year, I’m reading the newspaper, and I see a headline that reads Ponzi Scheme in the town of our old high school rivals. Laughing to myself, I thought ‘Oh this ought to be good!’ since you know, I spent the first 18 years of my life making fun of this town and started reading. Now I get to the first name of the two people involved and I realize that I recognize that name but I can’t seem to put my finger on why I know that name. That was until I read the second name. IT WAS THAT GIRL! Basically, she and her husband were running a PONZI SCHEME and stole almost 1 million dollars under the guise of him being an investment banker. Turns out that at the time that she was hanging out with my best friend, she was trying to get her and her fiancé to invest their wedding fund with her husband, and they were about to do it until my best friend cut ties with her because she cheated on her husband that night she was out with me. Such scummy people.”
He Knew Something Had Changed But Couldn’t Figure It Out Until…
“One of my best friends in college dated and then married this girl. She and I never got along, ever. She spent most of her time with him.
Then he got married and that all changed. Suddenly, he was free to do whatever he wanted. They bought a house in a suburb 45 mins out of my city.
I smelled the nonsense from this girl from a mile away. Now, it was nonsensical, wimpy, cream of the crop, grade A all-American presidential level federal NONSENSE. I could not put my finger on it, but why was she suddenly not jealous of him anymore?
It bothered the crap out of me. But I buried my head like a good friend.
They had a kid and she and I warmed to each other. We actually began to get along. So, I thought, ‘I was wrong, she matured and grew up, etc.’
Six months ago, I was hammered and this girl I had been flirting with invited me out. I said, ‘Eff it, why not.’
I go to this bar downtown and am hanging with this girl and that’s when I see it. My buddy’s wife is grinding with a bunch of dudes and I about flipped my lid.
I got pictures and confronted her. She denied anything, ‘It was just dancing and fun.’
Ok, whatever.
I tell my buddy about it anyways, because I am not about to let him get in trouble over it.
He complains to me and gets all upset and accuses me of trying to ruin his marriage.
Anyways, that was three years ago.
He and I didn’t talk for a while. But I did run into his wife at a party.
A fetish party. She had to explain everything to me and I had to come out to her, essentially.
Come to find out, my buddy is gay and his wife doesn’t want monogamy. Basically, she hooks up with anybody she wants, myself included, and he can quietly meet gay people and not have to tell his Baptist minister dad and provide his parents with grandchildren, etc.
So, the nonsense meter was working quite well. However, don’t ever judge a book by its cover.
My buddy and I are now rebuilding our friendship. He thought I was a traditional conservative. We both laugh about how little we actually knew about each other. We have threesomes. Yes, I am bi.
It’s funny how the personas we all create for ourselves aren’t who we actually are.”
She Just Knew He Was Bad News
“When I was about 20, I’d moved to a different state and had to meet new friends so I turned to Facebook. I met this guy, we’ll call him Jason Sanders. He seemed cool for about an hour until he started giving me serious narcissistic, self-centered, selfish vibes. All he wanted to do was talk about himself, all but hold a weapon to my head trying to force a date on me and then demand nudes then called me a ho because I wouldn’t send them. I had to block him because he wouldn’t leave me alone and stop threatening to come ‘jokingly’ kidnap me for a date.
I’m 26 now and between then and now, at least 5 women that I know personally have come forward and confessed that he assaulted them, some with an actual screenshot evidence of him admitting it afterward. There are also screenshots of him posting disgusting things into nasty Facebook groups about how we don’t deserve to say no to a man and that assault isn’t assault if only less than 2 inches of his ‘thing’ go inside. This man is now running for city council in this town that I will never call home and people are actually voting for him.
We have tried reporting him, but we’ve just been banding together recently to get enough evidence. His methods start out as wooing the woman into a date or getting cozy with them in private and then being extremely forceful. That being said, there’s no real evidence because the encounters started out as consensual up until the point where he was able to physically overpower the woman. There were texts and messages too that implied and sometimes specifically stated that the wanted to hook up as well. He’s sneaky and manipulative and knows what he’s doing”
Sensing A Tragedy
“We were going to a football game. My partner and I were leaving our house and had a choice to walk one of the two 300m parallel streets that led to the train station. As soon as we left the house I didn’t want to go and my partner had to really coax me (which is really weird for me, I love the game). I just had a really odd gut feeling that I was in danger. I have to also mention we live in a super safe inner city suburb in Melbourne, Australia. It was a Friday evening, lots of people out and about, so my gut feeling seemed ridiculous and I begrudgingly left.
On our way home we saw the street we didn’t take was shut with a ton of police cars. According to the police, at the time we were walking up the other street a man high on illicit substances and with a knife had come up to a family walking along and just began to stab the father, in front of his wife and kids.
I trust my gut way more now.”
He Should Have Listened To His Gut
“My friend (a guy) was at a party and I had to go. As I was leaving there was a creepy guy eyeing him. My friend was pretty trashed but he’s a big man so I left. Few hours later I’m leaving work and he skypes me saying he’s getting a ride from his new best friend and shows me the guy. I lie and told him I’m actually just a block away and I’ll pick him up saying I lost my house keys (he had a spare). I then laid on the lead the 5 miles to the party and told him there was an accident around the corner that took me 10 minutes to get around. I quickly plopped him in the car and collected his stuff. The whole time buffalo bill is telling me he’ll drive him home, no worries. I told the creep I need my friend to open the door. Guy got mad. I got about 80lbs on him so I made my position clear and took my friend home.
