People Share Things That Turned Out to Be Valuable That They Thought Were Junk

Let’s get trashy!

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

Or maybe what one person THINKS is trash is another person’s treasure.

That certainly seems to be the case in these tales from people who found what they thought was junk but it turned out to be valuable.

Let’s check out some cool stories from folks on AskReddit.

1. Good quality.

“My grandfathers violin. Sat in my garage for years before I dug it out because I wanted to learn violin and couldn’t afford to buy one.

Turns out, it’s a pretty high quality violin (and celebrating its 100th birthday in a few months!)”

2. Junk box.

“Garage sale box of junk for $5.

Had a rare Eisenhower silver medallion that was for a meeting in South America.

It was on eBay for 30 seconds and sold for $500.

Telescoping Luke action figure. $300. I’m a coin dealer so I see some cool stuff.”

3. PBR.

“I collect Pabst Blue Ribbon stuff. I have a cup full of bottle caps.

The Pabst bottle caps have playing card numbers/suits under them. I haven’t gone through my caps in a while but I wanted to see if I was any closer to having a full deck.

So I empty my caps out onto the table and all of a sudden a coin falls out! A 1937 Washington quarter. 90% silver. I have no idea where it came from.

My weird cap collection found me some silver.”

4. Joy Division.

“In a shop, found a first pressing of joy divisions album “unknown pleasures” in almost perfect condition.

When I held it up to the light and saw that ruby glow (they’re translucent but only in very strong light), I nearly fell over!

Big fan. $2 well spent! Now worth about $150 here in Australia!”

5. Oops!

“A 1973 Honda 250 Elsinore. Picked it up for a hundred bucks. Rode it until it died put a couple hundred bucks in it rode it some more.

Eventually it wasn’t worth fixing and it was trashed. Learned later it could be worth as much as $10,000 in good shape”

6. It’s mine now.

“My grandfather worked a trade all his life.

He was doing some pipe work at a house, when the owner of said house asked if my grandfather wanted to buy an old sword for $10, but it was broken in half. My grandfather said sure, he would have the money the next morning.

His coworker went behind his back and bought the sword, so the home owner said he had another one fully intact, and sold it for $1.

The date on the hilt is 1863, forged during the American Civil war. It is now in my possession.”

7. Awesome!

“One of my dad’s friend’s fathers died in about 2000.

They were cleaning out his garage and found a banjo…they gave it to me “since I played guitar,” whatever they thought that meant in regards to banjoes.”

Anyway it was a late-‘20s Gibson. I dusted it and took it to the music shop I trusted most: it appraised at about $15,000.

I took it back to my dad’s friend, of course. First thing I said was, “so I got you a present from your dad…”

About a decade later my friend’s wife’s uncle left her “the old guitar in my closet.” It turned out to be an early 1960s Gibson ES-335. That one’s good for about $30,000.”

8. City dump.

“I found a LaBlanc clarinet in a city dump in perfectly good condition.

I called the company with the serial number. They told me it was one of 100 Bflat clarinets made in 1952 and worth $2,500.”

9. Hang on to it.

“My grandpa gave me a really good condition Han Solo and Tuan Tuan figure, I didn’t think it was a piece of junk, and still liked the look of it. He said, “take good care, hold on to it, and don’t open it.”

I never knew what he meant until I looked on amazon and eBay, people were selling them for hundreds!

Now I know what he means, as it collects dust, it also collects value.”

10. Rusted out.

“Me and my aunt found an old rusted piece of pin that’s the size of a coin

When we cleaned it, we found markings on it. We asked my aunt’s friend who works at a museum and he said it was most likely an earring from precolonial times of the natives in our country.

The museum bought it from us for around USD380 or about 20k in our money.”

11. Jackpot.

“Years ago a family friend found an old record at a garage sale.

Turned out to be one of two copies of a Velvet Underground recording. If I remember right, the original owner had worked with the band, passed away, and his wife sold a bunch of his records.

Family friend bought it for 75￠, and sold it for a cool $25,000 on ebay. A couple places even reported on it back in the day.”

