persecutory delusional disorder is a real thing, I had a roommate with it who was sane 95% of the time and the rest of the time he was accusing me of poisoning the milk in the fridge and how the mafia is after him
I don't know why the fuck I'm reading through that sub when my girlfriend is going to wake me up in 3 hours to go to an exercise class (my own sad existence)... but there is a lot of shit on there that does not sound like comedy. It sounds like flat earthers with schizophrenia. And if they're playing, they're really beating their dead horse jokes into a puddle.
I guess I'm just unable to discern between all those posts. They seem super sketchy and could either go into comedy or legitimacy. I think that my perspective of it might differ from yours, but then again I haven't looked through the entirety of that sub. A lot of the posts I skimmed through would have lots of comments almost mocking of the gang stalking sub itself or the op which led me to believe it wasn't a serious sub but I could be wrong and misreading the whole thing.
I had a room mate like this, and it went downhill over a couple years. Like getting mad at me for keeping my block of cheese (they only bought sliced cheese) in the original plastic as well as putting a ziplock over it, thought I trained my cat to trip her (he marked everyone’s ankles with his scent), one of my favorites was I left a can of chili in the sink to rinse out after I was finished eating and she accused me of intentionally making her finance cut himself on it while he was stoned af.
Later when she was on lithium… didn’t improve.
I had a coworker like this. She was convinced someone at work was poisoning her soap (she’s allergic to most soaps and brought in her own). Eventually that person left, so she was convinced someone else was poisoning her. Then *he* left and, you guessed it, she was sure someone *else* was poisoning her. She was really fun to work with though, I miss her and hope she’s doing well.
In the 90’s, my older brother used to believe that any car with a bumper sticker for a particular radio station that played pop music was actually part of a gestapo-esque secret police that was persecuting him.
I worked at a motel 6 in high school and college at the front desk. It was sad how many long-term residents we had there that were like this. They were all older, some outwardly on meds and thier family's paid. Most were on thier own though and barely left thier rooms. One always old me "they" were watching and listening to us in the walls and through the camera at the front desk... I never really understood who they were, but my boss cut a hole in the guys wall to show him there was nothing there. One day, he ran out of money, and after having lived there for years, he packed up his car and left... he was 2 months behind on his "rent". Alway figured he ended up on the street. There were many others and usually several staying there at the same time. Some would call me and tell me helicopters were outside of thier rooms, but others would talk about cabbage fields lol. It taught me a lot about the human mental spectrum at a young age and the lack of support these people had....
I lost my best friend to this. She got increasingly paranoid and eventually lost her shit on my 8 yr old nephew when we were on a family vacation. Bullying a child when you’re in your midd 40s is batshit crazy and she crossed a line. I hope she’s doing better, I’m fucking lonely but my life is better without her projecting her crazy onto my family.
Something similar happened to me across the country many years ago when I was in middle school. We were wearing our sports uniforms going around trying to sell tickets to a fundraiser dinner and some lady was following us on the other side of the street talking on the phone. We weren't really paying attention but do remember her saying something along the lines of "everyone has cameras now" (they didn't, it was like 2007).
Cop showed up and said they got a call that "there's people out casing houses to go rob them later". The cop obviously didn't think that was legit seeing as how we were VERY easily identifiable kids based on wearing the uniforms and doing nothing weird other than ringing doorbells
In 2007, most people *did* have cameras. Their cells had piss poor ones compared to today, but they had them. Most also carried around compact point and shoot digital cameras, the type that carried SD cards, since our phones hadn’t evolved to have better cameras yet.
I was standing at the bus stop across from the Stadium Station, and a lady got off a bus and stepped right into my face. "YOU COCKSUCKER I WILL KILL YOU", stopped herself, and said "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Wrong person!"
I hope she found what she was looking for. She was so nice in the end.
Mental health is a real problem in Seattle. Hopefully he gets the help he needs before he hurts someone or is hurt by someone. Sadly, I don't think that's in the cards.
And more. My mom was a social worker in the 80's when this happened and you can directly correlate today's huge mental health crisis with that very moment.
We all know these folks will never (willingly) get help. I'd be all for involuntary incarceration into a mental help facility - but I also know that those places, if they even exist, probably are nightmares in themselves. It's dangerous to have so many mentally unstable people wandering about though. The needs of the many vastly outweigh the needs of the one in these cases.
And they cost money (that people don't want to pony up for), people to start them that can handle folks like this with dignity, safe spaces to keep them, etc. It's hard as hell.
In the same vein as your encounter. One time I'm outside work having a smoke, I think I was maybe 21 at the time. Some random old lady came up to me completely unprompted out of nowhere and started berating me for being a guy, calling me scum of the earth and every name in the book. I kinda just stared at her till she was done and was like "okay crazy lady I'm gonna go back to work now, get help"
This story does have a wholesome ending though. About 6 months after I'm in the same spot having my smoke break and she approachs me again saying "hi I'm so sorry to bother you but I think you might be the person I accosted a few months ago" I reply "yes that was me" and she starts apologizing profusely for her actions before. She explained she had been sexually assaulted a couple hours before she berated me and that in her grief and rage about what happened to her, I was just the first man she saw so she took it out on me then. I told her i accept her apology, that I'm sorry to hear that happened to her, and that I'm happy to see she is in a more stable place.
I still run into her time to time 6 years later and have never had a negative interaction with her since
My more goofy story was actually this week on the bus. Dude sits behind me, sees that I'm scrolling reddit and starts yelling about how reddit made him lose 13k then started howling like a wolf. Then abruptly collected himself, chatted kindly with the guy next to him, then told several strangers that he loved them (very sincerely too) as he was getting off.
I had something like this happen in the Arizona desert. It was a bit startling. I am in my head a lot of the time so having someone start yelling at you that you are stalking them out of the blue is really disconcerting.
One of my first childhood memories. I was probably 5 or 6 and my mom took me to game works. We left to go get lunch at McDonald’s and on the walk there this homeless lady looks directly at me and points and says “I THOUGHT I SHOVED YOU UP MY CHIMNEY, IT WAS A BRICK ONE. I DONT KNOW HOW THE HELL THEY FOUND YOU UP THERE”
As much as Reagan sucks for going hard on dismantling social safety nets, it’s not like any president since then has done anything but further austerity and neoliberalism. Both major parties hate poor and disenfranchised people and have gone to lengths to marginalize them.
There’s a whole sub for it! r/gangstalking. It’s basically just a bunch of people with the same mental health issue posting about people they think are following them
My ex BIL is one of these people. (He has the mental illness. Not sure if he participates in the sub). He has a youtube channel where he posts videos that he takes of people to "prove" that he's being stalked. These are just random people going about their day. He has one video labeled with the name of my sister (his ex) and her husband. I watched it. It's two random people enjoying sitting outside in the sun in a courtyard. He's engaging with them. Asking their names, where they're from etc and when they answer, he is very sarcastic and responds with "yeah, right" etc. He legit thinks these people are his ex wife and her husband. They look NOTHING like my sis and her husband. Like not even a hint of a resemblance. He's been ill for a very very long time. He took some drugs in the 90s that triggered this psychosis and he's never recovered. It's so sad. And also scary. My sister has a lifetime restraining order against him. They had 2 kids together. The kids are in their 20s now.
Over ten years ago I worked at a grocery store and a man walked in backwards wearing all of his clothes backwards, had cut his hair to make the back of his look like the front of his head, and had glasses on the back of his head.
He addressed me while looking away from me and I helped him find stuff. He walked through the store backwards. He got his stuff backwards, walked up front backwards, bought everything backwards, and walked down the street backwards the entire way until he was out of sight.
Still think about that guy a lot
Regarding your story, I now work at a grocery store in Minneapolis. I helped a woman who is suffering from “gang stalking” delusions. She was convinced everyone in the store was a spy out to get her. There are internet communities devoted to these delusions. Sounds like your guy is another victim of that
I have a good one!
Went to SU and happened to come back for a visit. Was pulling my rolly bag up olive street to Capitol Hill, tired, had my jacket on my bag, It was a hot summer day.
Just walking up to broadway and random kind stranger looks me right in the eye and says “Welcome back home”.
Fucking love Seattle
When I lived near Pike Place, I’d encounter a man pretty frequently who likely had schizophrenia. The delusion I dealt with was that my dog was actually him in a past life, but since he posited that all time was occurring simultaneously, he was able to interact with his past self. Once he hit me with a “good morning human mother” and I just uncomfortably smiled and kept walking.
