Humorously or fascinatingly bizarre things that have happened to you in your life

[mmbarnes]

... and moon rocks have no magical powers.

Unlike hats! [emoji6]

 

[HudsonHawk]

Not sure if I've ever told this story here, but I once had a strange ongoing incident for a number of years. This was about 20-25 years ago, and I was young and single, but one day I came home and there was a message on my answering machine (for you youngsters, that was before the days of cell phones and people used "land lines") that just said "this is Sherry, call me we need to talk". I didn't think much of it at the time, just ignored it. About six months later, it happened again. "We need to talk, call me". This went on for about four years...every few months I'd get a message from "Sherry" saying we needed to talk, but she never left a phone number. One day, the message said "we really need to talk about our son...call me". I thought..."uh oh...Sherry...Sherry...I once made out with a girl named Sherry on the 50-yard line at Rice Stadium, but nothing that would have led to offspring..." I had no idea who this person might be. Then finally, I got a series of bizarre calls at work asking me all kinds of personal questions. Of course I refused to answer them, and it ended with a woman calling and asking a few questions. A few weeks later, I get the final call from Sherry. She leaves a phone number, and it's local. I had to get to the bottom of it, so I called her back. Turns out, she was tracking down her deadbeat baby daddy who happened to have the same name as me. She'd hired a private investigator and been tracking me for years. She moved from Memphis to Houston thinking I was the guy she was looking for. I asked her if it was her who'd called me at work, and she said yes, but she knew as soon as I answered that I was not the right guy. She was all broken up, wasting all this time tracking down the wrong guy. I told her she should ask for a refund from the private eye, as I was not hiding from anyone, it shouldn't have been that hard to figure out who I was and whether or not I was the culprit. I felt really bad for her. She had a really cute Southern accent, and I thought about asking her on a date. But then I thought better of it.

 

[AmateisGal]

In 2008, I decided to go to England on a solo adventure. Things didn't start out well when I almost missed my flight in Chicago (I was seriously running through the airport and hearing my name being called on the speaker). Once I landed, found a bus to Witney (a small village west of Oxford), and actually made it to Witney, I was jetlagged and grump and I realized I had brought too much luggage.

I decided to walk to my B&B (a mistake as it was at least two miles away) and made it about half a block before I found two (rather tipsy) guys in front of a pub who insisted on calling me a taxi. When the taxi driver showed up, I was astonished to discover he was American. But even most astonishing? He used to live and work at the college I earned my BA at (a town in Nebraska called Chadron). One of the more bizarre experiences I've had.

 

[AmateisGal]

Another, more recent one...

For my book, Nebraska POW Camps, I had to find photos that were either really cheap to use or free. So I did a lot of digging in the National Archives for Nebraska-related photos. I happened to come across this one:

Earlier this year, my father-in-law sent me an article about his mother who had worked at the Grand Island Ordnance Plant during WW2. So I read the article and lo and behold, there was the same photo I'd used in my book. And the woman pictured in the scarf? My father-in-law's mother! I had no idea! And yes, I'm meeting with her this weekend to interview her about her experiences.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Not sure if I've ever told this story here, but I once had a strange ongoing incident for a number of years. This was about 20-25 years ago, and I was young and single, but one day I came home and there was a message on my answering machine (for you youngsters, that was before the days of cell phones and people used "land lines") that just said "this is Sherry, call me we need to talk". I didn't think much of it at the time, just ignored it. About six months later, it happened again. "We need to talk, call me". This went on for about four years...every few months I'd get a message from "Sherry" saying we needed to talk, but she never left a phone number. One day, the message said "we really need to talk about our son...call me". I thought..."uh oh...Sherry...Sherry...I once made out with a girl named Sherry on the 50-yard line at Rice Stadium, but nothing that would have led to offspring..." I had no idea who this person might be. Then finally, I got a series of bizarre calls at work asking me all kinds of personal questions. Of course I refused to answer them, and it ended with a woman calling and asking a few questions. A few weeks later, I get the final call from Sherry. She leaves a phone number, and it's local. I had to get to the bottom of it, so I called her back. Turns out, she was tracking down her deadbeat baby daddy who happened to have the same name as me. She'd hired a private investigator and been tracking me for years. She moved from Memphis to Houston thinking I was the guy she was looking for. I asked her if it was her who'd called me at work, and she said yes, but she knew as soon as I answered that I was not the right guy. She was all broken up, wasting all this time tracking down the wrong guy. I told her she should ask for a refund from the private eye, as I was not hiding from anyone, it shouldn't have been that hard to figure out who I was and whether or not I was the culprit. I felt really bad for her. She had a really cute Southern accent, and I thought about asking her on a date. But then I thought better of it.

I had a somewhat similar situation back in the 1990's. My boss called me in his office one day & handed me a letter from the Missouri Dept of Child Support Enforcement. He asked me if this could be true? I quickly read the letter to learn DCSE was asking for my SSN & payroll records in order to prepare a garnishment of my wages in support of a woman in St. Louis, MO who was claiming I was the father of her son. I had done a lot of work for the company in St. Louis but knew her claim could not be true. Her son was around 2-3 yrs old & I had been clipped for longer than that.

My boss refused to give the Dept of Child Support Enforcement my SSN & payroll records without a court order. DCSE then asked for a statement & physical description from me which was to be witnessed & signed off on by my boss. It turned out I'm not even the same race as the father of her son. She had made claims on 3 males in the state based on name & age bracket thru public records that she could get to match.

 

[Bamaboots]

As a young patrolman I was working the midnight shift and was patrolling an area near one of the municipal parks. The park closed at 10pm and as I entered the park I used the cars spotlight to illuminate the area of trees on the backside of the park. The light reflected off some tail lights in the area so I radioed in a 10-38 (suspicious vehicle). As I drove up to the vehicle I cast the spotlight on it and radioed in the license plate. The windows were quite fogged over from the inside so it was fairly obvious what activity was occurring inside the vehicle.

Experience had taught me that when such a vehicle is illuminated with a spotlight, one would usually see two forms scrambling about in search of their clothing and I would give the parties ample time to comport themselves. It didn't happen this time as I saw no movement from within. I approached the vehicle and using a high powered flashlight, illuminated the interior of the vehicle and could barely discern two forms in the back seat through the condensation.

Taking a tactical position near the rear of the vehicle, I rapped sharply on the fender of the car calling out my presence and telling the occupants that I needed them to dress and step out so that I could speak with them. Shining my light through the rear window I saw a hand raise with the index finger extended and a breathy voice calling out, "gimme just a minute". I then retreated, laughing all the way back to my cruiser where I waited, more than a minute, for the subjects to exit the vehicle.

No charges were filed.

 

[sheeplady]

I always thought this was weird, but both my parents and my husband and I share the loss of an uncle/ aunt.

Both my mother and father lost their youngest maternal uncle (their respective mother's youngest brother) to a bull goring. My parents had only one family member gored (apiece).

Both my husband and I had our eldest aunts die in childhood/ infancy. My husbands' maternal aunt died age 5ish from having measles and Scarlett Fever at the same time; my paternal aunt died at 3 days old. Both aunts where the only children lost from our parents' generation.

In both cases, we discovered the similarities when looking through family pictures after we were married. Also in both cases the similar deaths occurred about fifteens' years apart... at roughly similar ages of those that passed.