It's usually pretty clear what you sign up for when starting a new job. But there are always circumstances that are out of our control, and even if you do everything right, something could always go awry. It's disturbing, it can put you into a fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, and it can give you paranoia for a long time. Being at work doesn't protect you from life just happening.
Since we spend a lot of time at our jobs, it's not that unlikely that something bad can happen. Reddit user u/ThePugMan123 asked people what the creepiest/most disturbing thing that happened to them at work was, and people were eager to share their stories. Hopefully, they can be learning moments for others, so there's at least some good coming out of these awful things happening.
Almost 1,000 replies later, Bored Panda selected the creepiest accounts from people, some of whom are lucky to have lived to tell their tales. Upvote the submissions that resonate with you the most, and feel free to share any unsettling stories of your own in the comments. I hope you don't get too freaked out.
Bored Panda also reached out to Dr. Rebecca Cowan who is a mental health practitioner in Virginia, specializing in trauma and recovery, to get a better understanding of what to do in case of a traumatic event.
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I worked 4pm to midnight at a mill in a small town. Very physical work so there were way more men than women.... One night there was a guy from the department connected to mine who would stand in the doorway closest to my machine and just watch. After a few nights of this happening I told my manager. The guy didn't watch me for about a week and then I noticed he would frequently walk by or linger by other machines. I would do my best to ignore him and stay aware of my surroundings. Well after a month of asking for management to do something about and them not this guy approached me and asked me for a ride home. I told him no and asked him to stop coming near my job bc he was making me uncomfortable. A coworker would walk me to my car each night just to be safe and wouldn't ya know that same guy was leaning up against my vehicle. He walked away when he saw my coworker with me. A few days later this happened again when I was alone (coworker wasn't there) so I walked back in the building to find someone to walk with me. The next day while at the local grocery store this man pulls up behind me and blocks me in. I lock my doors and rolled my windows up. My vehicle is 2003 so no electric windows or locks. My 2 kids were with me so I grabbed my work scissors from my console and he came to my window claiming someonthing was wrong with the back of my vehicle and I needed to get out to see it. I told him no and to leave and started honking my horn to draw attention. Then he left.
Fast forward two weeks, the creepy man was arrested for kidnapping, assaulting and torturing a woman from the next town over. Him and his brother were caught and arrested. They held her for 3 weeks before they were caught
If you ever get into an emotionally disturbing situation, Dr. Cowan suggests seeking mental health help right away: "Look for a therapist who is trauma-informed and has experience working with trauma survivors. Therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Processing Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing are best."
Sexually harassed and ultimately fired after complaining. I was a 16 year old high school student (and male). This was in 96-97 and no one cared until I told my mom and she told me it was sexual harassment. I now know why women keep that stuff secret. The shame and embarrassment I felt was insane. Thanks for helping me, mom!
I remember working as a security guard for a hospital. I watched certificate of need patients. These were patients from our local asylum who were completely out of their mind. I did my third shift ever for that company watching a guy who had picked up some pencils and stabbed a worker with it a couple times before turning a fresh one on himself and stabbing his own stomach six times. I took the third shift 7pm to 7am.
All I did was sit in the hallway outside his door in a mostly dead wing of the ICU. I maybe saw one person an hour. It was just me in a chair in the middle of a dead hallway for 12 hours of the night. I'm freshly 18 at this point and had little experience with anything like this. I made it to about 3am before passing out in my chair outside his door. I was awoken by the guy I was watching himself. He had broken his own wrist to slip out of the handcuffs keeping him on the bed. He ripped his catheter and I.V. out. He tapped me on my shoulder to wake me up. I turned and looked at this man who was completely naked and bleeding from two places holding his wrist and he just said "I need to pee"
I decided to try and play it off like everything was normal as to not escalate the situation. I walked him to the bathroom and immediately called my CO while he was inside. My CO got there before he got out and we used restraints to put him back on the bed. Nurses came back in and set him back up. My CO, not knowing that i fell asleep, said I did the right thing and that I'd do great at the job. He said he needed more people like me who didn't panic in situations like that and make things worse. I thanked him and then left at 7am.... I never came back to do another shift for that security company. I'm so lucky he didn't use his I.V. to stab me in the neck while I was sleeping.
She also said joining a support group is a good idea: "If the individual experienced a mass shooting, there are survivors groups that have been formed throughout the U.S. and virtually, such as the Rebels Project. These can be good to get plugged into as it helps to be able to connect with others who have had a similar experience."