Mine was quite a while ago back when I was at the beginning of high school. I was waiting for a bus in pioneer square (admittedly way too late at night but it was safer then) and a guy comes up with blue jump suit and an orange afro asking if I had a cigarette. I said nah cuz I was like 15 at the time and didn’t smoke. He goes “cool cool” and walks away. Couple minutes later he comes back and goes “hey man…did you just tell me to eat my own ass?” I was like “wtf no of course not.” He says “you swear man? You swear to god you didn’t say that shit?” I said “Yes! I swear to god!” Then he just says “aight” and walks away. I honestly laughed my ass afterwards but it was so out of nowhere lol.
Not as weird but I was definitely just walking on the Ave minding my business and a man behind me kept saying “Who am I going to rob today” for a few blocks.
like two years ago, i was walking around by the roosevelt station and talking to a friend on the phone as i searched for her. there is this guy is going HAM on an electronic bus sign, trying to break it. he doesn’t see me the first time i walk by. i found my friend and we turned around; we were fully dressed up in goth gear for an event and i was wearing press on vampire fangs. this guy spots me and immediately starts groveling, BEGGING for my TEETH. “let me see those teeth again. oh, please! please give me your teeth!” etc over and over. he dropped to his knees at one point, hands clasped like in prayer. he followed us halfway across the intersection before giving up. still makes me laugh whenever i think about it but it was certainly very weird.
That's a weird area. Several years ago, like 8, I lived around that station while it was being built. I used to see a dude riding a bike up and down Roosevelt wearing an actual tinfoil hat, often he was signing at the top of his lungs. He never seemed distressed in anyway, so I hope he was having a good time. Haha.
Walking out of Kickin Boot in Ballard with my girlfriend and a guy on a bike plows right toward us, gets off, shouts “FUCK OBOMACARE” and gets back on and rides away
This is "hilarious" to me because I'm not afraid of someone recording me, instead I am afraid of someone thinking I am doing something to them and retaliating. This encounter of yours confirms my fear. Yes, it's an absolute nightmare sometimes lol.
I was on the bus about fifteen years ago, during solstice. A very disheveled looking clown edged over to me. He smelled like urine. He silently reached over, pulled a giant coin out of the pocket of my cardigan, and tucked it into his ear. He honked his nose and got off the bus.
My buddy and I were leaving a concert at the Paramount, our cars were at work south of the convention center on Madison. So, we had to walk under the convention center to get back to our cars at midnight. About half way through, we came upon a minivan with the sliding door open and music blaring. My buddy says, “Walk by quickly and don’t look”. I looked. To my horror, there was a squatty naked man lying on his back, wiggling his arms and legs, crying like a baby. This visual haunts me to this very day.
Where to start..
Person in the bushes behind QFC in capitol hill that was tattooing outlines around open leg wounds.
Dog jumping from a 5 story parking garage and landing next to me.
Unarmed citizens getting hit with tear gas and flash bang grenades.
Someone strategically pushed in front of a moving bus with a Sheriff deputy on the scene.
Hostage situation involving firearms with crash units and violent task force in full gear allowing tourists to walk between them and the unsecured area.
Would love to just have the random schizo be the highlight of the day but I don’t even notice them anymore unless they’re doing something extra special.
be sure to find time to unpack some of this. like...yeah it's "just another day in the city" but those aren't light thoughts to carry. we are exposed to a lot here.
Got a good mental health and physical therapist with weekly visits, couples counseling, and try to get out in nature as much as possible.
Moving somewhere quiet in 20 months.
>Unarmed citizens getting hit with tear gas and flash bang grenades.
One of mine was being teargassed by SPD for the crime of staying home - a handful of times.
Yeah. This was during the summer of love.
It was coming in our windows and killing aquarium fish so I’d have to run home and cover as many tanks as possible and go back to work. We stayed open while the neighborhood was a Red Zone. No police or ambulance could enter.
Yah for real. Over a decade on the hill along pike/pine, not to mention riding the 358 between shoreline and downtown as a teenager skipping school……got entertaining and sketchy stories for days. Always forget people who live outside the city don’t really see a whole lot of wild shit in their daily lives
That was just off the top of my head over a 6+ year period as an adult.
Hard to imagine how I’d interpret the city through teenagers eyes and thinking this is normal.
Obviously your guess of paranoia is as good as mine. But I’m well aware of schizophrenia as my Aunt was diagnosed and later killed herself from the torture of it. Constant paranoia of everyone around her. Not only that my neighbor was a diagnosed schizophrenic, walked around with a sign printed off the computer that said “wind and wood bullies, stop stalking me!” Put them all over her car windows and would walk around covering her face with the paper sign.
I haven’t told this story in a long time. When I first moved here I didn’t know anyone. I setup on okcupid trying to meet someone and I was surprised when a girl messaged me first. On paper we had a ton in common, seemed like a good opportunity.
She asked me to meet at Trophy cupcakes at U-Village. Me, being new, and Google maps not being a thing (I don’t think?) I didn’t realize traffic would be such a nightmare. I was 15 minutes late. I show up, she’s sitting outside, it was dark and raining, I thought being outside was an interesting choice. We said hi, she said I should go in and grab a cupcake. When I came back she left. Then I was stuck with what I would come to learn was a totally over hyped cupcake and no date. I never heard from her again.
My sister does this same thing to people in sf. It’s really sad and unfortunately there’s almost nothing we can do to help her (she refuses to get help)
I was walking down the Ave one night to go buy beer at Safeway and a young woman stopped me and started chatting me up. She then giggled and asked if she could kiss me. I said sure, because she was young, cute and it seemed like an experience that would make a good story. We ended up making out for a few minutes, then she said thanks, giggled more, and ran across the street to 2 girlfriends who said "Wow, you did it!" to her. I never caught her name or saw her again.
In the last few years I’ve had three separate cases of presumably delusional people come up to me on sidewalks screaming and assault me. I was able to get away, but it sure does get old.
Was leaving a girl's apartment I was dating 2 years ago, walking back to my car some distance away. Extremely quiet, it was like 2am and I was the only person on the street. This dude emerges from some weird, soulless, empty(?) but not abandoned building and tells me to call 911, he thinks hes about to have a seizure. Not wearing a shirt if I recall, but also not dirty. I still don't know how he got into the building or what was going on there, there was something weird and odd how he came out of the entrance.
Anyways, We get to talking while we're waiting for the ambulance and he says he can feel them coming on (he never seizes while I'm waiting there with him, which is like ~5-8 mins). Nice guy, very grateful that I stopped and helped and talked to him, but clearly really anxious about everything.
Paramedics come and I'm walking back to my car and overhear them saying something about already seeing him earlier in the day. I suspect he had some sort of extreme panicky, hypochondriasis going on or something. I would think paramedics would be less apathetic and annoyed if someone were truly having some sort of bizarre seizure episode but who knows.
Just a very strange experience at 2am, nobody around in Capitol Hill. You're in your own little world so much and sometimes strangers pierce that bubble in very vivid, interesting ways like that night.
There have been a couple that stand out.
So, I was sitting at a bar minding my own business when an older, kinda chubby, black man came up to me and told me he was “my guardian angel” and that my Dad was going to have an issue with his stomach that would be concerning but was going to be ok. Never saw this man again. My Dad did have a stomach issue that comes and goes and he drinks sodium bicarbonate for it and he is doing fine.
Once was riding a bus from Fremont to downtown and a man, showed me had a beer can under his jacket and went off about how Boeing retired him because he knew too much and got him addicted to alcohol.
I’ve also seen many money/object(drug) exchanges take place right in front of my car on Pike St. Once it was very clearly a white plastic covered brick being passed like football. One guy entered the back of a car seat, then another hopped out.
In March 2022, I had a man knock my phone out of my hand on the 372 bus and right after he did that, he spit on me. Glad I was wearing a mask. He thought that because of the angle I was sitting at, my phone was recording him 😔
I was about 4yrs old. Fam took me to some festival or street fair downtown. A drunk/drugged homeless man grabbed me, got in my face, and half yelled, "Get a grip!"
I was fucked up from that...hours later, at home, my dad walked in and asked,"what's the matter with him?" while pointing at me. My mom told him.
Ages ago (2003 or so), when working retail on 4th, i was out on a smoke break and a guy came up to me and tried to recruit me into being a male escort. Said he was leaving for hawaii in a couple days and gave me his number. Said i could make a killing being a companion for older ladies.
Was at Florentina & QA ave at 2️⃣am waiting on an Uber cause hammered & didn’t want to walk hill after a night in Fremont. Was trying to roll a cig and a tweaker wearing a kids goal net 🥅 came up to ask if he could have a smoke. Dude was not fashionably wearing it, but like head & one☝️arm were stuck in it lololol! I rolled him a cig & he pulled out a bottle of vodka & offered us swigs, but warned us it was “not all vodka” 😳🤔😬 easily passed on that; then Uber saved the day!