Found out later the creep left with two other wasted guys to drive them home but actually mugged them both, giving one brain damage by slamming his head repeatedly in the car door. He was arrested and got 5 years for it.”
She Knew Her Mom Was Up To No Good
“My parents divorced and my mother moved out early last year to be with her new man. She kept returning for a few days/weeks to pick up her belongings every now and again (we still have several rooms of her stuff even now).
Last September when she was staying with us she announced she was ready to take her dog Daisy back with her. She asked my dad if she could have his dog Devon as well so that they wouldn’t be separated from each other. Dad said no, not just because he didn’t want to lose Devon, but because he knew mom wouldn’t look after him properly. Mom was supposed to be leaving with Daisy the following Tuesday and I quietly mentioned to my dad that he may want to take the day off to make sure mom wouldn’t pull anything (as she is always doing). Dad thought I was being a tad paranoid because surely even she wouldn’t stoop that low.
Monday evening I was getting ready to leave work and I get a phone call. Mom had taken both dogs and was already halfway across the country. Dad and I raced home and called the police and then an ambulance because I had the biggest panic attack of my life where I couldn’t even breathe. It was not a very fun night for me.
Thankfully mom decided to return Devon the next day. She said it was for ‘me’, but I suspect it’s because her new man didn’t want Devon who is very uncomfortable around strangers. Either way, I was glad to have Devon back. He didn’t seem to miss Daisy at all and just continued playing with us, the cats and his toys.
Mom and her new man got kicked out of their home last March. She sent Daisy back to us claiming they needed a week to find a new place. Daisy is still with us nearly five months later.”
The Signs Were All There
“I had this ‘friend’ in high school. He was just some guy in a few of my classes, super weird, not many people would talk to him. He was edgy, always wearing black, drawing pentagrams on everything, etc. I try not to judge others based on that kind of thing, but he always gave me odd vibes. Like, I always had the feeling that I should stay on his good side in case he ever decided to shoot up the school kind of odd vibes.
About a month ago, 5 years after we graduated, he got arrested. Apparently, he chatted up a 14-year-old girl and got her to come with him to a museum nearby. He gave her drinks and got her trashed to the point where she could barely stand on her own. He led her into the women’s bathroom and proceeded to assault her and ditch her as she slipped into unconsciousness on the ground next to a toilet.”
It Wasn’t Just Nerves
“About 7 years ago now, my second eldest brother met what he thought was a nice, full of life pretty girl. They started to date and got on really well. He brought her home to meet the rest of us and after a while of her being here something just started to set off alarm bells in my head. She was in her mid-20s at the time but she was more acting like she was still 16. So when she and my brother left I spoke to the rest of the family that I had concerns about her and they said it was properly just nerves of having to meet so many new people in one go.
So in the meantime, they seemed to be getting on well. Then she moved out her parents and into our house. At first, it was all good, no issues or anything. Then it started to appear – poo smeared all over the bathroom. Believe me, going to wash your hands and seeing poo on the taps just in time leaves you speechless. So the who done it mystery started. Wasn’t long until we realised it was her and so we spoke to my brother about it and it stopped for a while. Main reason we were so relaxed about it at the time was because mental illness runs in the family so we don’t shame people with issues.
So all was well then it started again but it turned into poo nuggets as me and brother nicknamed them and they were in different locations in the bathroom each time – walls, toilet, shower screen. Then she started to leave the door unlocked and people would walk in including me. She wouldn’t react just carry on what she was doing. It wasn’t long until their relationship broke down because of those reasons and because she was flirting and leading other people on.”
Busted
“On February 2016, I was 17 and I caught a shoplifting charge with my friend. We had done this many times before, but the day I got caught, when we walked into the store, I had this dread gut feeling in me. I turned to my friend and said something wasn’t right and that I felt like we were gonna get caught. At the end of the night I got busted and got a misdemeanor for shoplifting, and the cop was nice enough to not take me to jail since in Missouri you can be tried as an adult at 17 instead of 18. The judge threw away the ticket since it was our first offense. Never stole or broke the law again.”
He Sensed Something Could Go Very Wrong
“In college, I went to a convenience store across the street from the dorms and there were two ways to go. One was basically half a block through this dark crappy little alley, the other was well lit but because of fences and buildings, it was three blocks. Keep in mind this is college so my lazy behind doesn’t want to walk that far just to go on a Doritos and salsa run.
I went using the shortcut and no problem. Got my Doritos original flavors, Tostitos medium strength salsa, and some Mountain Dew. It’s weird how I remember this after 25 years. I browsed the 7-11 for a few minutes and chatted with the clerk because why not, it was a Saturday night and I wasn’t doing anything. I leave the store and start to go towards the alley and stopped.
It was the weirdest thing. It was like my brain was the captain of a ship and my body was the crew and the crew mutinied. I literally could not move forward. I tried again thinking ‘What the heck?’ and it was like my body just went into open revolt and would not take my orders. I didn’t see or hear anything unusual, I was literally just thinking about playing computer games while eating and drinking junk food.
I just told myself ‘oh alright, we’ll go the long way!’ with some internal disgust and I cruised away at a higher speed than usual, not running, but faster than I typically walk even if I am eager to get junk food into me. I made it safely back to the dorm and didn’t think much of it.
Next day I went to lunch in the cafeteria and there was a local paper discarded and I read it. In the police blotter, there was a mugging in the alley that involved a knife wound and the victim being hospitalized. It happened maybe ten minutes after I would have gone through there.
Take the long way home in the light, kids!”
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