When I was 15 I worked in retail and an older man (probably 40s) was following me around sizing me up. I seriously did laps around the store just to see if he really was following. Eventually fed up I said (politely) “can I help you with something”, and he said “maybe. What time do you get off work?” I laughed thinking it was a joke and just dead stared at me, “what time do you get off? Will it be dark?” I told him it’s none of his business and he said “well you want to help me don’t you?” And he wrapped his arm around my waist. My co-worker, a man around his age, saw what was happening and “assaulted” the dude, punched him in the face and swore him out of the store. He wrote the guys license plate down and said he didn’t hear the conversation but I looked scared, and he asked if I wanted the cops called. I was freaked out and didn’t want to acknowledge it even happened so I said no. Regret that every day. Who knows how many people he did that to after
When I was about 22 (F) I worked at a group home for developmentally disabled individuals. The house manager was a man named Mark. Mark had some kind of god complex. He was mad that I had my time off to visit family in Oregon approved by the main office - he didn’t want to find someone to cover. He had weeks to plan. He told me I couldn’t go. I told him the time was approved and I WAS going to go.
He wordlessly picked me up and slung me over his shoulder like a rag doll, walked quickly to a client’s bedroom, and slammed me down on the bed. He stared into my face for a few seconds, then got up and left the house.
Worst part? I never told any higher ups, and only told my boyfriend years later after it was far, far too late. Why? I still wonder why.
We also wanted to learn what others can do to help people who've been through something traumatic. "There will be people in the survivor's life who do not understand the recovery process and expect it to be quick," said Dr. Cowan. "It usually takes some time to recover from being involved in such a traumatic event. Knowing what to expect and being patient with the survivor is critical. Help them to get connected with a trained mental health practitioner that can help them throughout the recovery process."
I worked at Home Depot and a guy came in looking frantic and desperately asking us how to get a LOT of blood out of concrete. Took him a bit, but he finally explained that he did not in fact murder someone. He was a contractor working on a house nearby and one of his guys had tried to rip a 2x4 down the middle and had instead ripped his hand and a good portion of his lower arm down the middle. The guy was carted off to the hospital and the contractor was desperate to get it all cleaned up before the homeowner got back.
There were pictures, both of the guy's arm and the general carnage of the scene.
So I work for a company on the second floor of the building. There's an elevator in the lobby, but you can't get to the second floor without a code. There's a Ring camera & guests can buzz up to the receptionist to be let in.
One day, the receptionist goes out for lunch & she asks me to watch the Ring for her while I'm out. I say okay.
During my watch, the Ring goes off. I answer & it's a gentleman in his mid-30s. I ask him how I can help. He asks if he can speak to someone in management. I ask what about - he mentions he has a complaint about one of the stores our company owns.
Rewind to a few days earlier, I happen to have spoken earlier in the week to that store's manager who told me a story of a guy they had to kick out for being creepy around kids... I won't go into detail, but I'll just say what he was doing was technically legal, but still very creepy. Anyway, I'm curious about the guy so I do a little sleuthing, figure out who the guy is, and look him up on social media.
Back to the visitor downstairs at my office: it's the same creepy guy - I just happened to recognize him since I'm a nosy SOB. I stall for time, telling him I'm locating the appropriate management to meet with him, and while I'm watching him on the Ring, he turns just right so I can see that he's got a gun of some sort tucked in his waistband. I call 911. Cops arrive immediately. He does have a concealed carry permit, but we do have a "no firearm" sign posted out front, and the cops ask him what he's doing bringing a gun to an office building.
In the end, they sent him on his way and nothing really happened, but it makes me wonder what would've happened if I hadn't been answering the Ring that day.
Dr. Cowan noted that it's also important to "help the survivor learn and utilize stress management techniques, such as progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing. You can find videos of these techniques for free on YouTube."
About a year ago I was at work, it was early, like 5AM and we were setting up to open. There was a new maintenance guy going around, changing empty trash bags, mopping random spots that didn't need it. After a couple hours the police showed and arrested him. He had murdered 2 people in the middle of the night was thought he could dodge arrest by pretending to be a maintenance cleaner.
Disturbing:
14 years or so ago... A newer temp employee made a foolish mistake and mildly injured himself while damaging property. He got fired. He showed up the next day with a rifle and went berserk. One shot was fired, nobody was injured. Police arrived, he surrendered. I was in my office when it happened and had no clue what was going on. I didn't find out until I was walking down one of the halls and noticed everyone was giving "finger guns" and laughing it up. I inquired. Everyone moved on pretty quickly from the incident.
Creepy:
20 years ago, a regular customer arrived, as usual, on a Saturday morning. He was an older guy, maybe in his late 70s, early 80's. He handed my coworker and I a box and said "they wouldn't accept this at church donation, so you can have it." He then left. We looked in the box. It was all Disney movie sleeves, but the VHS tapes had hand-written titles with dirty wordplay playing off the original title. My coworker took it home for "sampling." He came back the next day, horrified, and told me what it was. It was Nope-territory, bad. He said he burned every tape. Probably should have handed it over to the police but he was too scared to be implicated. We never saw that customer again. Yes, this happened.