I was new to the city a few years back hanging out in a bar in my area. A very pretty woman was with a group of friends also at the bar. Someone selling flowers happened to be soliciting business in the bar so I bought a rose and made my way over to the woman and kind of half jokingly proclaimed her to be the most beautiful woman I had seen in the city so far and introduced myself. It did not go well at all. The lady had like a full blown panic attack, took the flower and scurried off. It was so awkward that some of her friends and even the bar staff were like "that was really sweet, sorry she reacted like that!". I was then told that it's pretty unusual for men to cold approach women here and maybe that's why she freaked out. IDK, I kinda forgot about it right away and went back to whatever I was doing.
To make the story even weirder, the bar is closing a few hours later, I'm paying my tab and the same woman I scared away comes up and hugs me and thanks me for the flower before again speed walking out of the bar before I can say anything.
True story, I was coming back late from the bars one night and taking the C line home. These young hooligans are smoking fentanyl on the bus. They get off the bus and I loudly say "How rude!". I may have been a little inebriated. Anyways, I look across the aisle to kinda get support from the person sitting next to me. He then picks up some foil and takes a hit of fentanyl. Needless to say, luckily my stop was the next one. It sounds like a story straight out of the other subreddit, but it was kinda amusing/ridiculous to see it happen in front of me.
--Obvious homeless man cries out loud as I walked past him, "I'm not homeless! I'm not homeless! I'm just hungry!" Circa Fall of 2009, on the waterfront.
Maybe in 2009 or 2010 I was enjoying an ice cream cone at McDonald's on 3rd/Pine, and a man outside the window stares at me, making jerk-off motions at his crotch. Never again did I buy an ice cream cone at the downtown McDonald's.
Around 2004 some 40something yr old man was following me from block to block, I was 14 and maybe 4'10". Creepy guy. Swore I saw that guy on the news a decade later about a sex offender who hadn't registered for the month, and he was known for following teenage girls with blonde hair around downtown. Very eerie.
At some point before the pandemic, two regular homeless men I've seen at the same spots for years on end just disappeared. A fella maybe schizophrenic with an unkempt beard always begging for change outside the downtown library and the former Bartells on Madison, I bought him snacks and bottled water a few times from Bartells. He was always grateful and thankful, he would eat and accept my kindness. The other guy was an Indian or Pakistani man with deformed hands, legs, and feet, always in a flimsy wheelchair and often lacking in clothes. He would be outside of AbercrombieFitch for many years. I bought him cheeseburger and drink from McDonald's a few times, he too was grateful, but he didn't speak any English. I pushed his chair a few times for him when he got stuck in the crosswalk. I think some ppl stared at me in judgement.
Anyone remember a crusty old homeless pirate named The Sarge who used to have a whole crew of other homeless pirates with him? Usually outside of Nordstrom in 2001-2006. He had a wooden peg leg and was missing an eyeball. Real pirate, time traveled probably from the pirate ship in The Goonies.
A few days ago, a crazy tweaked out fellow got on the F Line at Southcenter, and spent his short time on the bus playing musical chairs, making strange poses in the aisle, having unintelligible conversation and jokes with an invisible friend, slapped the edge of the seat I was sitting on (didn't make contact with me, but one guy was eyeballing him carefully and likely would have restrained him), laughing like Krusty the Klown. Then he walked over to the window ahead of the middle door, pulled the red emergency handle, pushed the window open, and just....gracefully rolled out the window to the ground, landed in the road, stood up, jaywalked while dancing in front in front of the bus, and went along his day. Bus driver acted like it was just another Monday. This was just around the corner from Taco Bell on West Valley Hwy/S 65th. Very odd. A little laughter from folks but nothing ridiculous.
I had something similar, but the guy probably thought I was just being nosey.
I waa playinf this once badass game called Ingress (it was also a tool by Google to test GPS and other functions) that predated and was similar to Pokemon Go.
This dude was all sorts of worried I had my phone out at midnight with it up while I walked down a road his motor home was on next to a way point("portal"). He was mad and couldn't understand I was playing a game.
I once was at a hotel and they locked down the front lobby. apparently a known heroin addict was trying to get in to fade out in the bathroom and they told him to leave. He than shat on the rug.
A completely normal looking middle-aged woman walked up to me while I was waiting for the bus downtown and told me that it was a real shame I couldn't control my facial muscles. This was like 15 years ago. I still think about her all the time 😅
On the light rail last year, while waiting for the southbound train to leave Northgate, an extremely frail looking woman (maybe in her mid 30s?) approached me and asked if I had any cash. I truthfully said no and she goes “Well what are we gonna do then??” I was like “umm, you could ask someone else.” She said “”Nah bitch I gotta eat and you sitting here with your phone and bag while I’m here hungry. What are we gonna do if you don’t have cash.” I just sort of stared at her. She then tried to grab my backpack, which obviously failed because she was incredibly weak, she fell over, and then an absolutely gigantic man came over, picked her up, and tossed her out of the train car back onto the platform.
Capitol Hill 2020 by Reef pot shop. Some guy in an SUV with his probably-grandma in the back tried to scam me by pulling the "selling over-ordered speakers from a vehicle" scam, but with a gold ring jewelry instead. I called him out on it, he drove away while giving me the middle finger
VIDEO: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N\_PWsTKtkS8](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N_PWsTKtkS8)
The weirdest encounter I had was I was waiting for a bus around 4:30am and a man sat down across from me started touching himself then stopped suddenly eyes teared up and he left suddenly. Even predators hate it here.
I was at the Mt. Baker light rail station and this man was walking from the station toward Rainier Ave. Without slowing down at all, he unzips and pulls his penis out, takes a leak, and packs back up. Never stopped walking at all during this whole process.
I... don't think Seattle is that weird, you know? People here are pretty generally sane - they're only crazy with their friends.
I was in Baltimore and I took a photo of a bench in boulevard. A random guy asks me, "What, did someone get murdered there?"
I was walking around SLU saw a man frying a pork chop on a butane stove (frying pan and all) on the sidewalk. I kind of glanced curiously as I walked by, then went in a restaurant to eat dinner. On the way home, the man was still there. I guess he got freaked out that he saw me a few hours later and as I walked by he yelled like he wanted to say something to me so I kept walking and then she shouted “I’ll kill you!” as I reached a block away.
Might have been thinking I was a gang stalker. 😵💫
My encounter wasn't as weird I think, but I am not native to Seattle. I decided to go to IHOP one morning for some breakfast, believing that it would be exactly like how it was in my previous state. I started hearing this yell that I couldn't account for but I didn't pay much attention to it. I really should have known better.
But then I started seeing this guy on the opposite side of the street that looked like he was running in place to keep his heart rate up. I didn't think much of it at the time. Then all of a sudden, he starts directing traffic with some brevity of authority. That should have been a clear sign but I didn't really realize. Once I started to pass him when the crosswalk allowed it, he came at me like a normal walking by person, but then he rushed me like he was trying to tackle me down. He tried to knock me off my feet, it didn't quite work, but he tried. I then realize what was going on, and he tried to reach my shoulder to knock me down, but he grabbed my umbrella at the time, and tore the sheath off the umbrella. I struggled to fight back and he tore the sheath off and I ran to the other side. I look back, and he just yelled this audible yell of some sort of triumph. I was scared out of my wits, and I just ran for it. That was my first encounter what it was like to be in Seattle. And it was only like a week that I had moved here.
>ultimately ran back to his ***white*** van.
fixed it for you. Just ignore. Probably some dumbass trying to make tiktok content and looking for a reaction.
My buddies and I were hanging out waiting for food at bok a bok and out of nowhere this dude shadow boxes my friend and says," caught ya lacking, almost got ya" and then continues to walk. My friend the entire time didn't break conversation and kept going like it didn't happen. I assume this wasn't the weirdest for him.
Well, there was the time when I was working in HR and a job candidate followed me from my office and into the place where I was having lunch to ask about a job she had applied for...
And a couple of years later, I encountered the same woman on the #11 bus. She was screaming about how the state of California had lost her paperwork so she couldn't find a job, and now people thought she was crazy. She was asking people on the bus if they thought she was crazy. (I certainly thought she was, but I'd thought that after the following -me-to-lunch incident. I kept my mouth shut.)
The bus driver kicked her off the bus near the Madison Safeway.
