New York City is great. As someone who has worked there for the last decade, I love it.
And it truly lives up to it's nickname: it is the city that never sleeps. There's always something cool going on or something fun to do.
Of course, in a city as populous as New York, where things are open for all hours of the night, you're bound to see some strange things as well.
If you've lived or worked in the city for a long time, you may be able to brush off certain weird sights or occurrences. However, even New Yorkers have seen some really weird things.
For me, it was six years ago. I had just started my first full-time job (and my third job in NYC) and was waiting for the subway. A guy runs down the stairs looking completely freaked out, crashes into a couple, knocks them down, gets up without waiting to see if they're alright or even apologizing, runs to the other set of stairs, screams bloody murder at what he saw (there was nothing to actually see, of course), and before anyone could realize what was happening and stop him, jumps down onto the subway tracks.
Then he sees two mice that were on the tracks, screams bloody murder again, and runs away.
He was going in the direction the subway was supposed to come from. The subway took five more minutes before it arrived, so it's possible the guy climbed back up at some other station or something, but if honestly, I have no idea what happened to him.
Some of the other people waiting for the subway looked as freaked out as I felt, but most people just went back to scrolling on their phones or talking to their friends, waiting for their train. To this day, that was the weirdest thing I've ever seen in New York City.
Redditors have seen some extremely strange things in New York City as well, and are eager to share their stories.
It all started when Redditor real_beary asked:
"People who say "not the weirdest thing I've seen in New York City", what is THE weirdest thing you've seen in New York City?"
Hold It
"Not as insane as some but one of the most heroic things I’ve ever seen. New Years I’m on the 6 going back to my place at like 2am. Train is pretty full. This girl across from me looks awful. Completely wasted, and she knows it and feels it. Suddenly she flinched and puffs her cheeks out. She stays that way for the next 10 minutes, with her boyfriend rubbing her back."
"They get out at the same station as me, and I see her walk to a trash can and spit out a TON of vomit. She held it all in her mouth the whole subway ride like a goddamned superhero."
– Carols_Boss
Circus Act
"While on the C train headed uptown one morning, a man stood up, reached into his pockets and pulled out three mice, and started juggling them. But once he missed a catch and the mouse fell to the floor, he totally gave up and dropped the other two. The mice ran around until we reached the next stop and they managed to scurry off the train to the platform. The guy had just sat back down like he wasn't just juggling mice he pulled out of his pocket."
– GravyBoatShipwreck
We're The Best
"More a weird but awesome experience."
"Back in the 90s, trip to NYC. Buddy and I wanted to go to the Intrepid museum, no idea what bus to take or anything."
"So, we ask the next bus driver for directions. First - dude looked and sounded just like Jackie Gleason. Nice pair of driving gloves."
"He listens, looks at the 3 other passengers, and says "These boys want to see the Intrepid! Mind if I go off route to get them there?!"
"People are fine with it, and off we go. As he's dropping us at the gate, he says "Can't be having tourists go home and saying New Yorkers suck, boys!""
– Squigglepig52
"This reminds me of being in Times Square for new years back in high school. The cops didn't want to let us in because there were so many people there already, and then one asks, "where ya from?" I said california, and we were on a school trip. He opened the gate and said "here's proof new york is better.""
"Awesome dude."
– Kahzgul
Street Safari
"I was walking over the bridge from Long Island City to Greenpoint and I looked down at the tunnels that lead into Manhattan and suddenly saw an animal come out of the tunnel and it realized it was a zebra. Then another one came out. Then a whole bunch of horses, then an elephant... it turns out when the circus performs in Manhattan all the animal transport vehicles are kept in Queens and they walk through the tunnel to get there an back. So Surreal."
– bakerton
Only With My Parents
"Lived there for 15 years. Almost never saw wild sh*t unless my parents came to visit. One night my dad and I were walking home and we got bumped into by a HUGE bodybuilder looking dude decked out in women's lingerie with his family jewels flopping about. My Dad couldn't stop laughing, like a heard him laughing that night in the other room when I was trying to sleep."
"Then my mom and I were in a pizza joint on the upper west side, and there were 2 little old Jewish ladies (like 90s) having a terrible argument. One of them had what I assume to be her son (60s?) With her and he yelled at the top of his lungs "you should have died in the holocaust!!!" It took a while to convince my mom this was not an everyday occurrence."
– jetjordan
Birdnapped?
"My friend's mom swears she saw a well-dressed business woman throw a jacket over a street pigeon and stuff it in her purse, then just walk away like nothing happened."