Working in some bad neighborhoods at a previous job and while speaking with a crew foreman heard gunfire break out. Happened fairly often so we just casually sat down behind the equipment and kept chatting until the offending vehicle drove off. I looked up and asked if everyone was ok and saw a young girl (10-12 I'm guessing) laying on the ground with her mother staring in shock. The girl had been hit with 3 rounds so I grabbed my trauma kit and went to work while the foreman called 911. She took a hit to the femoral artery so I applied a tourniquet, one graze on her arm and one to the lung so she had a sucking chest wound. I applied chest seals and just kept talking to her as calmly and casually as I could while another crewman talked to her mother. The look in her eye of fear and confusion has really stuck with me, I hope she made it but I've honestly been too afraid to follow up in case she didn't.
I work for a tv/internet company and we had a guy who would say that he would only allow women technicians in his house. At the time, we had very few working in my area and we certainly weren't going to send one out anyways. We did have a manager tech who was a woman who called him and said "sure. I'll be right out." (She's tough in general) Still wasn't leaving anything up to chance, so I rode out with her as her "trainee" for that job. He was none too happy.
After a traumatic incident, hypervigilance is common and is a sign of post-traumatic stress. Dr. Cowan pointed out that "if the survivor is distressed and this is impacting their ability to function (e.g., unable to leave the house, unable to go to work), they should not try to cope on their own and should seek the support of a mental health provider."
This doesn’t really compare to most, but I’m from and lived all my life in TX. I moved to Boca Raton, FL for a year to get clean when I was 18. I was working at an assistant manager at a party city. Some Karen New Yorker reached across the counter and grabbed my shirt and pulled me forward because she was pissed off about something and she “wanted to see my name tag.” I could not believe it. Nobody would do that from where I was from and not expect trouble. When the shock wore off, I calmly told her to get her hands off me or I would beat her unconscious. She looked at me like I had ten heads.
If you work in retail or in a restaurant you should be allowed at least once a year to fight a customer legally with no repercussions
I’m a realtor and showed a creepy old 19th century Victorian home (think the Addam’s Family house) on Halloween night. It was one building but originally two units which had since been conjoined so it was a real maze. Multiple kitchens and living rooms, easy to get turned around. It was a foreclosure with no power so we only had our phones to light the way.
Foreclosures always have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors chirping away due to low batteries. But this house had ones that said “low battery” in a mechanical voice. But the battery was so low it came out like “llllooooowwww baaaaaattttteeeerrryyy” in a dying robot voice.
So there we were, three of us on Halloween night inside a dark home that’s creepy at noon in July getting all turned around then somewhere we hear “llllooooowwww baaaaaattttteeeerrryyy.” Man we f****d out of their quick.
2 guys over at Saint Rosh Technoglass where both moving a large glass window sheet by hand because it was to big for the crane.
Than it snapped one guy managed to throw the part he was holding away from him self the other guy got the bigger part and could not hold it and dropped it slicing his body and right arm from his right shoulder down to his left hip.
I could literally see his hearth beat in the blood that was pulsing out of him
Was working for the day in a government building I hadn’t visited before. Our company had one floor in it that I was told was the last floor in use. The company were planning to vacate at the end of the year. At lunchtime I decided to explore and got off the elevator on a random floor. It was an open plan office. All the desks still had work on them and a large table still had the remains of a party. Paper plates and food. A lot of the desks had slices of cake sat on them untouched. A party banner was still up that said CONGRATULATIONS. One office was open and the walls were covered with X-ray slides of different people. Every surface covered with more on the floor. To my untrained eye they all seemed to have large shadows growing in them. Weird. This was years before social media or camera phones so I had another quick look around and got back in the elevator. When the doors opened on my floor I was met by an armed police officer (this was London and seeing an armed cop was very rare)who asked me why I’d been on the other floor. I told him I was just curious and on my lunch break and he warned me that I was only allowed access to this floor and to not break protocol again. No one in the office I was visiting knew anything about it. No one had ever seen police there or ever explored the other floors.
Makes me think they were evacuated due to a suspicious package with white powder, maybe?
There was a dude I was supposed to meet up with from fetlife. Years ago.
*Spoiler; f**k that site*
I got real creepy bad vibes from just his texts, so I said no two days before he was going to be in town. He was pissed.
Took on a shift that night at a store I worked at and during the whole day he sent me texts trying to convince me to meet up with him.
