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First impressions aren’t everything, but they can massively impact how you see strangers. Take, for instance, nasty behavior in public. It is hard not to judge someone who acts in such a shocking way that you still have nightmares about it years later.
In a series of online threads, internet users with PTSD shared the most disgusting public behaviors they’ve witnessed, and they are worse than you imagine. We hope you’ve got a strong stomach and are not snacking on anything right now because, wow, you’re in for a disturbing ride.
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#1
I used to work in a cinema from the ages 17 to about 21.
One night I was working the concession stand (food and drinks) when the manager came over to me late on and said “you gotta see this.” We proceeded to the Gents toilets, middle cubicle and I opened the door.
Cautiously, I revealed a scene out of a German Scat video. S**t. Human s**t. It was piled in the toilet like a herd of constipated horses. It was smeared on the cubicle wall. It was on and inside the toilet roll holder. It was on the floor. It was in and on the adult diaper/nappy in the corner.
The manager then asks me to clean it up as he’d sent all the ushers home for the evening. I noped out of that m**********r quickly. Not doing that s**t for £3.65 an hour.
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#2
When I was in the Navy I was living in a bad neighborhood complex south of San Diego, 1989.
We had a couple of wife beaters that lived in my courtyard building and every now and then they get drunk up beat their woman and the cops would come and take them away. One time it was really bad and the guy broke her arm and some ribs and then ran off. Woman goes to the hospital with her, her one-ish-year-old baby.
The guy comes back the next morning and apparently we had a vigilante squad and they went and broke both of his legs. He goes to the hospital. Two days later we see them and he is in a wheelchair and she has her arm and a cast holding the baby with the other. They were all bruised up saying how much they loved each and how to figure out getting him up to his second floor apt. Of course the little baby was screaming.
I literally went threw up. That image is still in my head.
#3
A mother berating her 10 year old daughter who was afraid of the orthodontist. “You are ugly, if you don’t do this you are going to keep being ugly. Who likes ugly people? No one. If no one likes you this is why.”
I just had to leave before I beat the s**t out her.
Roman Arendt 13 hours ago
I'd describe myself as pretty pacifistic, but I'm not sure I would have been able to restrain myself like OP did and leave the situation. It's more likely the mother would have needed an orthodontist if I was OP. What a disgusting excuse of a human being. 😡
At its core, disgust is a reaction that is meant to protect you. It is your body's and mind’s way of reducing the risk of microbial contamination.
When you spot someone behaving in a physically gross and nasty way in public, it’s incredibly likely that your instinct will be to avoid them. It is this reaction that helps protect your body from pathogens and other dangerous particles. That being said, other people have a much bigger tolerance for disgusting things.
However, we’re not born with this reaction to bodily fluids, decay, etc.
Dr. Paul Rozin, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of disgust, explained in an interview with the American Psychological Association that disgust is not innate. It is not present at birth, unlike, say, an aversion to bitter tastes. Disgust does not appear until children are 3 to 5 years of age.
#4
I was once in the bathroom stall in a dive bar, and I witnessed this guy in the stall next to me drop a grape onto the floor, pick it back up, and eat it. He was sitting down on the toilet eating grapes. In a public restroom. In a dive bar.
#5
I lived in munich for some time and really enjoyed the Oktoberfest, but you see some s**t on the streets. For this Post:
I've seen a guy walking in the streets, casually s******g his lederhosn with a enormous amount. He walks between two parking Cars and just opens his lederhosn, used his hands to get most of the s**t out of his trousers and continues his walk, getting cheerd on by his buddies. I left the Situation then, but to this day i never forget.
#6
It’s not the most disgusting, but it’s oddly visceral. I watched an old lady take her straw out of her water glass and suck up all the yolks from her sunny side up eggs, then put the straw back. Her water was cloudy yellow.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 15 hours ago
I've picked up a sunny-side-up egg on my fork and slurped the yolk out with my lips before, but I'd d*e (of embarrassment) before using my straw to do so XD
According to Rozin, there is an “enormous range” of sensitivity to disgust.
“Some people will have no trouble eating rotten things and any kind of meat, raw meat, things like that. And they’re not upset about body waste. They don’t like them, but they don’t get upset about it. Other people, for example, would not blow their nose in a brand new piece of toilet paper, which is pretty sensitive,” he told the APA.
“So you have this enormous range of sensitivity disgust, but we don’t know why this is true. We can see there’s some genetic components, some early environment, but a lot of the variation we say can’t be explained.”
#7
A woman chaging her baby's diaper inside of a restaurant. Not even doing it in the restaurant's bathroom. Doing it where people are eating food.
I was 2 tables away and I could smell that baby's s**t. Do that s**t in the bathroom or something.
Pun not intended.
