25 Strange Encounters: Bizarre Things Said By Passing Strangers

The streets of any city are alive with the unexpected. Among the hurried footsteps and the constant hum of urban life, people sometimes experience bizarre, amusing, or downright perplexing encounters with strangers. Recently, a Reddit user asked, “What is the strangest thing a stranger has said to you on the street?”

#1

Image source: Candid_Zebra1297, Marius Mann / pexels (not the actual photo)

Years ago a very, very drunk man unsteadily approached my friend and I in the street. He was squinting at his watch and closing one eye to try and read it. When he finally got to us he asked “Is it 10 in the morning or 10 at night?”.

#2

Them: “Anyone ever told you that you look like Vin Diesel?”

Me: “No” (I do not look like Vin Diesel)

Them: “ Well, you don’t.”.

Image source: Grand_Raccoon0923

#3

Image source: HawaiianShirtsOR, Axel Houmadi / unsplash (not the actual photo)

A few hours after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks: “Lovely day for the first day of the Apocalypse, isn’t it?”.

#4

Image source: Jone_Donis

Was walking my dog when a lady approached, leaned in close, and whispered, “They’re listening through the trees,” then just walked away like nothing happened. Haven’t looked at an oak the same since.

#5

Image source: reallyleeryrarely, PNW Production / pexels (not the actual photo)

I was walking my dogs, and this guy hesitantly passed us. Then he turned around and shouted, “YOUR DOGS ARE RACIST!” My dogs love everyone lol.

#6

Image source: Razaelbub, Tadeu Jnr / unsplash (not the actual photo)

Homeless guy on a bike after almost running into me rounding a corner:

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

#7

Image source: Ok-Thing-2222, Hung Vo / pexels (not the actual photo)

“I’m dressed as a human today.” I kept on walking by, but faster! What the hell does that mean?!

#8

Image source: Veteranis, RepentAnd SeekChristJesus / unsplash (not the actual photo)

In Long Beach, California when I was a teenager:
Old lady walking past: “Oh you must be a smart boy—your head’s so large you must have a lot of extra brains.”

I’m walking with a school friend down the street. A car stops in the middle of traffic and the driver, a middle aged woman, calls out, “Hey, are you two brothers?”
Both of us look at each other and wonder, even if we were, is she going home and announcing excitedly, “Hey I saw a coupla brothers today!”?

#9

Image source: syncpulse, MART PRODUCTION / pexels (not the actual photo)

Crazy homeless lady came up to me and in a deep raspy voice said  “I’ve got bodies in my body”.

#10

Image source: Mobile-Mind-5422, Mizuno K / pexels (not the actual photo)

A girl said to me very low “I found your wife cheating on you” I don’t have a wife or girlfriend lol.

#11

“Today, more adults were spanked than children”

I kept walking.

Image source: TheOBRobot

#12

Image source: marcosbowser, Eder Pozo Pérez / unsplash (not the actual photo)

At a bus stop very early in the morning sitting next to a very old lady with—I s**t you not—a school clock hanging around her neck. She pointed it towards me and asked me what time it was.

#13

Image source: thunderball500110, Zamaie Chinye / pexels (not the actual photo)

Once I was smoking a cigarette in a designated smoking area and some random lady came up to me screaming “HOW DARE YOU SMOKE THAT CIGARETTE IN FRONT OF ME DON’T YOU KNOW I’M A CANCER SURVIVOR”.

#14

Image source: Imperator_david, Gela delrose / pexels (not the actual photo)

“I like your left foot”.

#15

I had a man come up to me and say “you smell like you’re on your period.” I was.

Image source: francescaliablock

#16

Do you want to see the elephants.

Someone said this to me in the mall. It took years to find out what tf they were talking about. I looked at them all confused and they walked away.

Later I found out they were trying to sell me acid. Oddly enough it was my exhusband as teenagers. I was talking about the odd time someone asked me about elephants at the mall and he started laughing. Not the only time we had run into each other when we were younger. Another time I was walking out of someone’s house and we had a hey what’s up moment and went about our business.

Image source: Dull-Geologist-8204

#17

“Good thing you’re wearing a mask, it’s important to protect your respiratories, they’re putting 5G towers in here soon and you’ll really need to be protecting your respiratories” from some lady smoking and walking her ancient beagle after I told her the dog was cute.

Image source: ZenythhtyneZ

#18

I was smoking a cigarette outside of my first job when 2 guys walked by and asked if I wanted to be in a movie.

It wasn’t until years later that I read between the lines on that one..

Mind you, I was 18 and caught off guard, but EW MAN WTF.

Image source: anon

#19

Image source: Ok-Chip-6147, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels (not the actual photo)

“Do you do MMA? You just have the kind of face that looks like it could take a punch”. – guy making my sandwich at Subway.

#20

Image source: Ravennamirac, Armin Lotfi / unsplash (not the actual photo)

Once had a stranger ask if I believed in time travel.

#21

Image source: chickenfrietex, JÉSHOOTS / pexels (not the actual photo)

A homeless person in Santa Barbara walked up to me and said ” Christmas in July man!” But it was December 15th.

#22

Image source: CalendarAggressive11, Min An / pexels (not the actual photo)

A guy offered me 100 for my socks. I remained sockless for the rest of the day.

#23

Image source: karifur, Gantas Vaičiulėnas / pexels (not the actual photo)

Many years ago while waiting outside a restaurant in New York City with my husband, his sister, and her husband, this lady came up to me and said “I love your coat, where’d you get it?”

After I told her I got it from a thrift store, she started excitedly saying stuff like “I think that coat is designer, you could probably sell it for a lot of money, I’d love a coat like this” etc., and the whole time she was grabbing different parts of the coat and examining them like she was appraising it or whatever, and then she suddenly just quit and walked off without saying another word.

I’m pretty sure she was just trying to distract me while she looked for my purse or searched my pockets or something but the joke was on her because I wasn’t carrying a purse and my husband had everything in his pockets so there was nothing to take lol.

#24

I was walking home and this older woman was walking towards me, as she got closer, she started snorting and spat a loogie nearby. She then turned to face me and said “Here’s a gift for you from the above”. It was the most unexpected thing ever

#25

Image source: dumplingdoodoo, cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo)

I was trying to rush to class and a guy popped out from behind a pillar and told me that I look like a female Skrillex. I got the distinct impression he had been waiting for me.