"I choose to believe."
– Kin2monkey
"She was probably going to sell it. It's called "flippin' the bird", I think."
– floutsch
Burger To Go
"I have was on the subway in Brooklyn. Guy gets on and starts walking back and forth through the car giving a speech about how he's hungry and would really like some food. After a while, the general ask for food becomes him talking specifically about how nice it would be to have a cheeseburger. After a couple minutes, a woman sitting across from me, digs into the bottom of her giant purse, pulls out a wrapped McDonald's CHEESEBURGER and hands it to the guy. He thanks her without missing a bit or any noticable suprise. Still not sure wtf I witnessed that day."
– cleo42
"What, you don’t carry your emergency cheeseburger on you at all times? I thought this was like, NYC 101 dude."
"/s"
– geckosean
...Holy Sh*t!
"In a cab on 9th ave stuck in traffic and at a red light. Hear some commotion and a guy jumps in the back of the cab with me and yells "Go! Go! They're chasing me!" The driver is unfazed and just gestures to the traffic in front of us and says "Go where?""
"3 deli workers come running up to the cab holding various makeshift weapons that they grabbed from their kitchen. I open my door and hop out while they dive in to the backseat and pull this guy out. They throw him onto the hood of the car behind us. I dove back into the backseat and yanked the door closed. The light turned green, and we got the hell out of there. Cab driver and I had a good laugh about the whole thing."
Talking To Myself
"When I was like 13 I was in McDonalds having lunch with my friends and this lady walks in and gets napkins and ketchup and sits at the table across from us. She lays the stuff out in front and across the table from her, we assume she is waiting on a friend. She starts talking and gets up and walks to the other side of the table and sits down and answers herself. She went back and forth in this conversation for at least 10 minutes when we finished and left."
– marcus_frisbee
Not All Heroes Wear Capes
"The weirdest thing I've ever experienced in NYC was not the typical "people sh*tting in the middle of the street" you may expect to hear (which I have also seen lol)."
"The ACTUAL weirdest experience I had was the time some random guy chased me for about 12 blocks as I dodged between traffic and groups of tourists. I was walking to work and at first I didn't notice him, since I obviously was wearing headphones and actively avoiding making eye contact with strangers. Once I realized he was yelling at me and trying to catch up with me, I naturally began walking faster and trying to ignore him."
"When I was finally forced to stop at a busy intersection, he taps me on the shoulder and starts yelling at me. Turns out he was trying desperately to return my (untouched!) wallet that had fallen out of my pocket! And as he's doing this hugely kind gesture, he's simultaneously berating me for being so careless with my possessions (which, I mean is fair)."
"I also once had someone find me on LinkedIn of all places to tell me I had left a credit card behind at a bar and offer to return it."
"People love to sh*t on New Yorkers, and sure we can be massive a**holes. But New Yorkers can also be some of the kindest a**holes out there. So suck on that, California."
– hellakitchen
Spare Some Cash?
"I was at a McDonald's at like 2am with a friend, and no more than maybe 2 or 3 minutes after walking in, this dude barges into the restaurant tweaking real hard. Spots us and walks right over, spends like 5 minutes telling us something like it's his birthday but he's short on cash and needed $20 to go buy shawarma for his annual birthday celebration. It's so long winded and rapid fire that other people in line with us have stopped their own conversations to look."
"When he is finally done, my friend just says something like "sorry bro but I need this cash to buy a big mac" and this guy immediately loses it. Screams for a few seconds, goes into a squat and slaps the floor a couple times. He runs a lap around the restaurant, jumping up and onto some of the tables, and runs out the door into the night. Couple seconds pass with nobody saying anything. Someone quietly says out loud "Damn, must be some pretty good shawarma""
– chickenyogurt
Pants On Fire
"Guy got on the subway with his pants smoldering. Smoke drifting around him and he's slapping at his thigh area. Naturally everyone turned to look at him. He was like, what you all lookin at?"
– whosevelt
"Lol, happened to my brother once running to catch the train. Two books of open matches rubbing against each other in his pocket. Flames coming out the pocket as he's slapping that sh*t down!"
– Realistic-Drummer565
Costumed
"When things started opening back up in 2021, my friends and I were chilling in Washington Square Park and we saw a man dressed as a rat climb on top of a garbage can."
– Revolutionary-Tiger
"Are you positive that wasn’t just a New York rat?"
– Zogamizer
Get the image of a human sized rat out of my mind, please!
Do you have any "only in NYC" stories? Let us know in the comments below.