#8
I saw a drunk older lady at a work Christmas function run to the bathroom to throw up not make it in time, she puked in her hand a bit and then promptly ate it so as to not be caught making a mess on the floor.
Multa Nocte (she/her/86 47) 17 hours ago
OK, this is the first entry and it's enough for me. See you later.
#9
I just felt bad for her, but there was an old lady at on the tube in the underground. She was very confused and kept waking back and forth. She smelled terrible. I mean TERRIBLE as if she had never seen a shower in her entire life. As if she was already d**d and had started to rot away. As if she had been bathing in a mountain of rotten eggs.
And then I understood what the smell came from. She had pooped herself and wet herself. It was all loose so the p*o had started flowing down her leg causing her pink leggings to turn a muddy pink. She didn’t understand what was happening and everyone who saw her wondered what the f**k we should do to help her out. It didn’t seem very clever of her family to let her wander off on her own. She should have been on a home of some kind.
Again, I felt bad for her, but that smell is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever felt.
Ace 16 hours ago
Sadly, dementia patients will all too often wander off on their own, it's a question of how much you want to lock them up out of harms way, how determined they can be to 'evade capture', how much the functioning parts of their minds want to be independent, etc. So it's not fair to automatically blame the family or carers.
Which of these stories shocked and repulsed you the most, and why? How would you have reacted if you saw someone behave this way?
What are the very worst, weirdest, nastiest things you’ve seen people do in public, and what did you do about the situation? Did you confront them or did you ignore what was happening and go on your way?
#10
We were having a huge party in highschool at my friend's house. We were all pretty drunk.
Well my friend wandered off with this girl. When they came back an hour later, he was covered in blood and sweat. Apparently he was performing c*********s in the dark on the trampoline behind the house.
Also, unbeknownst to either of them, her mensies had started and was a pretty heavy flow. It was probably 90° and a typical humid Louisiana evening.
So here he is covered in sweat and menstrual blood head to toe and was somehow completely oblivious until we told him. Poor girl was mortified. I still see her on Facebook. We are in our 30s now, but I will never look at her the same. Man, highschool was fun sometimes.
#11
Went to another city for a conference and saw a d**g a****t back up to a ground level office with full length windows, drop his pants, and take a diarrhea explosion s**t all over the glass. It was bad enough from 20 feet away, I would imagine it looked worse from inside the building.
#12
I was at a Chinese buffet and the kid at the next table kept throwing up. The family just sat there and I think the kid threw up in a glass. I asked to move, but I didn't eat anything else that night.
#13
Location: Downtown SF sidewalk
Time of Day: Before 8:00 AM
Description of Incident: While I was walking down the street a man in his mid 30s was walking in my general direction and decided to take off all of his clothes.
While totally n**e, he then proceeds to turn around, kneel down to the sidewalk, arch his back with his a*s in the air doggystyle, and with his a*s now facing me, took both his hands and spread open his b**t cheeks and started s******g.
I was perplexed while in a simultaneous state of revulsion to say the least.
Needless to say I got right the f**k out of there as soon as I saw what was happening. SF is a wild place.
#14
Seeing two old women, who were clearly battling a virus of some kind sampling all the dishes at a buffet with the same spoon.
Watch a woman press her finger with a long nail into a muffin and then leaving it. I saw the muffin spring back so no one would have noticed. I did notify the vendor.
Seeing a man clip his nails in a restaurant.
walked into a 5 person restroom at a prominent restaurant that allowed cigars. This was a while ago. Someone had quite literally plastered every single surface in the place with vomit. I cannot imagine the force she must have had with her vomit. Objectively, it was astonishing. Personally, I'll never be the same.
#15
Guy walked out of a porta potty at a boat launch, with both his hands covered in his own feces. He simply looked at me and said "no tp" and proceeded to walk down toward the lake.
#16
Local teens making g*n shot sounds downtown beach city on a busy tourist night. Everyone ran. But there was a grandma on a bench with her grand daughter and ice cream. The girl was terrified and the grandma had this look like she knew she could not protect her grandchild. I have little doubt that was traumatic for them.
As for the laughing teens, sorry your parents have you living in a tourist beach city. How horrible it must be for you, you poor thing 🙄
#17
Friend and I were riding our bikes down this back road and a car comes screeching around the corner. It passes us and slams on the brakes. We stop.
We see the driver viciously punching the passenger for 15 seconds and then exits the driver's door.
He goes around the car to the passenger side and takes a limp females body out and throws it into the trunk.
He gets back in the car and drives away.
This was in the 90s so no cell phone or anything. My friend and I stood there in shock for a while.
Still think about it.
#18
Saw a kid playing with the urinal water at Newark airport last year. Still gag when I think about it.
#19
Well, a classmate of mine in the Swedish equivalent of high school blew her nose into her hand and licked it up during class.