He texts me, "Wow you look really great in that orange dress!!"
I never told him where I worked. Never even saw him because I was working.
I called him out on it and threatened to have security called on him if he got any closer.
Then tried to convince me to meet him at a local WALMART where he was hanging out with his little NEPHEW for a few hours because he didn't have a car and his brother drove him!!
So many red flags!! Never agreed to ANY of this.
Had security walk me to my car after my shift. Never saw him again (that I know of).
Blocked him after I drove home with countless ridiculous detours.
There was a dad from my son's school who found out where I worked, what car was mine and that I was going through a divorce. He asked me out and I said no. After I said no, (I said no and gave absolutely no hope for any future dates/conversation/contact. I said NO) he started showing up at my job to see me and cornering me so I couldn't get away. A couple work friends would see him coming and send me off to the staff room to get me away from him. He left flowers on my car while I was at work. I was incredibly creeped out and a single mom with young children. I got a guy from work to stay by my side as often as he could and after awhile of seeing work guy around me, stalker guy started to leave me alone.
Society has taught these men that they can "wear her down" by being persistent isn't that romantic that he is following you? He must really like you... you should give him a chance. And my favorite... "there was no on her lips... but yes in her eyes"
I worked at a bank. We were giving kids a tour. One of the parents was in the lobby and played a “prank” on me. He passed me a note and pretended he was robbing me.
I hadn’t seen him before he did this, and for about 10-15 seconds I thought we were being robbed with a boatload of children behind the counter.
I'm on the scene of a house fire with a girl that's like 5ish years older then me. The whole time I'm getting orders from my captain she's giving me the "take me eyes." I get placed on crowd control until hose lines are set up. That whole time this women WHO'S HOUSE IS BURNING is flirting with me saying things like "Can you put out that fire for me big strong fire man" Jesus I was so creeped out. I told my captain who took scene command that we might want to call police down for a drug test on her and I asked him to keep me as far from her as possible.
Police actually came and tested her. She was clean. Nope! NOPE! I'm out. This girl flirted with me while her house burnt and she is 5 years older then me.
Next day I'm on station duty mostly just chores and EMS calls and guess who shows up that lady. She is just staring at me while I organize the trucks a bit better. I ended up calling my chief to ask her to switch shifts with me due to the lady. After I left she followed me home then when I went back on duty she got arrested when one of my fellow firefighters asked her to back off for me and she hit him. Lots of paper work to say the least
I wonder if she set fire to her own house just to get a crew out to fight it?
I get all of the creepiness; however, five years older than you, I don't find creepy. Am I missing something?
Though the woman had plenty of creep factor, her being five years older than the OP isn't the serious issue the OP is making it out to be. Try being a fourteen-year-old girl being hit on every other week by a different man old enough to be your father or grandfather.
I think it’s more of the fact that she’s an older, more mature person than him.
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I read somewhere (don't remember where) that the threat of imminent death makes people go love, sex-crazy. Like, it's now or never! I could be dead tomorrow! Maybe she had something like that.
I don't get why the 5-year difference matters so much- I mean if you're over 18 it doesn't matter if someone who is 5 years older than you is flirting. I mean, that's barely an age difference compared to others out there.
A loud, boisterous man often came into the Whole Foods I used to work at, requesting only I make his sandwich the way he likes it. Overtime his interactions with me got creepier. He would film me, call me his little Filipina sandwich lady, flirt nonstop with me, even as my boyfriend worked right next to me. He was extremely aggressive and rude to everyone except me. I tried to tell my supervisor but she brushed it aside, got security to like….stand there lazily for a day but that’s it. I finally lost him when I quit.
Older male customer slid his hand down my back and squeezed my butt when I was answering one of his questions (I was a minor at the time). Then started talking about how women are servants to him. His wife was two aisles down from us. He read my name tag and always asks for me whenever he comes in.
I was living and working at a commune, a farm and restaurant in one.
I had been there for quite some time, and the owner started insinuating that I was castrated,
and that the whole world was some kind of sect that functions around prostitution.
He also started hinting towards cannibalism at this place, and that human meat was to be compared to pork...
There was "someone" of his "acquaintances" that, during one of the dinners, started talking about how "traditionally" pigs are castrated because of how the testosterone made the meat taste "bad".
They also kept on talking about guns, and they kept bringing guns around to the area.
I did not feel safe there.
One day I was tired and fell asleep on my desk at work. The next day I got a picture of me sleeping and a text from an unknown number to leave a $50 under my desk or they will send the picture to HR.
I work for a school.
3 active shooters response events. Only one turned out to be an actual immediate threat and the guy was arrested before anything bad happened.