12. Good deal.

“Saw an ad on Facebook of a bass for $30.

Bought it and it turned out to be a fender jazz bass which is like $600 on the fender website!”

13. Pearls.

“I bought some black pearls from a box of “junk jewelry” at an antique mall for $5 each for matching bracelet and necklace.

They turned out to be the real thing Tahitian Black Pearls, worth several hundred dollars.

I wear them on special occasions.”

14. Gold watch.

“My dads girlfriend found a gold watch in a thrift shop that was made in Switzerland for .50.

It sold for around 1,800.”

15. Hiding cash.

“My grandpa died when I was young and my parents had a garage sale to get rid of junk and they almost sold a cookie jar before checking what was inside and it was a wad of $100 bills.

Turns out my grandfather had a habit of hiding money in random places and he had false books hiding pearls, false bottoms in drawers hiding gold or cash and about $1000 in a bicycle’s left handlebar.”

Wow!

Have you ever found something you thought was junk that turned out to be worth something?

If so, tell us all about it in the comments. Thanks!

The post People Share Things That Turned Out to Be Valuable That They Thought Were Junk appeared first on UberFacts.

October 5, 2020

People Talk About “Pieces of Junk” They Found That Turned Out to Be Worth Some Money

I think we’ve all dreamed about finding some discovered item that we rush home with under our coat and, once safely at home, we examine it and discover that it’s something worth a lot of dough.

It’s never happened to me, but I think I still have some time to get lucky…

Here are some stories from some folks on AskReddit who found “junk” that turned out to be worth something.

Let’s take a look.

1. Wow!

“I found a small envelope with a few inches of wire in a junk shop.

Bought it (US$2) because it had some faded penciling about troy oz. Turned out to about 1.5 troy ounces of platinum wire.

Sold it for US$600 !”

2. Score!

“Years ago I bought a condo in foreclosure.

We couldn’t go inside, just look from outside and put in a bid. My bid won. When I went inside the place it was pretty trashed. I checked all the rooms, calculating the costs of getting it back into shape.

At the end of my walk thru I went into the garage and saw there was a car under a tarp. Hmmm …

I pulled the tarp back and saw a 1972 Barracuda in nearly mint condition.”

3. Good investment.

“A first or second edition of the Oregon Trail book.

It’s a bit damaged, so not that valuable, but still a few hundred more than the $15 I paid for it.”

4. Not a fake.

“Found a “fake” Cartier watch in Goodwill for $10.

Bought it because it still looked nice. But it’s a real Cartier watch and it’s worth $1000+.

Keeping it because I’d never buy myself something like that.”

5. Old guitar.

“Dad carried around a junk guitar for 50 years.

Ugly as hell sunburst Gibson acoustic (circa 50’s or 60’s can’t remember) that he eventually sanded down into something prettier. When I was learning he took it to be tuned up by our neighbor who owned a shop and was a collector.

Dude came back exasperated and told us that my dad had sanded about 50k off the guitar, and that it would have been totally worthless if he hadn’t left the logo on.”

6. Awesome!

“Old folded up piece of paper in the bottom of a box my dad had I found cleaning up the house, torn up and faded.

Turned out to be a 90 year old original Jean Carlu poster worth roughly $20,000 after spending $1,000 for restoration.”

7. A good flip.

“Someone gave me a hideous purse out of a box on its way to goodwill.

I sold it on eBay for $1,100. I’ve had some good flips, but that was the best.”

8. Estate sale score.

“I was at an estate sale and bought a few paintings sweet lady told me to take the last one I liked as package deal since I ran out of cash.

Turns out one of them is a pretty rare original print worth about $3,500 and I paid maybe 30$ for all 4 prints and paintings I wanted.”

9. Who knew?

“I found a book at a trash bin. The Wind in the Willows I never got to read it as a kid.

After finishing it I googled the edition date turns out its a collectible worth $300… Who knew?”

10. Good fortune.

“Bought a mid-century Ottoman for $75 at an estate sale in NYC.

Found out years later it’s worth $3,000.”