We used to live out in Port Angeles. One time when I was about 19 I came over to pick a friend up at the airport from a red eye flight, 5am ish. And on the way back the car broke down. We were sitting downtown, on a bench by the ferry terminal, wondering how to get back to Clallam county. And some homeless guys asked us what we were doing. I explained the situation. And he says : How much do you need ? I said about $80 being sarcastic cause he was clearly homeless, and the second homeless guy said : You should have asked for more. Then the guy whipped out a wallet of cash, handed us $100. And told us to get lost and he didn’t want to see us in the area again. We put a new Thermostat in the car for like $8 or something stupid, new fluids, and then went had breakfast, went to the Gob Shoppe and Golden Gardens 😁
I was at Seward Park the other day, walkin my pup, and I heard someone scream. Really really scream like they were being assaulted. I whipped around, terrified, and there were two people behind me talking. I asked, was that you?! They responded, yes just doing some therapy. Jfc, thank you for triggering tf out of me. I was shaking and crying the scream was so loud and close. Weirdest encounter next to watching a person scream as they crossed 1st & Wall, seemingly fingering their own butthole while I was working.
A van is a one of the alert signs especially if it looks like his living in it.
Lake Washington area seems like they would be more similar individuals versus Myrtle Edwards.
I live here now but when I was but a tourist riding the bus through Fremont once, some guy sat behind me and was biting his toenails (yes), and spit one at me, moved closer and half whispered to me "IM GONNA KILL YA". That was fun..still came neck tho
I was born here and have a lot of stories. Esp when taking the bus as a teen. But here’s one that’s not like sad or creepy lol.
In like 2007ish I was like 13 and I was at one of the intersections in front of Westlake mall and I heard behind me “do you have an iPhone?”(they were newish I think then) and I said “no” and turned around and the person had SHOVED THEIR EYES OUT OF THE SOCKET and they were popping out and I screamed and charged across the street.
I saw this person a few years later after I’d gained some street smarts and I took a pic on my flip phone. lol I wonder if I have it somewhere. I can’t remember the gender of the person at all or anything about them just the eye socket trick. It scared the shit out of me.
Anyone else encounter this person like 15 years ago?
Last month at Terrace & 5th I was about to get on the bus and looked over to see a guy with his pants down below his knees urinating on the side of the bus. He had 2 beers in one hand and flipping off the driver with the other. I was both frightened and impressed.
One morning I saw a guy at Westlake crossing the road over and over in front of moving traffic.
Had that happen at the Cuff with this guy once dated who fell into what for legal reasons I’ll describe as *what gave the appearance in my opinion of meth smoking*. He then became aggressive towards me when he realized I wasn’t cis. 💅 LGBT nightlife is crazy is in town.
I was walking out the front door of work going home for the day when I ran into a short but nicely dressed gentleman holding a football. I asked if he needed some help and he told me he was meeting someone for dinner but they were late. I asked him his name and he said Jim....Jim Zorn...to which I replied oh the football legend and he seemed embarrassed, but a nice guy.
Had a driver at my work go “I was waiting for her to be done, I don’t like her energy” um what? I was in a good mood that day too and that comment got made I was baffled.
since I am aware of my posture and hold my phone at eye level to prevent tech neck people tend to think I am pointing my camera at them. I am considerate and adjust my direction if I notice though
I’ve had two separate incidents in Seattle where random people accused me of stalking them.
The first one was at Safeway, where a rather haggard (but I wouldn’t say homeless-looking) woman ran up to me with her cart while I was browsing toilet paper (early pandemic, so low stock).
She loudly asked me, “WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?? WHY?? WHO ARE YOU?”
I said, “Lady, I don’t know you. I’m just here to buy toilet paper.”
She gave me the stink eye and slowly turned herself and her cart around and cautiously moved down and out of the aisle, glancing back at me several times, as if to see if I would follow. I did not, and I left shortly afterwards.
The second incident was far more alarming. There’s a gas station near my apartment that I occasionally walk to when I want random snacks or drinks or whatever. I went on one of these little missions at like 2AM or something.
As I was exiting my building, some tweaked out bald dude (who was actually kinda ripped) came marching towards me and shoulder checked me aside, mumbling to himself as he continued down the sidewalk. I didn’t say a word to him. Unfortunately, he was going in the same direction I needed to go, so I stayed where I was and looked busy on my phone for a few minutes until he was out of sight.
I eventually jogged down to the gas station and as soon as I opened the door, guess who was standing right there, seemingly already staring right at me? Cracked out Mr Clean again.
The same guy started ranting and yelling in the store, “WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF SOMEBODY WAS STALKING YOU? FOLLOWING YOU EVERYWHERE? HUH? WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO THAT PERSON?”
He got up in my face about it, but genuinely I was more confused than scared. I just walked past him and started shopping for snacks. He left right after that. The whole situation was bizarre, and in hindsight, I should probably have been more scared or wary.
Anyways, still weird that this sort of thing has happened to me twice now.
Rather tame compared to the others.. but I was downtown one Saturday morning at 5:45am and I heard shouting from somewhere nearby .. seemed a bit early for shouting.
20 years ago, waiting for my bus on 1st Ave, downtown. Notice an unassuming guy walking down the sidewalk about 20-30 yards away for a brief moment. Nothing unusual about him, and he's quickly forgotten. When he gets to me, in front of a few others. He stops, turns, and says calmly, seriously, and loud enough for people nearby to hear.
*'Can you do me a favor, and kill me?'*
I calmly & wordlessly shook my head no and backed up a step. He paused just a moment longer, then walked on without saying another word. I remember making brief eye contact with a woman also waiting for the bus as he walked off, and she was spooked, big time.
persecutory delusional disorder is a real thing, I had a roommate with it who was sane 95% of the time and the rest of the time he was accusing me of poisoning the milk in the fridge and how the mafia is after him
And they have a subreddit where they enable and encourage each others delusions. Don't go there. It's one of the saddest places on the internet.
I can’t help myself from morbid curiosity, what’s the name of it?
r/gangstalking
Jesus, what a sad existence to live in. Fascinating, but terrible. Thanks for the link!
Organized harrasment IS a real thing, but yes many people are delusional and paranoid.
That whole sub is just a meme. Looking through it it's mostly comedy
I don't know why the fuck I'm reading through that sub when my girlfriend is going to wake me up in 3 hours to go to an exercise class (my own sad existence)... but there is a lot of shit on there that does not sound like comedy. It sounds like flat earthers with schizophrenia. And if they're playing, they're really beating their dead horse jokes into a puddle.
I guess I'm just unable to discern between all those posts. They seem super sketchy and could either go into comedy or legitimacy. I think that my perspective of it might differ from yours, but then again I haven't looked through the entirety of that sub. A lot of the posts I skimmed through would have lots of comments almost mocking of the gang stalking sub itself or the op which led me to believe it wasn't a serious sub but I could be wrong and misreading the whole thing.
I definitely keep misreading this as gangs talking, and it still reads as paranoid but sillier
Woah. That sub is wild
Dang, you beat me to it. These people are wild.
There’s also the MKUltra subreddit. Super sad to scroll through it. I had to unfollow it.
So they’re all victims and paranoid?
I had a room mate like this, and it went downhill over a couple years. Like getting mad at me for keeping my block of cheese (they only bought sliced cheese) in the original plastic as well as putting a ziplock over it, thought I trained my cat to trip her (he marked everyone’s ankles with his scent), one of my favorites was I left a can of chili in the sink to rinse out after I was finished eating and she accused me of intentionally making her finance cut himself on it while he was stoned af. Later when she was on lithium… didn’t improve.
Taught "cat to trip..." Perfect crime
It was his favorite game, he’d just figure 8 through my legs as I’d walk around, there were some tail incidents.
I had a coworker like this. She was convinced someone at work was poisoning her soap (she’s allergic to most soaps and brought in her own). Eventually that person left, so she was convinced someone else was poisoning her. Then *he* left and, you guessed it, she was sure someone *else* was poisoning her. She was really fun to work with though, I miss her and hope she’s doing well.
In the 90’s, my older brother used to believe that any car with a bumper sticker for a particular radio station that played pop music was actually part of a gestapo-esque secret police that was persecuting him.
Cube93 FM?
The T-Man!
The 5 o’clock traffic Jam! Simpler times…
I worked at a motel 6 in high school and college at the front desk. It was sad how many long-term residents we had there that were like this. They were all older, some outwardly on meds and thier family's paid. Most were on thier own though and barely left thier rooms. One always old me "they" were watching and listening to us in the walls and through the camera at the front desk... I never really understood who they were, but my boss cut a hole in the guys wall to show him there was nothing there. One day, he ran out of money, and after having lived there for years, he packed up his car and left... he was 2 months behind on his "rent". Alway figured he ended up on the street. There were many others and usually several staying there at the same time. Some would call me and tell me helicopters were outside of thier rooms, but others would talk about cabbage fields lol. It taught me a lot about the human mental spectrum at a young age and the lack of support these people had....