But the atmosphere was rather eery. The campus was deserted with the exception of a couple dozen cops in full gear looking for the suspect and helicopters overhead.
I had a man come in for an interview who was obviously in the middle of an intense episode (either dissociative or psychotic I'd say). He was talking out loud with no-one else in the office, got the date wrong by two years, didn't know what city he was in. He looked very disheveled. He also admitted to being very edgy and was close to snapping at me at one point.
I felt very sad for him, but also unsafe at that moment. I know how debilitating mental issues can be. My supervisor didn't help me at all: she let me stay with him and handle it all on my own. She didn't call anyone to help or warn emergency services. She just said we weren't going to deal with the problem and there were no measures in place to deal with those situations anyways, they just happened sometimes and you waited for them to be over.
I worked stocking cheese and deli meat at a grocery store. Not the worst job I’ve ever had. I was stocking and this older woman, prob sixty, walks by and says “I love my men on their knees.” And just kept walking.
She was a cashier, on the clock. Imagine if the situation was flipped and I said that to her? I was honestly so shocked at the entire situation that I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t bring it up with my boss right away so I figured no one would believe me over a kind older gal who worked upfront and wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Situation still gives me pause sometimes as I still work in retail. People have little aversion to inappropriate touching I’ve found. Why anyone in public would try to touch a stranger without their consent is just weird to me but…it happens a lot.
when i worked at a small store an older guy walked behind me when i was stocking beer and...oh god he i do not know how to describe this, he led his finger near my bum to a middle of my back on my backbone, i was so shocked i thought i was sweating for a second. i turned around and he was all smily and asked me a question i answered it quickly and moved to a till. he yelled after me not to be scared, i just smiled and said that i do not want for him to wait for me, as i have to log in... i do not know how i kept my cool. and as it was a small store and i loved just two doors down i kew all the people, i saw him first and last time that day, oh yeah i was 18.
Caught someone recording/photographing me under the bathroom stall.
I worked gy in a hospital pharmacy…and it was just me and one other running it for the hospital and we’d like to turn off like 80% of the lights because hospital lights are offending to the eyes especially during hours your body normally would want to sleep… well I came into the pharmacy after delivering something and I saw my coworker in the medication pick area… which was enclosed and only had one way in or out.. and I was talking to him about something that had happened on the floor literally seeing him like look at the medications as I was talking but then my coworker goes “What?” And he poked his head out from all the way in the back of the pharmacy… and I looked back and there wasn’t anyone in the med pick area.. I 100% saw someone standing there and talked to them for a few min… the pharmacy was located in the basement… along with the morgue… and it’s locked.. only pharmacy employees have access to the hospital pharmacy… not even security has access…. Scariest experience I have had… I told a coworker about it when morning shift came in and she told me a week prior her water bottle started moving from a dead standstill.
Got sent a 12 page essay with someone confessing their love for me and how they liked XYZ that I wore on XYZ day.. turns out it was an ex boyfriend from 9th grade!!!!!!!!!! I was in 9th grade in 2011 it was very disturbing
I’d get random bouquets of flowers sent to me at work and I later found out it was from a dude from tinder who was stalking me.
In case this dude in the comments doesn’t know, stalking is a type of crime in a lot of places. You should know better than to pretend that someone stalk and send “gifts” to somebody’s work place unsolicited isn’t weird and undesired as s**t
I was working at a hotel when a colleague took a room service meal up to a room.
She came back and said there were drunk bikies (Motorcycle gang members) in there and they made her feel really uncomfortable.
They called 10 minutes later and ordered more food, laughing and acting weird on the phone.
I insisted I'd take it up this time.
I took the food up, entered the room full of men who were annoyed it was me and asked "where's the pretty girl"?
I just said she'd knocked off.
As I put the food down, in the reflection of the window, one of them was naked behind the door.
I don't know for sure what would have happened, but I told my manager and they sent her home straight away.
I still get chills to this day to think what could have happened to her.
Around 1974, was working the night shift at Western Electric (pre AT&T) on a military project, using computer graphic stations, (8 of them in the room). It was an air conditioned room, raised floor with lots of huge cables underneath, with the server and tape storage next to it. Lots of power needed. We had a thunderstorm roll into the area, and if there was a power flicker, everything would shut down. Most of the people in the computer room had left the room during the worst part of the storm, and I was getting up to leave, when we had a huge lightning strike nearby and we lost power. At the same time, emergency power lights came on, and we heard a popping sound coming from one end of the room. Looking at where the noise came from, a ball of lightning about the size of a basketball rolled slowly across the coom from one power outlet to the other at both ends of the room. It went at walking speed and was a popping sizzling sound. We froze, and when it disappeared, we quickly left the room.