11. Ghosted.

“So my mom and I were helping a family friend deep clean the house to sell. (Not rich, but not poor) Well I found these cool colorful sketch-style art prints all rolled up in a corner of his shop, he told us that we could keep them, since he wasn’t much of an art guy.

Turns out the signatures on the prints was Dali. I had been to a Dali and Picasso exhibit in Rome, so I recognized the signature.

We had them appraised, they were worth quite a bit. Out of respect we told the guy who gave them to us. He asked for them back and then he ghosted us with the prints. We aren’t in touch with him anymore. Never found out what happened with them.”

12. It’s gold!

“When I was nine or ten years old, I found some metal clips and a brooch while playing in some old ruins. Since our city has been there since Roman times, it was obvious that it might be really old. But usually, that stuff isn’t worth much.

Showed it to the archeologists at the local museum and turned out it was gold. Everything. They asked where I found that, excavated the area (again) and found quite the stash of fine Terra Sigillata with coins and jewelry in it.

I was allowed ro keep three things and I chose a perfectly preserved dinner plate, a ring and a coin.”

13. The old owners.

“Found an old box under some insulation in my new house’s attic, opened it out of morbid interest and found a sega with a handul of games.

Out of the love of mine i contacted the old owners (i guessed they might love theirs like i do mine) they were so ecstatic to have it back.

Turns out that it was their sons, they had lost him when he was 8 and that sega plus a handful of other things were all they had left.

Might not have been worth loads of money but was definitely more valuable to them than any amount of gold.”

14. Priceless.

“When I was 17, I found a driver’s license on the ground from a guy who was 22 and resembled me a fair bit.

Rarely had a problem getting into bars or clubs with it. It was priceless.”

How about you?

Have ever discovered what looked like a piece of junk but it turned out to be valuable?

If so, please share your story with us in the comments.

The post People Talk About “Pieces of Junk” They Found That Turned Out to Be Worth Some Money appeared first on UberFacts.

October 5, 2020

Therapists Discuss Patients That Actually Frightened Them

Let’s get creepy!

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a therapist who had a scary patient and I guess now I’m gonna find out.

Because we’re about to read responses from therapists who’ve had patients that they were genuinely afraid of.

Check out these responses from AskReddit users.

1. Scary.

“This was early on in training but a mandated client had dropped acid before the session and it started coming on while we were talking.

He didn’t want to be there as it was and was much larger than me (5’0″). Once he got to threatening me for being the reason everything was wrong with the world I ended up needing to get up and leave my own office to get a supervisor.

I definitely thought he would hit and/or strangle me if I stayed.”

2. She meant it.

“The only one I have felt a little scared of was one who threatened to kill me. I knew she meant it.

She had already assaulted a number of other staff. She got sent to a higher security ward and I heard she had broke staff’s fingers first day she was there.

She held staff and other patients hostage in one of our rooms threatening them but circling the table as if playing with them first. I see violence and aggression regularly and it doesn’t phase me but she did.

I would purposely avoid eye contact and look straight ahead avoiding her and pretend I wasn’t intimidated, as that’s what she wanted.”

3. Rage.

“I have a student who is 6’4” with emotional behavioral issues.

Reading his social history made me cry because of all the sh*t he’s been through. So, of course, I have a soft spot for him. But his anger gets out of control and it can be very scary. He punched a pole right in front of me once and narrowly missed my face.

I looked at him in the eyes and sternly said do you realize you almost just punched me in the face? He snapped out of his rage and apologized profusely.

I wanted to hug him and tell him everything was going to be alright. “

4. Freaky.

“I was pretty nervous when the drunk partner of a client backed me into a corner, and pretty goddamn sweaty when a violent s*x offender with a good 80 pounds on me blocked my exit and told me he was going to kill me and my family.

The one that really got me long term was a 15 year old girl in a residential program I worked at. She had substance use issues, which is why she was there, but it was clear from the jump that she had deep, DEEP mental health stuff stemming from her child.