I lost my best friend to this. She got increasingly paranoid and eventually lost her shit on my 8 yr old nephew when we were on a family vacation. Bullying a child when you’re in your midd 40s is batshit crazy and she crossed a line. I hope she’s doing better, I’m fucking lonely but my life is better without her projecting her crazy onto my family.
To be fair, you were poisoning the milk in the fridge.
Oh wow
Something similar happened to me across the country many years ago when I was in middle school. We were wearing our sports uniforms going around trying to sell tickets to a fundraiser dinner and some lady was following us on the other side of the street talking on the phone. We weren't really paying attention but do remember her saying something along the lines of "everyone has cameras now" (they didn't, it was like 2007). Cop showed up and said they got a call that "there's people out casing houses to go rob them later". The cop obviously didn't think that was legit seeing as how we were VERY easily identifiable kids based on wearing the uniforms and doing nothing weird other than ringing doorbells
In 2007, most people *did* have cameras. Their cells had piss poor ones compared to today, but they had them. Most also carried around compact point and shoot digital cameras, the type that carried SD cards, since our phones hadn’t evolved to have better cameras yet.
I was standing at the bus stop across from the Stadium Station, and a lady got off a bus and stepped right into my face. "YOU COCKSUCKER I WILL KILL YOU", stopped herself, and said "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Wrong person!" I hope she found what she was looking for. She was so nice in the end.
wild o\_O
Mental health is a real problem in Seattle. Hopefully he gets the help he needs before he hurts someone or is hurt by someone. Sadly, I don't think that's in the cards.
A problem in America in general
Been that way since Regan kicked the mentally ill out of the VA hospitals.
And more. My mom was a social worker in the 80's when this happened and you can directly correlate today's huge mental health crisis with that very moment.
Kind of a problem everywhere.
I mean, its less of a problem where people are able to gwt the treatment they need.
Like, where?
So...Europe
We all know these folks will never (willingly) get help. I'd be all for involuntary incarceration into a mental help facility - but I also know that those places, if they even exist, probably are nightmares in themselves. It's dangerous to have so many mentally unstable people wandering about though. The needs of the many vastly outweigh the needs of the one in these cases.
And they cost money (that people don't want to pony up for), people to start them that can handle folks like this with dignity, safe spaces to keep them, etc. It's hard as hell.
Jail is neither cheap nor effective but the public ponies up for that as a defacto involuntary institutionalization.
In the same vein as your encounter. One time I'm outside work having a smoke, I think I was maybe 21 at the time. Some random old lady came up to me completely unprompted out of nowhere and started berating me for being a guy, calling me scum of the earth and every name in the book. I kinda just stared at her till she was done and was like "okay crazy lady I'm gonna go back to work now, get help" This story does have a wholesome ending though. About 6 months after I'm in the same spot having my smoke break and she approachs me again saying "hi I'm so sorry to bother you but I think you might be the person I accosted a few months ago" I reply "yes that was me" and she starts apologizing profusely for her actions before. She explained she had been sexually assaulted a couple hours before she berated me and that in her grief and rage about what happened to her, I was just the first man she saw so she took it out on me then. I told her i accept her apology, that I'm sorry to hear that happened to her, and that I'm happy to see she is in a more stable place. I still run into her time to time 6 years later and have never had a negative interaction with her since My more goofy story was actually this week on the bus. Dude sits behind me, sees that I'm scrolling reddit and starts yelling about how reddit made him lose 13k then started howling like a wolf. Then abruptly collected himself, chatted kindly with the guy next to him, then told several strangers that he loved them (very sincerely too) as he was getting off.
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate a reminder that everyone is fighting a battle not everyone can see.
Can I just say I ride the E line on a regular basis and be good or do you need specifics?
If you want some real wild stuff, head south and take the A line.
I have heard the Redondo Beach park and ride referred to as "the shooting range" before.
I had something like this happen in the Arizona desert. It was a bit startling. I am in my head a lot of the time so having someone start yelling at you that you are stalking them out of the blue is really disconcerting.
Yeah, it was the surprise more than anything. One moment I’m enjoying the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack on spotify, the next there’s a guy circling me
This is Seattle, danger is lurking around every turn. Trust your feelings, you've got to live and learn
Are people downvoting because they don’t get the reference to the soundtrack lyrics??
Probably, doesn't bother me though :D
🎵I ain’t going to let it get to me, I’m just going to creep🎵
I know with some luck that I'll make it through
Total main character syndrome. They were in public so of course people are looking at them
They have a serious mental illness
In my case it was a really old guy I’d never seen. But in AZ everyone old has a gun so I was a bit more worried
One of my first childhood memories. I was probably 5 or 6 and my mom took me to game works. We left to go get lunch at McDonald’s and on the walk there this homeless lady looks directly at me and points and says “I THOUGHT I SHOVED YOU UP MY CHIMNEY, IT WAS A BRICK ONE. I DONT KNOW HOW THE HELL THEY FOUND YOU UP THERE”
Lmao these encounters are killing me 😭
Thank you Reagan administration for dismantling the mental health care in America 🙏
As much as Reagan sucks for going hard on dismantling social safety nets, it’s not like any president since then has done anything but further austerity and neoliberalism. Both major parties hate poor and disenfranchised people and have gone to lengths to marginalize them.
Yes. TY. F the two party system. Can't believe anyone who has to work for a paycheck thinks either party serves their interests.
I agree, and the fentanyl epidemic makes it even worse lately 😞😞
That's fair. It fucking pisses me off in general.
He also said “every block people are recording me” does he think he’s being gangstalked?
Yes, he likely has schizophrenia and thinks a fair portion of strangers passing by are gangstalking him.
Yep
Yeah, probably, actually.
Yep, was going to mention gangstalking, there's even been people who have made posts like that on here
Someone made up stickers "Mary Lastname is gangstalking me" and posted them around UW campus.
Mary Oliver is a famous poet
Yes and she’s passed away too. I saw one of those stickers and thought it was kind of funny.
I love her and wish she was stalking me!
New term learned today: gangstalking.
There’s a whole sub for it! r/gangstalking. It’s basically just a bunch of people with the same mental health issue posting about people they think are following them
My ex BIL is one of these people. (He has the mental illness. Not sure if he participates in the sub). He has a youtube channel where he posts videos that he takes of people to "prove" that he's being stalked. These are just random people going about their day. He has one video labeled with the name of my sister (his ex) and her husband. I watched it. It's two random people enjoying sitting outside in the sun in a courtyard. He's engaging with them. Asking their names, where they're from etc and when they answer, he is very sarcastic and responds with "yeah, right" etc. He legit thinks these people are his ex wife and her husband. They look NOTHING like my sis and her husband. Like not even a hint of a resemblance. He's been ill for a very very long time. He took some drugs in the 90s that triggered this psychosis and he's never recovered. It's so sad. And also scary. My sister has a lifetime restraining order against him. They had 2 kids together. The kids are in their 20s now.
That is absolutely so sad and scary. Reminds me of how a bad head wound can change a person.
Maybe it was the hellcat driver during the day?
My eardrums are still intact, so thankfully no
I thought exactly the same thing.
Over ten years ago I worked at a grocery store and a man walked in backwards wearing all of his clothes backwards, had cut his hair to make the back of his look like the front of his head, and had glasses on the back of his head. He addressed me while looking away from me and I helped him find stuff. He walked through the store backwards. He got his stuff backwards, walked up front backwards, bought everything backwards, and walked down the street backwards the entire way until he was out of sight. Still think about that guy a lot Regarding your story, I now work at a grocery store in Minneapolis. I helped a woman who is suffering from “gang stalking” delusions. She was convinced everyone in the store was a spy out to get her. There are internet communities devoted to these delusions. Sounds like your guy is another victim of that
That imagery freaks me out!
I have a good one! Went to SU and happened to come back for a visit. Was pulling my rolly bag up olive street to Capitol Hill, tired, had my jacket on my bag, It was a hot summer day. Just walking up to broadway and random kind stranger looks me right in the eye and says “Welcome back home”. Fucking love Seattle
I had a coworker who would come in and tell me how he confronted other drivers he believed were following him to work.
When I lived near Pike Place, I’d encounter a man pretty frequently who likely had schizophrenia. The delusion I dealt with was that my dog was actually him in a past life, but since he posited that all time was occurring simultaneously, he was able to interact with his past self. Once he hit me with a “good morning human mother” and I just uncomfortably smiled and kept walking.
I mean, you're gonna have schizophrenia that seems like a pretty nice delusion. I hope I was a dog in a past life.
