We all have an internal voice that warns us about an impending situation and it's up to us to chalk it up to nerves or take action.
And while our brain can tell us not to go to a specific time and place, sensing disaster ahead, our "gut" can also tell us to avoid interacting with certain people.
Do we ignore them?
Or take heed?
Curious to hear about when gut instincts were accurate, Redditor puzzlehead989999 asked:
"What’s an uneasy gut feeling about someone that turned out to be spot on?"
Bus Stop Buddy
"A guy would always walk around near my bus stop never really doing anything nor going anywhere. Looks like a normal guy but could never shake the feeling that something was off about him."
"And then last week actually the guy attempted to rob my ass, (pretty sh*t job at it tho) man asked if I had any money on me and what phone I had."
"I tell him cus honestly my phone is kinda sh*t and who carries any good amount of money to the bus, he then proceeds to flash his gun and say, 'if you was lying I would've had to hurt you' then he walked off."
"Haven't seen him since, what pissed me off more was that my bus late by an hour."
– NeanderSkellThe Bad Roommate
"First time flatting (was 21) and we had a good mixture of girls and guys. One guy gave off some intense vibes."
"He was always incredibly energetic, chatty, figgity and never seemed to sleep. Only good thing was that he kept the flat clean."
"Turns out he was a meth head and robbed us after living there for 3 months. Literally, scouting out the place, getting to know our schedules and what stuff we had so he could rob us blind."
"Scum bag."
– JoeyPea212
Park Predator
"One time when I was about 14 my nan and I were walking her dog in an empty park. It was November and 9pm so it was dark."
"This random man started walking close and instantly I felt uneasy and knew something wasn’t right, he started circling us."
"Anyway long story short once I’m back in the car and my Nan is at the back of the car, we thought he’d gone but he hadn’t and had come sprinting back and viciously attacked her right in front of me."
"If you have a bad feeling, listen to it and get out of there, don’t spend the extra time putting your dog In the back just bring it to the front of the car witb you, it could save your life."
— Major-Duck-8383
No Friend Of Mine
"A friend once invited one of his co-workers to one of our meet-ups, we just wanted to play Magic and chill together."
"I had a really hard gut drop when he arrived and couldn't quite put my finger on why."
"He proceeded to get absolutely wasted, tried to establish himself as the most badass in the room, his girlfriend who he brought along turned out to be 14 while he was in his mid twenties, he tried to force himself on my sister and started to completely escalate when he was stopped by my friends."
"They had to force him out and pin him down while I called the police. He proceeded to punch an officer during his arrest and we later had to appear in court to give our statements."
"At the court date, he had a new girl with him who also looked way too young."
"Best thing is, my idiot friend invited him again. You guys can figure why we aren't close anymore."
– SleepySlowpoke
These acquaintances hid sinister secrets.
Hands Off
"One of my friends would always do weird stuff to peoples drinks 'as a joke' like put pepper in someone’s Coke at a restaurant when they got up to go to the bathroom or even spit in someone’s water at bonfire."
"Stuff like that."
"And I always thought it was super weird his fixation on messing with people's drinks. He had done sh*t like this since he was 7 when we met."
"Everyone knew not to leave your drink unattended around him cause he would f'k with it.
"Long story short, it turns out one of our buddy’s caught him trying to put something in a girl's drink and he got the sh*t beat out of him."
Super weird, we literally would joke as kids that he was going to be the creepy guy at the bar putting roofies in peoples beer."
– Mineysota
Prince Charming
"Had a new guy start working at our job and he was very charming, personable, friendly. Me and another coworker were the only people who didn’t get a good vibe from him, everyone else thought he was great."
"We come from toxic/abusive childhoods, and pick up a lot of cues, things he said, overly friendly etc..."
"He had everyone feeling bad for him cause he wasn’t able to see his daughter. Badmouthing his baby mama."
"He stopped coming into work, turns out he got arrested for breaking a restraining order, that he got for physically abusing his baby mama."
"He was almost textbook narcissistic and manipulative abuser."
"Charmed everyone and everyone was shocked when they heard the truth, me and my other coworker knew our wariness was right."
– Bitch-stewies
Mysterious Neighbors
"New people moved into the house across the road from us. Nice enough, friendly and approachable, but after about 6 months I said to my husband ‘He’s mixed up in some dodgy sh*t.’"
"My husband was all ‘Nah, they’re great, not a chance. Don’t worry about it.’"
"About a year after that, someone attempted to shoot him in his driveway."
– Yanigan
The Strangest 'Wrong Number' Stories | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Before we all had caller ID, wrong numbers phone calls were commonplace. But now that almost everyone screens their calls, it's wrong number texts that have ...Servitude
"Our neighbours had an older lady who lived with them, never left the house and was always in the kitchen working. They spun the story that she was their mother/their children's grandmother and she lived with them to help around the house."
"We took this at face value but it never seemed right, they would go away for a month every year and she would be left in the house, not allowed to leave for the month they were away."
"It sounds terrible now but we actually affectionately nicknamed her 'the slave' because she seemed to always be working around the house. Turns out they brought her over on a 3 month visa, didn't allow her to leave and held her a slave in their house for 8 years."
"Our (now ex) neighbours have both just been found guilty of holding a slave for 8 years and various other charges."
"To clarify where I am from this is not common. My neighbours were the first prosecution of a domestic slavery case."
– thisis--myusername
Not Who He Seemed
"A couple months ago I met this guy and we got to chatting. Right around the same time we met I started having the weirdest changes."
"For some reason I lost my appetite completely, lost interest in a lot of my normal hobbies, and just felt generally restless. I had literally no idea what was causing it since everything in my life (work, family, personal) was going great but again it started at the same exact time I started talking to this guy."
"He really seemed like a good, genuine guy and I liked him a lot."
"A couple weeks later, I realized he wasn’t really who I thought he was and things ended as quickly as they started. After we went our separate ways, everything went back to normal and I could eat and I felt normal again."
"I’ve never had anything like that happen before. So strange, but it was like my body knew something was off before I did."
– fluffbuttgoose
It's fascinating how we all have built-in sensors signaling to us that it's best to avoid certain people.
While it's ultimately up to us to listen to our gut or ignore it completely, it might benefit us to proceed with caution because usually, our gut instincts are spot-on.