Worked for a short period of time processing refunds for a company, part of which involved following up with clients to confirm details and to ask all sorts of questions to see if they had done their due diligence and harassed the other companies involved that could potentially give them money. Basically I was the a*****e that you had to fight with to get your money.
One day I had to call a woman who we owed substantially and had owed for a while. She fell through the cracks or was passed around, I’m not sure. I called the number on file and asked if I was speaking to Mrs Jane Doe, she confirmed. Banking information, address, date of the encounter, etc. Everything comes out dandy. At first she was upset over having been waiting for so long for her money to be returned to her account, but soon she was joking and laughing about how all of her refund would be going to buy treats for her spoiled Labrador. I quickly figured out she’d really dotted her I’s and crossed her T’s, so we could move forward. I thanked her for her time and gave an estimate of when she can expect the money. I even tried to do what I could to expedite it.
I got home that night and there was news coverage about a house fire. After a bit of digging in articles I found that it was the house of the woman I spoke to not even four hours before, an electrical issue. It was the most damn surreal feeling. She was older. Didn’t have any other contacts on her file. Gives me shivers to wonder if I was the last person she spoke with, and to wonder if maybe she’d have updated her wiring if she had her money given to her on time.
I was on the phone with my daughter one day and heard a gun shot, which isn’t unusual in my general area but it was really close and I’m in a residential neighborhood so I mentioned it to her and continued our conversation. I found out later a neighbor had shot and killed his father. It really creeped me out to think I heard the shot that ended someone’s life, so I can imagine feeling like I was the last person to speak to someone would be a really awkward and uneasy feeling
I worked at a maker space. I greeted people as they came in, people told me about their projects, and I tried to help them make their dreams come true. This guy comes in and starts telling me about his project, then says, "I have it in my car can you come take a look?" So I oblige. We go to his car and there's a dead dog in his car. He then tells me there's no project and he actually just needs money to bury his dead dog. I ripped into that dude for luring me away from work then ambushing me with a dead f*****g dog. I was so disturbed. Imagine if he was trying to do something more nefarious. Anyway I learned that day to never let people take you to a second location. They gotta bring their projects inside
that should be common sense, but I am glad things didn't go worse for this person
I used to work in a building that had a landline phone network installed. It was quite old and had been installed before the company I worked for moved into the building if I remember right.
Sometimes, for no reason, you would hear a woman's voice coming from the phone system, saying "help" in a calm voice. You could hear it all over the building; I'm still not sure where it came from, but according to my boss, it was some kind of bug in the system. No one ever figured out what the trigger for it was or why it was happening. Most of the time it didn't bother me that much, but once I was at work late with one other person and the voice in the phone wouldn't stop saying "help," so we both noped out of there as fast as we could. Not super creepy, but definitely a little uncomfortable.
Work at Taco Bell closing shift. My store manager was forced to close that night since a person no-called no-showed. She’s tired and clocks out a tad early (she opens as well so no big deal). A few seconds later I give a doordash driver a meal and then I hear: pop, pop, pop. The driver then goes. “Those be gunshots.” In a rather worried voice. I turn around and there’s a cop car quickly getting into a shootout with a speeding car. No idea what happened. But my store manager almost crashed into the speeding criminal car.
When gunshots rang out from behind the liquor store I work at, my dumbass goes to look out the screen door to see the van flying thru the street and three other cars kicking into gear to chase. Safe to say, I didn't have my survival instincts that day
I work as a therapist. I was working in a substance abuse clinic in the early 2010s and had only been licensed a few years. There was a colleague of mine I went thru my master program with who I was in my supervison group with (required for your first 2 years being a masters level clinician in my state) who got me the job there.
We found out he had gotten fired on a Friday. WE were all in shock, clients included, because he was fired with cause. Then on Monday I was having session with one of my clients who said "I know why, because he was dating my daughter"... who was one of HIS clients.
Turns out, when I reported it to my supervisor, this allegation from my client became #5 in a case we had to report to the state. He was having sex with a few of his clients, and in other cases threatening to withhold take home privileges for medication if thru did not. We had other clients who would not go on record with the state say he made sexual advances on them while in session, including trying to touch their legs, in his office on site...
This was all happening right down the hallway from me.
Fortunately, the state licensing board had a review, found the allegations substantial to revoke his license, then turn the case over to state police who charged and convicted him with 4th Degree Criminal Sexual Assault.
He's did his time and has tried to keep working in the field as an unlicensed "consultant" or something. But gas gotten in further trouble with the State for misrepresenting himself.