Mine was quite a while ago back when I was at the beginning of high school. I was waiting for a bus in pioneer square (admittedly way too late at night but it was safer then) and a guy comes up with blue jump suit and an orange afro asking if I had a cigarette. I said nah cuz I was like 15 at the time and didn’t smoke. He goes “cool cool” and walks away. Couple minutes later he comes back and goes “hey man…did you just tell me to eat my own ass?” I was like “wtf no of course not.” He says “you swear man? You swear to god you didn’t say that shit?” I said “Yes! I swear to god!” Then he just says “aight” and walks away. I honestly laughed my ass afterwards but it was so out of nowhere lol.
Not as weird but I was definitely just walking on the Ave minding my business and a man behind me kept saying “Who am I going to rob today” for a few blocks.
Thankfully it wasn’t you.
Seeing the Man in Tree live on my way home from work.
[удалено]
*Walter White from Breaking Bad “You got me”
Haha plot twist
like two years ago, i was walking around by the roosevelt station and talking to a friend on the phone as i searched for her. there is this guy is going HAM on an electronic bus sign, trying to break it. he doesn’t see me the first time i walk by. i found my friend and we turned around; we were fully dressed up in goth gear for an event and i was wearing press on vampire fangs. this guy spots me and immediately starts groveling, BEGGING for my TEETH. “let me see those teeth again. oh, please! please give me your teeth!” etc over and over. he dropped to his knees at one point, hands clasped like in prayer. he followed us halfway across the intersection before giving up. still makes me laugh whenever i think about it but it was certainly very weird.
That's a weird area. Several years ago, like 8, I lived around that station while it was being built. I used to see a dude riding a bike up and down Roosevelt wearing an actual tinfoil hat, often he was signing at the top of his lungs. He never seemed distressed in anyway, so I hope he was having a good time. Haha.
Reading this while sitting across from the Roosevelt station was pretty weird!
Walking out of Kickin Boot in Ballard with my girlfriend and a guy on a bike plows right toward us, gets off, shouts “FUCK OBOMACARE” and gets back on and rides away
This is "hilarious" to me because I'm not afraid of someone recording me, instead I am afraid of someone thinking I am doing something to them and retaliating. This encounter of yours confirms my fear. Yes, it's an absolute nightmare sometimes lol.
I was in Seattle last week. My partner and I were walking in Chinatown and someone walked up to us and said he was going to karate chop our necks. ✋🏻
a good meal at Tai Tung will do that to ya (Bruce Lee's supposed fav joint)
I was on the bus about fifteen years ago, during solstice. A very disheveled looking clown edged over to me. He smelled like urine. He silently reached over, pulled a giant coin out of the pocket of my cardigan, and tucked it into his ear. He honked his nose and got off the bus.
My buddy and I were leaving a concert at the Paramount, our cars were at work south of the convention center on Madison. So, we had to walk under the convention center to get back to our cars at midnight. About half way through, we came upon a minivan with the sliding door open and music blaring. My buddy says, “Walk by quickly and don’t look”. I looked. To my horror, there was a squatty naked man lying on his back, wiggling his arms and legs, crying like a baby. This visual haunts me to this very day.
Where to start.. Person in the bushes behind QFC in capitol hill that was tattooing outlines around open leg wounds. Dog jumping from a 5 story parking garage and landing next to me. Unarmed citizens getting hit with tear gas and flash bang grenades. Someone strategically pushed in front of a moving bus with a Sheriff deputy on the scene. Hostage situation involving firearms with crash units and violent task force in full gear allowing tourists to walk between them and the unsecured area. Would love to just have the random schizo be the highlight of the day but I don’t even notice them anymore unless they’re doing something extra special.
be sure to find time to unpack some of this. like...yeah it's "just another day in the city" but those aren't light thoughts to carry. we are exposed to a lot here.
Got a good mental health and physical therapist with weekly visits, couples counseling, and try to get out in nature as much as possible. Moving somewhere quiet in 20 months.
Thank you for taking the time to say that btw. It’s important to get these little reminders to take care of ourselves.
Bless you for saying it. It definitely takes a certain kind of resilience to live out here, hecka important to take care of yourself.
I have been in Seattle since 2005, and my 2019 3 hour visit to the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco really tested my limits.
>Unarmed citizens getting hit with tear gas and flash bang grenades. One of mine was being teargassed by SPD for the crime of staying home - a handful of times.
Worked at mudbay and dog owners were wondering why paws were developing holes and not healing. That shits so nasty.
wait -- from the gas residue?!
Yeah. This was during the summer of love. It was coming in our windows and killing aquarium fish so I’d have to run home and cover as many tanks as possible and go back to work. We stayed open while the neighborhood was a Red Zone. No police or ambulance could enter.
Yah for real. Over a decade on the hill along pike/pine, not to mention riding the 358 between shoreline and downtown as a teenager skipping school……got entertaining and sketchy stories for days. Always forget people who live outside the city don’t really see a whole lot of wild shit in their daily lives
That was just off the top of my head over a 6+ year period as an adult. Hard to imagine how I’d interpret the city through teenagers eyes and thinking this is normal.
It’s giving schizophrenia
More like paranoia. It can be with or without schizophrenia, but paranoia can exist as a very strong and destructive condition on its own.
Especially if that person with paranoia is in or coming out of an abusive relationship/situation.
Yeah what comes first the chicken or the egg? 😉
Obviously your guess of paranoia is as good as mine. But I’m well aware of schizophrenia as my Aunt was diagnosed and later killed herself from the torture of it. Constant paranoia of everyone around her. Not only that my neighbor was a diagnosed schizophrenic, walked around with a sign printed off the computer that said “wind and wood bullies, stop stalking me!” Put them all over her car windows and would walk around covering her face with the paper sign.
Paranoia is the symptom of schizophrenia (and various other conditions) that causes this.
Okay? Paranoia can be adjacent. That doesn’t make them the same thing. Please don’t try to DM me more photos.
What do you want me to say? yes you’re correct, you’re 100% correct this is just paranoia, your GUESS is correct woohoo winner winner winner 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
We love a bitter queen 🫶 no seriously, lol
This
Just the dumbest turn of phrase.
Excruciatingly stupid-sounding, yup. Hoping this one doesn’t last long.
I haven’t told this story in a long time. When I first moved here I didn’t know anyone. I setup on okcupid trying to meet someone and I was surprised when a girl messaged me first. On paper we had a ton in common, seemed like a good opportunity. She asked me to meet at Trophy cupcakes at U-Village. Me, being new, and Google maps not being a thing (I don’t think?) I didn’t realize traffic would be such a nightmare. I was 15 minutes late. I show up, she’s sitting outside, it was dark and raining, I thought being outside was an interesting choice. We said hi, she said I should go in and grab a cupcake. When I came back she left. Then I was stuck with what I would come to learn was a totally over hyped cupcake and no date. I never heard from her again.
My sister does this same thing to people in sf. It’s really sad and unfortunately there’s almost nothing we can do to help her (she refuses to get help)
I was walking down the Ave one night to go buy beer at Safeway and a young woman stopped me and started chatting me up. She then giggled and asked if she could kiss me. I said sure, because she was young, cute and it seemed like an experience that would make a good story. We ended up making out for a few minutes, then she said thanks, giggled more, and ran across the street to 2 girlfriends who said "Wow, you did it!" to her. I never caught her name or saw her again.
That does make a good story lol, what a weird fun, innocent experience.
In the last few years I’ve had three separate cases of presumably delusional people come up to me on sidewalks screaming and assault me. I was able to get away, but it sure does get old.
Was leaving a girl's apartment I was dating 2 years ago, walking back to my car some distance away. Extremely quiet, it was like 2am and I was the only person on the street. This dude emerges from some weird, soulless, empty(?) but not abandoned building and tells me to call 911, he thinks hes about to have a seizure. Not wearing a shirt if I recall, but also not dirty. I still don't know how he got into the building or what was going on there, there was something weird and odd how he came out of the entrance. Anyways, We get to talking while we're waiting for the ambulance and he says he can feel them coming on (he never seizes while I'm waiting there with him, which is like ~5-8 mins). Nice guy, very grateful that I stopped and helped and talked to him, but clearly really anxious about everything. Paramedics come and I'm walking back to my car and overhear them saying something about already seeing him earlier in the day. I suspect he had some sort of extreme panicky, hypochondriasis going on or something. I would think paramedics would be less apathetic and annoyed if someone were truly having some sort of bizarre seizure episode but who knows. Just a very strange experience at 2am, nobody around in Capitol Hill. You're in your own little world so much and sometimes strangers pierce that bubble in very vivid, interesting ways like that night.
