What’s the weirdest interaction you’ve had with a complete stranger? – 17 encounters that have left people scratching their heads

Some people say that strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet. On the other hand, they might be people that will leave you confused for the rest of your life.

Reddit user BarryFairbrother wanted to hear about the weirdest interactions people have had with strangers, so they turned to r/AskUK for feedback. And they even kicked things off with their own tale:

At a night club in Aberystwyth in the early 2000s with a bunch of friends. In the quiet phase early on when we’re drinking and chatting before the music gets really loud.

A guy on his own came and sat down with my group and just said “Have you got any enemies? I can make one phone call and they’ll be dead.” We laughed, but he had a totally straight face and seemed absolutely serious. He left a homemade business card (remember Microsoft Publisher?) that just said the name “Darren” and a phone number. He then moved on to the next group and to everyone he could find in the club.

One of my friends said he tried the number and it was some old lady who seemed clueless and didn’t know any Darren. So his motive is completely baffling – random social experiment to see the reactions? Bored? Seen some spy/assassin TV show and wanted to pretend he was one? I am still in touch with a couple of the people I was with that night, and even now when we hear about hitman stuff on the news, or on Line of Duty, we joke that it’s Darren.

Here are the top replies that have left people nonplussed…

1.

‘”Dolphins are weirdly rapey, so maybe you shouldn’t cut the plastic after all.” – Cashier in Sainsburys

I was buying beer and she reminded me to cut the can holders to ensure the safety of dolphins, then changed her mind.’
-BeardedBaldMan

2.

‘I’d been to a rave in Brixton just over ten years ago, and me and my mate got a bit fed up come 4am so we left but had ages to wait for our train home and went into McDonald’s.

‘Guy just turns around to me in the queue and randomly says “you know what you need? You need to go and get yourself some Jamaican Pussy!” So I just responded with “oh right, why? Is it good?”

‘“AHHH, MY FRIEND! JAMAICAN PUSSY IS THE BEST!”

‘And that was that. I just recall him turning back around and complaining to the cashier that he was getting charged for sauces’
-Jlaw118

3.

‘Had a guy on a train tell me the nazis had bred humans with apes and there were a bunch living in Kent’
-guzzlomo

4.

‘When I was about 14, my friend and I were on a bus and he was telling me about someone falling over and ‘smashing their face in.’ A random American guy then turned to us and said ‘are you talking about getting smashed?’

‘He then proceeded to give us drug recommendations for about 15 minutes and when he got off the bus he got to the front and shouted down the aisle to us ‘YOU GUYS BETTER SMARTEN UP’, stepped off the bus and then punched our window.

‘Just another ordinary day in Southampton, really.’
-jpeach17

5.

‘My husband went to Glasgow to get an emergency passport – we’re from the southwest so he flew up and back in a day.
He was sat outside a coffee shop waiting for the office to open and a chap walked past with friends and said in a broad Glaswegian accent “are you ok?”. He responded with a yes, hoping to avoid any drama, and the guy looked slightly taken aback and said “oh great” before turning to his mate and said “there you go”.

‘At that moment my husband realised this random bloke had asked if he was gay but he couldn’t understand his accent.
So anyway my husband is now gay (but only in Scotland).’
-skunky_x

6.

‘London, mid 90s – I was walking home late after a night of drinking, I must have been 18 or 19. I was carrying a pizza box and not really looking where I was going. Walked straight into a bloke who immediately started laughing. I looked up.

‘Gary fucking Oldman.

‘I said “Fucking hell, you’re Gary Oldman”

‘He laughed again, opened my pizza box, took out a slice and said “Yes I fucking am”. Then he walked off, eating a slice of my pizza.

‘None of my mates believe this to this day.’
-OokiiSaizu32

7.

‘When I was 18 I asked a guy who had clearly shat himself if he shat himself and he chased me down the road, in hindsight it was a stupid question to ask.’
-Even_Entrepreneur_58

8.

‘I was about 8 years old downstairs eating my cereal before school. Parents were in bed.

‘There was a knock at the door. Idk why but I answered it. I was always told not to so really don’t know why.

‘It was some disheveled man, hair a mess, with nothing but his underwear on. I opened the door completely in shock and he said thank you, walked in past me and sat down at the computer and started clicking away.

‘I immediately ran upstairs to tell my parents and my dad came down with a bat and kicked him out.

‘I haven’t thought about this for decades and feels completely surreal now that it happened. I’m gonna go ask my mum if she remembers.’
-ThatsJustHowIFeeeeel

9.

‘I was walking home from work one day and the route I took involved cutting through this conference centre, a random man approached me and said “would you like to read the bible with me in the toilet?”’
-Vuxoon