*On that note, 2 things
1. All of this is now in the public record in my state, I don't want to disclose where as he already tried intimidating us when I told others in my field what was going on
2. If you ever see a therapist, always make sure they are licensed, and look them up. Your state should have a database where you can search someone and see if their license is active or if there have been any complaints. A good therapist will make that info accessible *
I used to work at a photography studio. Had parents spank their kids for not smiling in the middle of our photo shoot. Had a mother put her finger over her soda straw so that she could lift it out and drip cola into her newborn's mouth. Had a woman straight up slap her teenager while sitting next to me.
I worked there for almost a year and I can only think of two families who were happy.
Oh the irony that they were all coming in for a smiling happy family photo 😏🤦🏼♀️
Used to work at a pet shop many years ago. One morning as I'm walking through the carpark to get to the store, I see this giant Akita just chilling in the carpark with its owner. I slowed down a bit to talk to it as I passed, but he immediately let out a warning growl so I quickly moved on. I mention it to my shift manager as I'm clocking in, and she goes "yeah, that guy was in here with it yesterday. It was getting really aggressive and I eventually got him to leave, but he obviously decided to come back." A couple of days after this at my next shift, I found out that the dude brought his dog back the next day, and things got so out of control that the dog ended up biting another customer who had to go to hospital and ended up needing 13 stitches. That so could have easily been me. Scary stuff.
Was working at a nursing home from 10:30pm to 7:00am.
Had a pager incase an apartment needed any assistance. My boss had actually left lil ol me for the weekend.
I got paged by a closet that didn't even have a ringer to shut off, so it paged me every 15 minutes through out the night.
Got to the second floor & all the hallway doors (4) simultaneously opened wide & the apartment buzzer intercom turned on with just static.
I freaked out, pulled snapchat up & recorded the doors closing. Jumped in a discord call with my bf & 2 friends, explained the situation, sent them the video, took a pic of my pager, then recorded myself going to that exact door, opening it, just for it to be a closet. I searched for that stupid emergency system switch but nothing was there! Mustered up the courage to clean the rest of the building, went off to the caf, turned on the lights and stayed there unless I was paged.
That morning i asked the nurses why i was getting paged by [Door #] & they were confused, they knew it was a closet, they told me I must have been wrong & guess what buzzed my pager ? They found it very odd, reset the whole pager system. I went home & that s**t gives me the chills.
I don't believe in that stuff, but it didnt make it any less scary lol
I’m a massage therapist, there are a ton of clients that make inappropriate comments or request, usually I just tell them no/ that’s not appropriate. They’ll typically drop it and I just don’t reschedule them.
but 2 in particular come to mind as actually creepy one started grabbing my leg (they were kicked out immediately) and blocked from the sceduling system.
And the other was a typical client during the session but after wards they left a “care package” on my car. Nothing bad just snacks and a bunch of bible quotes. They messaged me later (business phone) and asked if I got it I told them that’s not appropriate they needed to stop, they asked why, I tried to explain that there are client/ therapist boundaries they said they’d rather be a friend then a client. And I was just done so I told them i wasn’t interested in being their friend and to find other therapist and blocked them.
Maybe it was a bit harsh but idk it just really weirded me out.
My boss decided I was his higher power and began stalking me. After he showed up at my home at 3 am(this was after I was very clear about his behavior) and got seriously scary, I quit and moved across the country. This was before cell phones so the stalking was following me in person.
I’ve been stalked twice in my life and it seriously can make you paranoid..
Some random guy thinking it's ok to grab my arm to look at my tattoo. Don't f*****g touch a stranger like that.
I had a customer who told me he wanted go pay me to be his date for new year’s. Then he chased me down the road in his car (we were both driving)
I was doing the trash at my previous job. i worked at a gas station in a little town. some random dude started flirting with me and creeped around the outside of the store until my shift was up and followed me home because at the time i had to walk to and from work. this was at 11 pm too.
I worked for a women who told me that her husband had left her for a younger women and taken all the money. A few months after I left the job they found the husband and lover in the her freezer. She had found out about the affair and and told the husband she as OK as long as she could watch them doing it. For a while they had an open relationship, swinging threesomes etc. One night she poisoned them and played the victim
this was over 40 yrs ago when i was working just about any job to get through college. but it was a good strange thing. i had a position for an agricultural company that shipped its produce all over the world. so, they needed someone in the office overnight to process the orders that came in from the different time zones. to get to the office i had to walk at 10pm through the open warehouse to stairs & up to the office. little to no light w/exception of one over office door. a few nights into the job i felt i was being watched & couldn't get into the office fast enough &lock the door. told the boss that i thought someone was in the warehouse at night when i was there. that was when he told me that he had hired a couple of migrant workers to alternately stay in the warehouse overnight for my protection because he had found out that sometimes homeless people would come in and he wanted me protected while i worked. it was thoughtful but it would have been much better if he had told me.