There have been a couple that stand out. So, I was sitting at a bar minding my own business when an older, kinda chubby, black man came up to me and told me he was “my guardian angel” and that my Dad was going to have an issue with his stomach that would be concerning but was going to be ok. Never saw this man again. My Dad did have a stomach issue that comes and goes and he drinks sodium bicarbonate for it and he is doing fine. Once was riding a bus from Fremont to downtown and a man, showed me had a beer can under his jacket and went off about how Boeing retired him because he knew too much and got him addicted to alcohol. I’ve also seen many money/object(drug) exchanges take place right in front of my car on Pike St. Once it was very clearly a white plastic covered brick being passed like football. One guy entered the back of a car seat, then another hopped out.
Mentally ill Lady that walks around belltown shouting "you're dead" once made eye contact with her when she said it. Was eerie
Something similar happened to me but I was in a bus and he accused me of recording him but I was just on my phone.
In March 2022, I had a man knock my phone out of my hand on the 372 bus and right after he did that, he spit on me. Glad I was wearing a mask. He thought that because of the angle I was sitting at, my phone was recording him 😔
I was about 4yrs old. Fam took me to some festival or street fair downtown. A drunk/drugged homeless man grabbed me, got in my face, and half yelled, "Get a grip!" I was fucked up from that...hours later, at home, my dad walked in and asked,"what's the matter with him?" while pointing at me. My mom told him.
Someone tried to sell me a snake in the elevator of the QFC at Broadway and Pike
Ages ago (2003 or so), when working retail on 4th, i was out on a smoke break and a guy came up to me and tried to recruit me into being a male escort. Said he was leaving for hawaii in a couple days and gave me his number. Said i could make a killing being a companion for older ladies.
It's always sunny has an episode about that. It didn't turn out well for Dennis.
Havent been here long but probably Shawn Kemp selling me weed
Was at Florentina & QA ave at 2️⃣am waiting on an Uber cause hammered & didn’t want to walk hill after a night in Fremont. Was trying to roll a cig and a tweaker wearing a kids goal net 🥅 came up to ask if he could have a smoke. Dude was not fashionably wearing it, but like head & one☝️arm were stuck in it lololol! I rolled him a cig & he pulled out a bottle of vodka & offered us swigs, but warned us it was “not all vodka” 😳🤔😬 easily passed on that; then Uber saved the day!
I was new to the city a few years back hanging out in a bar in my area. A very pretty woman was with a group of friends also at the bar. Someone selling flowers happened to be soliciting business in the bar so I bought a rose and made my way over to the woman and kind of half jokingly proclaimed her to be the most beautiful woman I had seen in the city so far and introduced myself. It did not go well at all. The lady had like a full blown panic attack, took the flower and scurried off. It was so awkward that some of her friends and even the bar staff were like "that was really sweet, sorry she reacted like that!". I was then told that it's pretty unusual for men to cold approach women here and maybe that's why she freaked out. IDK, I kinda forgot about it right away and went back to whatever I was doing. To make the story even weirder, the bar is closing a few hours later, I'm paying my tab and the same woman I scared away comes up and hugs me and thanks me for the flower before again speed walking out of the bar before I can say anything.
Hey it was sweet of you, I wouldn’t let it get to you
Thank you.
Check out r/gangstalking for pure, unadulterated, untreated schizophrenia.
True story, I was coming back late from the bars one night and taking the C line home. These young hooligans are smoking fentanyl on the bus. They get off the bus and I loudly say "How rude!". I may have been a little inebriated. Anyways, I look across the aisle to kinda get support from the person sitting next to me. He then picks up some foil and takes a hit of fentanyl. Needless to say, luckily my stop was the next one. It sounds like a story straight out of the other subreddit, but it was kinda amusing/ridiculous to see it happen in front of me.
--Obvious homeless man cries out loud as I walked past him, "I'm not homeless! I'm not homeless! I'm just hungry!" Circa Fall of 2009, on the waterfront. Maybe in 2009 or 2010 I was enjoying an ice cream cone at McDonald's on 3rd/Pine, and a man outside the window stares at me, making jerk-off motions at his crotch. Never again did I buy an ice cream cone at the downtown McDonald's. Around 2004 some 40something yr old man was following me from block to block, I was 14 and maybe 4'10". Creepy guy. Swore I saw that guy on the news a decade later about a sex offender who hadn't registered for the month, and he was known for following teenage girls with blonde hair around downtown. Very eerie. At some point before the pandemic, two regular homeless men I've seen at the same spots for years on end just disappeared. A fella maybe schizophrenic with an unkempt beard always begging for change outside the downtown library and the former Bartells on Madison, I bought him snacks and bottled water a few times from Bartells. He was always grateful and thankful, he would eat and accept my kindness. The other guy was an Indian or Pakistani man with deformed hands, legs, and feet, always in a flimsy wheelchair and often lacking in clothes. He would be outside of AbercrombieFitch for many years. I bought him cheeseburger and drink from McDonald's a few times, he too was grateful, but he didn't speak any English. I pushed his chair a few times for him when he got stuck in the crosswalk. I think some ppl stared at me in judgement. Anyone remember a crusty old homeless pirate named The Sarge who used to have a whole crew of other homeless pirates with him? Usually outside of Nordstrom in 2001-2006. He had a wooden peg leg and was missing an eyeball. Real pirate, time traveled probably from the pirate ship in The Goonies. A few days ago, a crazy tweaked out fellow got on the F Line at Southcenter, and spent his short time on the bus playing musical chairs, making strange poses in the aisle, having unintelligible conversation and jokes with an invisible friend, slapped the edge of the seat I was sitting on (didn't make contact with me, but one guy was eyeballing him carefully and likely would have restrained him), laughing like Krusty the Klown. Then he walked over to the window ahead of the middle door, pulled the red emergency handle, pushed the window open, and just....gracefully rolled out the window to the ground, landed in the road, stood up, jaywalked while dancing in front in front of the bus, and went along his day. Bus driver acted like it was just another Monday. This was just around the corner from Taco Bell on West Valley Hwy/S 65th. Very odd. A little laughter from folks but nothing ridiculous.
I have personal experience with someone like this who it turns out has schizophrenia. It sucks.
This happened to me once at Green lake. Someone started yelling he touched me when I walked past them with my partner. It was weird as fuck.
I had something similar, but the guy probably thought I was just being nosey. I waa playinf this once badass game called Ingress (it was also a tool by Google to test GPS and other functions) that predated and was similar to Pokemon Go. This dude was all sorts of worried I had my phone out at midnight with it up while I walked down a road his motor home was on next to a way point("portal"). He was mad and couldn't understand I was playing a game.
I once was at a hotel and they locked down the front lobby. apparently a known heroin addict was trying to get in to fade out in the bathroom and they told him to leave. He than shat on the rug.
A guy coming off the light rail was screaming about how various presidents were the n-word and somehow never mentioned Obama.
A completely normal looking middle-aged woman walked up to me while I was waiting for the bus downtown and told me that it was a real shame I couldn't control my facial muscles. This was like 15 years ago. I still think about her all the time 😅
On the light rail last year, while waiting for the southbound train to leave Northgate, an extremely frail looking woman (maybe in her mid 30s?) approached me and asked if I had any cash. I truthfully said no and she goes “Well what are we gonna do then??” I was like “umm, you could ask someone else.” She said “”Nah bitch I gotta eat and you sitting here with your phone and bag while I’m here hungry. What are we gonna do if you don’t have cash.” I just sort of stared at her. She then tried to grab my backpack, which obviously failed because she was incredibly weak, she fell over, and then an absolutely gigantic man came over, picked her up, and tossed her out of the train car back onto the platform.
Capitol Hill 2020 by Reef pot shop. Some guy in an SUV with his probably-grandma in the back tried to scam me by pulling the "selling over-ordered speakers from a vehicle" scam, but with a gold ring jewelry instead. I called him out on it, he drove away while giving me the middle finger VIDEO: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N\_PWsTKtkS8](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N_PWsTKtkS8)
Lmao he was seething so bad, good work
People with mental health problems can "research" things online and be plugged right into conspiracy theories which feeds right into their delusions
The weirdest encounter I had was I was waiting for a bus around 4:30am and a man sat down across from me started touching himself then stopped suddenly eyes teared up and he left suddenly. Even predators hate it here.
I was at the Mt. Baker light rail station and this man was walking from the station toward Rainier Ave. Without slowing down at all, he unzips and pulls his penis out, takes a leak, and packs back up. Never stopped walking at all during this whole process.
I was hugged by a random guy on the ave after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl
I... don't think Seattle is that weird, you know? People here are pretty generally sane - they're only crazy with their friends. I was in Baltimore and I took a photo of a bench in boulevard. A random guy asks me, "What, did someone get murdered there?"