She had been adopted out of a Russian orphanage where she and a younger sibling has been left in a crib alone for god knows how long, covered in lice and shaved bald. She had a lot of (expected) attachment issues but talking to her was like talking to a black pit full of hatred. She hated everyone and everything and had no conception of consequences or what self preservation was.

She’d do stuff that would spin your head around in terms of how unsafe it was…and she just had no reaction. There was no getting through to her, as she needed the interventions when she was a very small child to be able to move forward successfully. She was discharged when it was found out that she was hiding knives under her mattress.

I would not be surprised if she was in jail at this point.”

5. That’s bad.

“In my first semester as a therapist I had a client bring a large hunting knife to session one day, he had it in his waist band in the back.

He revealed it halfway through our session He had been referred to our practice for anger issues.

When in doubt, REPORT.”

6. Had enough.

“Enough to quit my job.

Had high case load of suicidal teens. Most were medicated and low risk, but had two kiddos who had several suicide attempts prior to me, and while under my watch.

I was getting physically ill, not sleeping well, constantly worried. I tried to transfer them to a higher level of care but our company was greedy and didn’t want to transfer them and lose those funds.

I ended up quitting on the spot for these kids to be given a trauma focused therapist and get the help they needed.

Best decision for both myself and those kids.”

7. WHOA.

“They were very delusional and a heavy addict.

They decided our therapeutic engagement was a love story unfolding. Ended with the swat team showing up at the office when they showed up with a weapon and lost their sh*t when I wasn’t there. They disappeared for a couple years.

They appeared behind me on a bus one day and said I saw you with your daughter at your house she’s really pretty. Then gave me my address. They are a known s*x offender. I moved as soon as I could.”

8. Like a horror movie.

“Worked with a patient that complained of reoccurring night terrors about lobsters being boiled alive.

He couldn’t figure out what was causing them.

The fact he killed his gf, chopped her up and boiled her head didn’t seem come to him as a reason he might be having these dreams.

My only fear is the system will have to release him one day as they could never get him sane enough to stand trial.”

9. Takes a strong person.

“I remember when I was working on an adult acute unit, there was a guy who had come to be there through some kind of bizarre circumstances.

He was a pretty important person in the rural area he was from, and he was pretty charismatic. Had a huge family that all showed up for the family session despite having to drive several hours to get there.

The unit had windows that were translucent from ceiling to floor so that light could get in but no one could see into or out of the unit for privacy.

I met with each patient individually as well as in groups, and my office door locked automatically (as is typical for acute units). No one but myself and the custodian had a key. For this reason, I usually tried to meet with folks individually in the group room when it was empty, so we had privacy but I could also get help if needed.

This guy came to my office door and knocked. When I opened it, he came in without an invitation and sat in one of the 2 chairs on the door side of my desk. I sat in the other. He was going on about how much he appreciated my work and how much I’d helped him (which felt disingenuous—he frequently indicated he didn’t feel he needed to be there).

I became gradually aware that he was between me and the door, which was not usually a problem. You actually want to make sure folks have easy access to an exit. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t want to be between a patient and the door.

I did home-based work after I left inpatient work, and in that context, you most definitely do need to be closest to the door). I was also uncomfortably aware of how close he was to me. He could easily touch me if he decided to. I was aware of the fact that I don’t usually feel uncomfortable with proximity, as long as I generally feel safe, so alarm bells started going off.

Then he suddenly said, “how do you like driving that little silver [make and model of my exact car]?” As I said, the windows of this building were all frosted, so there was no way for him to see me getting into or out of my car. All the hairs on my body stood on end.

I had the mental image of being in a room with a tiger. Maybe I’d be fine. Maybe the tiger wasn’t hungry or mad. Or maybe he was. I was only going to get out of that room safely if he decided to let me, which is exactly the experience he wanted me to have, and I could see that he was enjoying it.

That was scary, even though I didn’t have any reason to think he was interested in hurting me physically.

Thank god I have a degree in theatre. I’m sure his predatory instincts told him that I’d received his message loud and clear, but I gave no outward indication of my feelings. I got him out by saying I had to meet with the psychiatrist, and he left the unit soon after.