MushroomHead22 5 hours ago
when i was in grade 1 a few kids in class were purposefully turning their faces red, and one kid just forced too hard and snot went all over their face and desk. they just slurped it up like nothing... the kid next to them got up to throw up in the bathroom but couldn't make it and just did it right on the floor.
#20
I will preface this with the two people involved knew each other, but I as a witness did not know that.
Man is going into a Casey's General Store as a woman is walking out. He holds the door for her in the way where she has to walk under his arm and very close to his armpit. Dude is wearing a shirt where he had cut the sleeves off, so his armpit fro is very near her face. He takes his other hand and pushed her face into his sweaty armpit.
That s**t was nasty. It was a hot day, pushing 105 F and the man was a sweaty outdoor worker.
bleh.
Oxford Ranch 8 hours ago
I would not have walked under his arm. I can open my own door thank you.
#21
I saw a girl in a club semi-squat down in the middle of a dancefloor and just p**s a f*****g river out across the floor. Seemed like only other girls slipped in it, my group all watched from the sides and stayed completely dry but it seemed like everyone around her was oblivious until they or their girl went down and slid away.
#22
Saw a girl fall at the climbing gym, she landed with her arm posted and hyperextended her elbow. When she stood up, her arm was flopping like a noodle.
#23
I was parked up in Summertown oxford and watched an old guy stop in the street and shake a massive t**d out of his trouser leg before confidently striding off....
#24
When I was a kid in like 4th maybe 5th grade, there were train tracks down in the ravine right behind the school. This is in the south in the boondocks btw. They used to make the prisoners clean up trash on the railroad tracks. Well apparently two of the guys snuck off for a romantic rendezvous and just started banging in full view of like 10 classrooms windows. We all saw it. Nothing was really ever said or done about it other than a letter being sent home about an unfortunate incident. This was in the 90s. I wonder if they are still in love?
#25
An old man leaning over the balcony of a mall clipping his nails, letting them rain down on the people below all while humming jingle bells in the middle of the summer. Considered pushing him over.
#26
I knew a girl in college who just didn't take care of herself. No exercise, no skin care, didn't shower as often as she should, the whole kit and kaboodle. Anyways my gf at the time was best friends with her so I saw her a fair amount despite us not getting along personally either. One day we were walking across campus and she says "I'm kinda hungry." I didn't think anything of it until she reached into her regular a*s purse and pulled out a block of cream cheese. I watched her take multiple bites from this stick of warmish cream cheese. I was disgusted.
#27
I was living in Queens, and just made it into the last car on the N line before the doors closed at Ditmars Blvd, en route to work (Cortland St, so yeah, a long while back.) I saw a homeless guy asleep on a seat (no big) and noticed the car was remarkably empty.
And then the smell hit.
The guy had s**t in his pants, and there was s**t piled on the floor, smeared on the floor, and it was the most vile smell I've ever experienced.
If gorgonzola had a baby with MRSA rot and giardia dog p**p, that would be this smell.
The connector door was locked, so I was stuck in the car for about 5 minutes as the train kept pausing on its way to Astoria Blvd (next stop) and I'm breathing through my sleeve and gagging. The moment the door opened, I shoved thought the people and sprinted to the next car.
Every stop thereafter, we'd see people get in the other car, and then try to shove themselves into our car at the next stop, which was NYC full by the third stop. I swear I could still catch whiffs on people in the car who escaped from that one car.
To make it worse, we had a catering demo lunch that day, when I was still queasy, but was expected to try the caterer's foods to help decide if we'd use them. The appetizer: Crostini with broiled gorgonzola on proscuitto.
I haven't eaten gorgonzola since.
#28
Went bowling and watched a girl slip over the line holding the bowling ball. She crunched down on the floor and somehow snapped her humerus. Her friends thought she was playing, so i walked over to her and she was in straight shock. By the time 911 came she was vomiting all over herself and all over me. At least my body was gracious enough not to vomit back onto her, but I definitely lost it after they took her away. I'll never forget the sound of that crunchy snap
Bleh.
#29
I was on vacation in Las Vegas and walked out of the casino we were shopping in to go back to our place. A woman had just ran her car down the strip and pulled on to the sidewalk and k****d several people. We missed seeing it happen by seconds, we saw the aftermath.
#30
A homeless man pull his pants down spread his a*s cheeks apart and sit in the street car track with his feet up in the air in the middle of the road downtown.
#31
A lady took a s**t in a brand new t shirt then put it back on the shelf.
This happened while I managed a retail store in the mall. We had video evidence of her doing it but our district manager said we couldn't ban her from the store.
Michael Largey 6 hours ago
Tell the district manager to be on hand to clean it up himself next time.
#32
Homeless guy wiping a public toilet with a piece of white bread and eating it.
YakFactory 14 hours ago
So many of these stories are not ugly. They're about people who have a mental illness or some other problem, and they need help, not to be ridiculed.