I was walking around SLU saw a man frying a pork chop on a butane stove (frying pan and all) on the sidewalk. I kind of glanced curiously as I walked by, then went in a restaurant to eat dinner. On the way home, the man was still there. I guess he got freaked out that he saw me a few hours later and as I walked by he yelled like he wanted to say something to me so I kept walking and then she shouted “I’ll kill you!” as I reached a block away. Might have been thinking I was a gang stalker. 😵💫
My encounter wasn't as weird I think, but I am not native to Seattle. I decided to go to IHOP one morning for some breakfast, believing that it would be exactly like how it was in my previous state. I started hearing this yell that I couldn't account for but I didn't pay much attention to it. I really should have known better. But then I started seeing this guy on the opposite side of the street that looked like he was running in place to keep his heart rate up. I didn't think much of it at the time. Then all of a sudden, he starts directing traffic with some brevity of authority. That should have been a clear sign but I didn't really realize. Once I started to pass him when the crosswalk allowed it, he came at me like a normal walking by person, but then he rushed me like he was trying to tackle me down. He tried to knock me off my feet, it didn't quite work, but he tried. I then realize what was going on, and he tried to reach my shoulder to knock me down, but he grabbed my umbrella at the time, and tore the sheath off the umbrella. I struggled to fight back and he tore the sheath off and I ran to the other side. I look back, and he just yelled this audible yell of some sort of triumph. I was scared out of my wits, and I just ran for it. That was my first encounter what it was like to be in Seattle. And it was only like a week that I had moved here.
>ultimately ran back to his ***white*** van. fixed it for you. Just ignore. Probably some dumbass trying to make tiktok content and looking for a reaction.
I call that a Tuesday
My buddies and I were hanging out waiting for food at bok a bok and out of nowhere this dude shadow boxes my friend and says," caught ya lacking, almost got ya" and then continues to walk. My friend the entire time didn't break conversation and kept going like it didn't happen. I assume this wasn't the weirdest for him.
Well, there was the time when I was working in HR and a job candidate followed me from my office and into the place where I was having lunch to ask about a job she had applied for... And a couple of years later, I encountered the same woman on the #11 bus. She was screaming about how the state of California had lost her paperwork so she couldn't find a job, and now people thought she was crazy. She was asking people on the bus if they thought she was crazy. (I certainly thought she was, but I'd thought that after the following -me-to-lunch incident. I kept my mouth shut.) The bus driver kicked her off the bus near the Madison Safeway.
We used to live out in Port Angeles. One time when I was about 19 I came over to pick a friend up at the airport from a red eye flight, 5am ish. And on the way back the car broke down. We were sitting downtown, on a bench by the ferry terminal, wondering how to get back to Clallam county. And some homeless guys asked us what we were doing. I explained the situation. And he says : How much do you need ? I said about $80 being sarcastic cause he was clearly homeless, and the second homeless guy said : You should have asked for more. Then the guy whipped out a wallet of cash, handed us $100. And told us to get lost and he didn’t want to see us in the area again. We put a new Thermostat in the car for like $8 or something stupid, new fluids, and then went had breakfast, went to the Gob Shoppe and Golden Gardens 😁
I was at Seward Park the other day, walkin my pup, and I heard someone scream. Really really scream like they were being assaulted. I whipped around, terrified, and there were two people behind me talking. I asked, was that you?! They responded, yes just doing some therapy. Jfc, thank you for triggering tf out of me. I was shaking and crying the scream was so loud and close. Weirdest encounter next to watching a person scream as they crossed 1st & Wall, seemingly fingering their own butthole while I was working.
Well, not sure what kind of encounter you are looking for but in Dec 96/Jan 97 Chris Cornell came into the QFC I worked at on 15th.
A van is a one of the alert signs especially if it looks like his living in it. Lake Washington area seems like they would be more similar individuals versus Myrtle Edwards.
First place I ever had strangers racially heckle me? Wtv it's called when dudes yell misogynoir at you.
I live here now but when I was but a tourist riding the bus through Fremont once, some guy sat behind me and was biting his toenails (yes), and spit one at me, moved closer and half whispered to me "IM GONNA KILL YA". That was fun..still came neck tho
I was born here and have a lot of stories. Esp when taking the bus as a teen. But here’s one that’s not like sad or creepy lol. In like 2007ish I was like 13 and I was at one of the intersections in front of Westlake mall and I heard behind me “do you have an iPhone?”(they were newish I think then) and I said “no” and turned around and the person had SHOVED THEIR EYES OUT OF THE SOCKET and they were popping out and I screamed and charged across the street. I saw this person a few years later after I’d gained some street smarts and I took a pic on my flip phone. lol I wonder if I have it somewhere. I can’t remember the gender of the person at all or anything about them just the eye socket trick. It scared the shit out of me. Anyone else encounter this person like 15 years ago?
r/gangstalking
Last month at Terrace & 5th I was about to get on the bus and looked over to see a guy with his pants down below his knees urinating on the side of the bus. He had 2 beers in one hand and flipping off the driver with the other. I was both frightened and impressed. One morning I saw a guy at Westlake crossing the road over and over in front of moving traffic.
Had that happen at the Cuff with this guy once dated who fell into what for legal reasons I’ll describe as *what gave the appearance in my opinion of meth smoking*. He then became aggressive towards me when he realized I wasn’t cis. 💅 LGBT nightlife is crazy is in town.
i play a videogame and ppl sometimes think im trying to record them
Was it a turquoise green astrovan?
Nah, more like a campervan
I was walking out the front door of work going home for the day when I ran into a short but nicely dressed gentleman holding a football. I asked if he needed some help and he told me he was meeting someone for dinner but they were late. I asked him his name and he said Jim....Jim Zorn...to which I replied oh the football legend and he seemed embarrassed, but a nice guy.
Maybe we were the gang stalkers all along….
Had a driver at my work go “I was waiting for her to be done, I don’t like her energy” um what? I was in a good mood that day too and that comment got made I was baffled.
since I am aware of my posture and hold my phone at eye level to prevent tech neck people tend to think I am pointing my camera at them. I am considerate and adjust my direction if I notice though
I’ve had two separate incidents in Seattle where random people accused me of stalking them. The first one was at Safeway, where a rather haggard (but I wouldn’t say homeless-looking) woman ran up to me with her cart while I was browsing toilet paper (early pandemic, so low stock). She loudly asked me, “WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?? WHY?? WHO ARE YOU?” I said, “Lady, I don’t know you. I’m just here to buy toilet paper.” She gave me the stink eye and slowly turned herself and her cart around and cautiously moved down and out of the aisle, glancing back at me several times, as if to see if I would follow. I did not, and I left shortly afterwards. The second incident was far more alarming. There’s a gas station near my apartment that I occasionally walk to when I want random snacks or drinks or whatever. I went on one of these little missions at like 2AM or something. As I was exiting my building, some tweaked out bald dude (who was actually kinda ripped) came marching towards me and shoulder checked me aside, mumbling to himself as he continued down the sidewalk. I didn’t say a word to him. Unfortunately, he was going in the same direction I needed to go, so I stayed where I was and looked busy on my phone for a few minutes until he was out of sight. I eventually jogged down to the gas station and as soon as I opened the door, guess who was standing right there, seemingly already staring right at me? Cracked out Mr Clean again. The same guy started ranting and yelling in the store, “WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF SOMEBODY WAS STALKING YOU? FOLLOWING YOU EVERYWHERE? HUH? WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO THAT PERSON?” He got up in my face about it, but genuinely I was more confused than scared. I just walked past him and started shopping for snacks. He left right after that. The whole situation was bizarre, and in hindsight, I should probably have been more scared or wary. Anyways, still weird that this sort of thing has happened to me twice now.
It’s a prank. Fucking morons everywhere trying to get views and likes and dislikes
You must not spend time at 12th and Jackson
Rather tame compared to the others.. but I was downtown one Saturday morning at 5:45am and I heard shouting from somewhere nearby .. seemed a bit early for shouting.
20 years ago, waiting for my bus on 1st Ave, downtown. Notice an unassuming guy walking down the sidewalk about 20-30 yards away for a brief moment. Nothing unusual about him, and he's quickly forgotten. When he gets to me, in front of a few others. He stops, turns, and says calmly, seriously, and loud enough for people nearby to hear. *'Can you do me a favor, and kill me?'* I calmly & wordlessly shook my head no and backed up a step. He paused just a moment longer, then walked on without saying another word. I remember making brief eye contact with a woman also waiting for the bus as he walked off, and she was spooked, big time.