That was very early in my career, and one of the first of a handful of instances. I’ve done meaningful work with murderers, rapists, animal and child abusers, and just ordinary bullies, and like I said, it’s not about what someone has done.

The folks who have frightened me were (with one notable exception) just ordinary people without scary rap sheets.”

10. Two incidents.

“Used to be a therapist at a behavioral health hospital. I had some patients who genuinely scared me in theory, but nothing ever happened with them. I was significantly attacked twice at work.

Both patients were young women. Neither of them “scared” me beforehand. Both were incredibly quiet, withdrawn, and unassuming. One strangled me with my keys- my lanyard was a breakaway for that very reason, but she had tried to steal them several times that shift in attempt to escape the building and run into traffic, so I stupidly knotted off the breakaway portion.

We carried panic buttons on the lanyards and I was able to press it while being strangled with it.

The other attack occurred when I was fairly new and on a low-security unit, in view of other staff. I was walking away from the patient and she grabbed me by my hair, pulled me to the ground, and dragged me for several feet down the hallway where she began kicking me in the chest and stomach.

She was sent to a higher security unit as a result. I guess I was afraid of her after that, but she wasn’t there long. There was law enforcement intervention after she assaulted a pregnant nurse, pulled her to the ground as well, and stomped on her stomach.”

11. A charmer.

“Worked residential for 20 years. Had only 2 kids scare me

. One put his baby sister in the freezer. She was found quickly and was ok. He was charming, a good looking kid and quite clever. Also no history of trauma or abuse. Serious serial killer vibes.

One was horribly abused and somehow figured out I was pregnant. I wasn’t showing at all since I was fat. He would just stare at my stomach. I asked to be moved to a different group. First kid was or still may be a case study for students at the local big university.”

12. The door is blocked.

“The only time I’ve ever been scared is when my physical safety is threatened such as a patient blocking the door, hinting they know where I live, or implying they’d like to hurt or r*pe me.

I have a stellar poker face and once these really tough patients realize that I’m unfazed they usually drop it. My strength in therapy is mostly just broad acceptance and tolerance of whatever they bring to the table.

I let them know when I have to break confidentiality from the get go and that’s that.”

Have you ever had a patient, a co-worker, a friend, or a family member who you were legitimately afraid of?

If so, tell us all about it in the comments.

Thanks!

The post Therapists Discuss Patients That Actually Frightened Them appeared first on UberFacts.

October 5, 2020

Therapists Talk About Patients That Genuinely Scared Them

I think these responses are going to sound like something out of a horror movie…so it should be kind of exciting! And creepy…

We’re about to hear from therapists who admitted that they have had patients that genuinely scared the hell out of them.

Are you ready to get creeped out?

Here’s what therapists said on AskReddit.

1. Threatening.

“I worked with a student who used to threaten us.

He’d stand directly behind me with a pencil and threaten to stab me with it. I’d remind him what would happen if he did, but otherwise didn’t flinch or try and look at him.

He’d get mad then and throw the pencil across the room. It turns out me and one other lady were able to sit stone faced when he was like that an she never did anything. He’d get way worse if he thought anyone was scared of him.

I was the lucky one, he’d threaten to stab her in the eye. I’d always joked that I’d rather not see it coming.”

2. Scary.

“I was genuinely scared of a 17 yr old client I had. They were adopted and then “given back” to child protective services.

They told me in session they had an entire plan to burn their house down. Down to the date and the time.

I was terrified.”

3. Take it seriously.

“In one of my first clinical placements I had a psychiatrist supervising me who would toss me cases without any meaningful review. One afternoon I went into a room to meet someone for the first time and was told they were “anxious.”

The individual was floridly psychotic and informed me shortly after I walked in that he was scared for himself and others because he was a werewolf and would be transforming that evening.

Apparently I did not respond quickly or meaningfully enough, because in almost the next breath he informed me that I was not taking him seriously enough, picked up the office lamp, and threatened to beat me to death with it.”

4. Nice to me.

“The only client who scared me was one that was nice to me.