Not me, but a co-worker explained that the reason we needed security fobs to get into the office was because an employee came into work one morning and found a guy rifling through the two refrigerators we had in the lunchroom. Turned out, it was a homeless guy that managed to pick the staircase lock on the 5th floor and let himself in. We had to use fobs to get back to our desks from the lobby, bathroom or stairs. When I asked the head partner about it, he shook his head and said "It only happened once." Still would have freaked me out...once is enough.
I unfortunately acquired a few creeps.working retail. They took advantage of the fact I was polite and had to be restrained in my interactions. One day when one cornered me outside of work I told him to f*ck off. Didn't bother me again. Best advice is to be stern and tell them to go away,they are usually taking advantage of the fact you can't say it when you are at work! Creeps.
I had this guy stalk me at work and admit to it openly like it was no big deal. He admitted that he stood at the front doors of the store and watched me work without my knowing. He said, "I thought it would have been weird if I came in to say hi without any other reason." This is weeks after he would come in each day and talk to me forever. I smiled and talked back to be polite. Finally told my manager after his confession, who put a very quick stop to him talking to me ever again. I'm lucky.
I worked at a mental facility ( big house with multiple "not all there" violent offenders i.e. r*pist and murderers who weren't sane enough for jail/ prison) on a smoke break when this tiny old lady came up to me and in great detail explained how and why she killed the African American (she was white) man in a red lobster. Then asked me for a cigarette and walked off... Obviously I didn't believe it and asked a coworker who saw all their individual files for what they'd done and he confirmed she killed a African American man in a red lobster in front of her family. Didn't work there long after.
It’s troubling how many of these are women being crazy stalked by creepy men. What is going ON?
DNF. What kind of person goes around collecting the most horrific stories they can find just so they can inflict them on other people? I mean besides news media.
I worked for a women who told me that her husband had left her for a younger women and taken all the money. A few months after I left the job they found the husband and lover in the her freezer. She had found out about the affair and and told the husband she as OK as long as she could watch them doing it. For a while they had an open relationship, swinging threesomes etc. One night she poisoned them and played the victim
this was over 40 yrs ago when i was working just about any job to get through college. but it was a good strange thing. i had a position for an agricultural company that shipped its produce all over the world. so, they needed someone in the office overnight to process the orders that came in from the different time zones. to get to the office i had to walk at 10pm through the open warehouse to stairs & up to the office. little to no light w/exception of one over office door. a few nights into the job i felt i was being watched & couldn't get into the office fast enough &lock the door. told the boss that i thought someone was in the warehouse at night when i was there. that was when he told me that he had hired a couple of migrant workers to alternately stay in the warehouse overnight for my protection because he had found out that sometimes homeless people would come in and he wanted me protected while i worked. it was thoughtful but it would have been much better if he had told me.
Not me, but a co-worker explained that the reason we needed security fobs to get into the office was because an employee came into work one morning and found a guy rifling through the two refrigerators we had in the lunchroom. Turned out, it was a homeless guy that managed to pick the staircase lock on the 5th floor and let himself in. We had to use fobs to get back to our desks from the lobby, bathroom or stairs. When I asked the head partner about it, he shook his head and said "It only happened once." Still would have freaked me out...once is enough.
I unfortunately acquired a few creeps.working retail. They took advantage of the fact I was polite and had to be restrained in my interactions. One day when one cornered me outside of work I told him to f*ck off. Didn't bother me again. Best advice is to be stern and tell them to go away,they are usually taking advantage of the fact you can't say it when you are at work! Creeps.
I had this guy stalk me at work and admit to it openly like it was no big deal. He admitted that he stood at the front doors of the store and watched me work without my knowing. He said, "I thought it would have been weird if I came in to say hi without any other reason." This is weeks after he would come in each day and talk to me forever. I smiled and talked back to be polite. Finally told my manager after his confession, who put a very quick stop to him talking to me ever again. I'm lucky.
I worked at a mental facility ( big house with multiple "not all there" violent offenders i.e. r*pist and murderers who weren't sane enough for jail/ prison) on a smoke break when this tiny old lady came up to me and in great detail explained how and why she killed the African American (she was white) man in a red lobster. Then asked me for a cigarette and walked off... Obviously I didn't believe it and asked a coworker who saw all their individual files for what they'd done and he confirmed she killed a African American man in a red lobster in front of her family. Didn't work there long after.
It’s troubling how many of these are women being crazy stalked by creepy men. What is going ON?
DNF. What kind of person goes around collecting the most horrific stories they can find just so they can inflict them on other people? I mean besides news media.