#33
At an indoor pool at a hotel a mother stood her 4-5 year old son on the edge of the pool and let him pee into the pool.
#34
Saw a guy p**s in a mop bucket while the guy cleaning was distracted.
#35
I have more disgusting things, but to keep it light on a Sunday - I'll never forget the time visiting NYC and seeing a dozen or so huge rats having a field day in a trash bag they got into.
#36
The reaction of a mother after realizing her child had just drowned in the ocean.
#37
A young woman all dressed in gothy black, leading a young man by a leash connected to a dog collar. Just out there amongst the crowds in the square. Unusual for New England.
#38
Saw a guy in Mexico get on the subway without a shirt on, with bleeding cuts all over his body, and his shirt balled up in his hand. He laid his shirt out and it was full of broken glass, which he then laid down on top of and rolled around on.
He wanted money, but all he got was looks of confusion and repulsion.
#39
Not me but my cousin is a nurse.
She saw a guy beat his wife because he blamed her for their baby dying of SIDS.
Took four people to pull him off of her.
#40
Saw a a guy who had been st*bbed in the side at a train station in Berlin, Germany. He was on the ground, unconscious with blood streaming down from the wound, and happened to be wedged in a doorway. The door was partially open and some people just walked through it, barely skirting by the guy on the ground. They seemed oblivious or totally unconcerned. Finally police and paramedics arrived and cordoned off the area around him.
#41
A man trying to take his child from her mother (domestic violence stuff) and the crowd watching as if it were entertainment instead of violence.
#42
I worked in a hospital, and one time, a guy came sprinting in the front entrance (not emergency room), screaming for a bathroom before projectile s******g so hard it came flowing out of both pant legs. He just stood there, surrounded by people watching, with a green diarrhea puddle forming at his feet.
#43
I saw a guy put his hands down his pants and rub himself then remove his hands and sniff them while walking at the traffic lights.
#44
Back at my old job. A cook was visibly picking his b**t and grabbed raw meat to put it on the grill with the same hand. I threw it out when he wasn’t looking. Same guy was lactose intolerant. He’d chew food that had dairy in it and spit it out and left it on a plate next to customer’s plates that were going to be served. He still has his job but I lost mine.
#46
I was in the emergency room, and there was a psychiatric patient who literally flung his feces at a nurse and called her the worst of the worst racial slurs. He was almost immediately sent to a hard-core psychiatric hospital and was taken by the cops out of the emergency room.
#47
Saw dude pooping in the streets, his b*lls were gigantic they were hitting the ground as he was taking a dump. Dude then proceeded to wipe his a*s on the corner of a building.
#48
Teens stomping on the 5 or so goldfish they won at a county fair.
#50
I saw a lot lizard coming out of a truck… the she cleaned herself in a puddle that had formed next the truck….
#51
Customer at work with gangrenous enlarged legs that would leak pus and blood on mobility carts. He seemingly had these oozing sores all over his body, but the only size and visual context on how engorged his legs were would be meat canyon's prosthetic legs. His shirt would be wet and stained from the pus and blood, and he would come in every morning to use the handicap bathroom and wipe himself down and throw the paper towels on the floor, leaving a biohazard to other customers and employees.
The worst part though was the smell. I've never smelled a decomposing body, but if I had to venture a guess, he would be the closest I've ever smelled. You could smell him from 200 feet away, employees got used to making themselves scarce at that time and path he traveled daily because he would want to talk to them, ask them for help outside getting out of his car and into a cart, or just generally make a scene at self checkout over the price of something. How this man's body didn't go into shock when it looked to be bloated and rotting is beyond me, but eventually enough customers and employees complained that he was asked to not come back. I felt bad since he was very obviously living in his car, but the smell was so rancid that I began to carry peppermint oil to put under my nose.
#52
I saw a woman eating from the self serve antipasto bar at my local grocery store. She used her fingers to pick up olives, pickles, etc.
People are disgusting.
#53
When I was 12 I was walking my normal route home from school when I saw two presumably homeless people having s*x by the river.
What do you think ?
Laszlo Larthlanc 8 hours ago
I grew up in L.A., rode the bus everywhere, walked to places where the bus didn't go, worked in public service for awhile, and had 3 graveyard shift jobs that kept me outside all night long. This post brought back a lot of memories, and none of them good.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 15 hours ago
I wish I'd listened to Multa's comment and bailed on this article after reading the first couple of entries XD
Laszlo Larthlanc 8 hours ago
I grew up in L.A., rode the bus everywhere, walked to places where the bus didn't go, worked in public service for awhile, and had 3 graveyard shift jobs that kept me outside all night long. This post brought back a lot of memories, and none of them good.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 15 hours ago
I wish I'd listened to Multa's comment and bailed on this article after reading the first couple of entries XD
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