He was awful to everyone else on the treatment team and would never comply with services until I came along. He always greeted me with a smile and wanted to know what I did in my spare time. Asked personal questions. I lied about my entire life.

He would call me to chat about nothing sometimes. I could tell that it was all superficial, however. I would have to text my boss when I arrived at his home and when I was back at my car with the doors locked.

When I got pregnant I begged to be removed from the case.”

5. A tense situation.

“I was doing in home work during my first internship. I was working with a 16 year old male diagnosed with schizophrenia.

This kid was huge, like 6’9 and was jacked. He had assaulted three police officers that responded to a call about my client choking his mom. He threatened to r*pe his sister and pulled a knife on her as well. He had threatened to r*pe several other women.

He also assaulted a worker at an inpatient facility, he broke the dude’s nose. So my agency sends my *ss to work with the kid (I’m 5’1 and weigh like 95 lbs). While working with him he was pretty heavily sedated from all his meds when I met with him, so this made him slightly less scary.

He got up several times during our session and would start pacing. Every time he got up my heart was racing.

He was admitted to a group home so I only ended up meeting with him twice but this kid terrified me.”

6. “I don’t do therapy anymore.”

“I had recently graduated and was working with kids with an array of developmental disabilities.

There was one kid who was about 13, and he was a pretty big kid for his age. After a few sessions, it seemed like it wasn’t too bad. Common behaviors while more frequent, were no different than any other kid with a similar diagnosis. That was until I had to wear my knee brace one day.

I have a bad knee, and sometimes a brace helps. The next session after, he kicked my bad knee and then tried to choke me. If he tried escaping or aggressing, he always remembered to go for my knee. We continued therapy for a few months, until I had to leave for health (knee) reasons.

Apparently I handled it well and the company I was with continued to pair me with known aggressive kiddos. I had to go the doctor for an unrelated reason, and I had so many cuts and bruises the nurse asked if my husband attacked me.

I don’t do therapy anymore.”

7. Wow…

“When I worked with family court there was this super smart, super troubled kid who was in hot water for beating up a random guy on the street with a baseball bat.

Open and shut, surveillance camera caught everything. Apparently he didn’t know his victim, just a random act.

Anyways, he was being tried as an adult (he REALLY beat this dude up) and was being held in adult jail pre-trial. He was assigned a therapist and had a few sessions per week.

Long story short, one session the kid gets mad, grabs the chair he was sitting on, and beats his therapist within an inch of his life. I think the poor guy was on a ventilator for like a week.

Yeah, kid had some issues…”

8. Not worth it for you.

“My 1st job as a therapist in community mental health we had no “close time” & were expected to accommodate any & all late session requests from clients with no security, it was insane.

We had an incident occur with a coworker-her client exposed himself during session. At the next staff meeting we were berated & gas lit about safety “you should park closer” yet we would also get in trouble for parking closer & told those spots were for clients.

Needless to say I only stayed there about 7 months, daily crying & intense anxiety weren’t working out for me.”

9. Close call.

“I got this patient who witnessed his mom get stabbed by his father.

After that happened he only started talking about gore and threatening people. I worked with him for a month and he started getting way better. I started to get comfortable in front of him and so did he.

Then one day he comes into my office, he comes up to me and from his back he pulls out a knife. I barely have time to dodge the knife. The guard runs in to the office and grabs the kid.

He got sent to juvie and I quit after a week.”

10. She only get a year?!

“She told me she’d kill me for trying to shrink her and pulled out a knife and sat there looked her in the eyes trying to assert dominance I got out of that situation with a hole in my hand

She got 1 year in prison with a possibility of parole.

I quit my job 2 months later, my boss understood.”

11. Having an episode.

“My first ever client was having a psychotic episode, was homeless and had all of her belongings with her (a backpack filled with items and a duffle)

She proceeded to pull out a pair of kiddie scissors and cut off all of her dreadlocks and lay them on the table in front of me while talking about needing to get rid of the voices she was hearing.

This was all before I got her to even sign the paperwork she and I talked enough to get the formalities finished and she decided to take to locks and put them in her bag like nothing abnormal was happening. I was just glad the scissors went away too .

After that intake, she fell off the face of the earth. Never heard from her again. I was fully prepared to ask her to hand over the sharps and put them somewhere out of reach until she was ready to leave but I didn’t have to.”

12. Good thing Tom was there…

“Before I was a therapist, I worked for a brief time at a residential facility for youth with severe neurodevelopmental disabilities (eg, autism, intellectual disability) and behavioral problems.

All of our youth had a history of violence, most had experienced trauma, and 2/3 were in state custody. Also, this was a for-profit institution that was horribly managed and woefully understaffed.

I was on the older boys’ wing trying to get my group ready to transition to the next activity. Now, one of the boys in my group, let’s call him Jay, was pretty high functioning but had significant attachment issues. When new staff (like myself) would come in, he would quickly develop a favorite (unsurprisingly, it tended to be one of the few who would actually treat the residents as fellow humans worthy of respect).

Jay was funny and likeable and would generally do what you asked, with only a lil bit of sass, which honestly just added to his charming rapscallion persona. However, he’d gradually start to push boundaries, INSISTING that he be in that staff’s group (groups changed each shift for this exact reason), constantly demanding attention, acting out to try to get a reaction (one time he told me I would never get a boyfriend because I had a mustache ), etc.

If he didn’t get his way, he’d get incredibly angry and upset. And then the next time you saw him, he’d be sweet as pie. Oh, and he’d also stabbed a previous “favorite” staff member in the face with a pencil…

So anyway, I’m trying to get my group ready to go, and Jay has been continuously saying my name for like 5 minutes. In order to reinforce boundaries and NOT reinforce his tantrums, I told him that I would be happy to talk when we were all ready to go and then started ignoring him.

I go into the room of a resident with more significant needs (eg, largely nonverbal, intellectually disabled), to get his shoes on, and I close the bedroom door so Jay’s yelling would be less upsetting to the resident. All of a sudden, Jay LAUNCHES himself at the door.

He’s spitting mad and he’s trying to get into the room with me. I don’t know what he had planned, but I knew it wasn’t a calm heart-to-heart conversation. So I put my whole weight on the door, fighting to keep it closed. Unfortunately, at 15, Jay is much bigger than larger than I am (which isn’t saying much as I’m 5’0″), and none of the doors have locks on them. It is not going my way.

He’s able to get the door open a crack, and I can see he’s smiling, like this has turned into a game to him. But he’s not less threatening or any more in control of his rage. I am freaking out and yelling for backup, but I can’t reach my walkie without letting go of the door.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jay gets full-body tackled and hits the ground with a thud. I take advantage of the opportunity to SLAM the door closed and send out a frantic emergency call on the walkie.

When I finally walk shaking out of the room, I see Jay, still spitting mad, is being physically restrained by staff members and sporting a brand new bloody lip. To my surprise, staff members are restraining another resident, Tom, who is sitting their calmly just waiting to be released.

Apparently, Tom had a history of witnessing domestic violence, and seeing someone try to hurt women was a huge trigger for him. So he had sprinted from his room, tackled Jay, and put him in a hold. (Tom’s parents thought that karate would help their oppositional, angry son more than therapy, so he knew what he was doing.)

Tom had to face the standard consequences for violence (eg, physical restraint until no longer a threat, loss of privileges for that day), but I made sure to thank him. I really don’t know what would’ve happened if Tom hadn’t intervened…”

13. 6’6”, 250 lbs

“I was a therapist for several years. I worked with a variety of patients of ages and diagnoses.

I worked in the community with violent offenders and s*x offenders. I worked with adolescents after suicide or homicide attempts. I worked with developmentally and intellectually disabled adults in rehab. I’ve seen quite the gamut. I had been in plenty of scary situations, but most of the time knew the patient themselves were never a concern.

The only time I was scared was when I had a couple come into my outpatient practice, my last of the day. The man was very large, about 6’6”, 250 lbs. They were having relationship troubles and it became evident he was abusive in about 5 minutes.

He was talking over her, interrupting her, and told her to shut up in a raised voice right in front of me. At one point he slammed the table and that knocked off a trinket. I think we had probably half of the session done at that point, but I ended things because I was scared. I saw the woman individually after that and worked to get her to a better situation.

I looked online after and he had several DV charges.”

Are you a therapist?

Have you ever had a patient that actually scared you?

If so, please talk to us in the comments. Thanks.

The post Therapists Talk About Patients That Genuinely Scared Them appeared first on UberFacts.

October 5, 2020

Postal Workers Discuss the Craziness That Is Their Jobs Right Now

The United States Postal Service would be a very interesting and a very hectic place to work right now.

The USPS has been under scrutiny this year by certain politicians and things are only going to get more insane as we near the election in November.

Whatever side of the fence you’re on, you have to admit that folks who work at the USPS right now are under the gun and the environment on the job must be pretty intense.

Here’s what folks on AskReddit had to say about what’s going on there.

1. Overwhelmed.

“My mom runs a small office, and I came to visit her and my dad after work last week. I found her crying in their kitchen just slouched into my dad’s arms.

She was sobbing about how she couldn’t keep this up. The mail slowing down at the main hubs just builds up and when it eventually gets to her, she’s dealing with 3 times as much as mail and packages than her busiest time, Christmas (~600 packages when I spoke to her last), and now has to deal with irate customers demanding to know where their stuff is. All by herself.

She’s got bruises up and down her arms from hustling to get the mail processed and out. Add to that the stress of worrying every day if she’s she’s going to lose her job and her benefits.”

2. Slammed.

“I supervise a large station in a major city where the Postmaster runs over 20 post offices.

Last summer this office was a ghost town at 1700, even on Mondays. Tonight my last carrier came in at 1845. Saturday one year ago, parcel volume was a little under 3900. Tonight it was 8751.

Our base hours are 412.53, today we earned 435.36 but probably hit 455. DOIS is only allowing 60 seconds per parcel, but since all these apartment offices are closed due to C19, everything gets run to the door.

Complaints and inquiries are insane, too – mail delays and packages dropped at doors means a lot of angry customers.

All in all, right now I wish I’d stayed a mail handler. Stations are madhouses. But the carriers are toughing it out, generally keep it on an even keel, and everyone has each other’s backs for the most part.

This station has kept its reputation as a big family, so it hasn’t become ugly. Just difficult.”

3. Saving space?

“I am a USPS carrier.

The latest thing that affects us personally is they are reducing our cases (these are tall shelves that have every address on our route in order for the mail that we need to manually sort) from 2 cases to one to “save space”.

The best way that I can explain this is: you have a normal 2 drawer file cabinet, not jam packed full but each drawer is 1/2 to 3/4 full.

Now combine both drawers into 1. I will remind you that you need to fill it up every morning in order, sometimes stuffing things in to fit, then remove it in order to do the rest of your job.

The best part is the second case was also acting like a barrier from covid-19 from coworkers. Now they are going to remove it and replace it with plexiglass.”

4. Frustrated.

“They’ve removed 5 of our letter sorting machines (4 DBCS, 1 DIOSS) as well as a flat sorter (AFSM) and I think an FSS machine but that is not a part of the building I am routinely in.

Before, we would stay at work until all of our mail was finished, if it was 8 hours or 10 or 12, didn’t matter, the mail has to go out. Now, we are being forced to leave behind mail if we can’t finish in time, even if it is first class mail (something that would get us written up easily before).

The mail we push back is ran first the next day, so luckily only a day delay, but still unacceptable IMO. We are taking election mail incredibly seriously though, and any mail marked as political or election related is processed ASAP.

I am extremely serious about protecting the integrity of the mail. It is disappointing and frustrating that our new postmaster general is not.”

5. Broken down.

“I don’t think people realize how old and decrepit most of the delivery vehicles are.

A typical LLV probably has 300-400k miles and any scratches are literally painted with white house paint. Customers love to ask “Does that thing have air conditioning?” and when you tell them that you don’t even have air bags much less AC, they’re actually shocked. But damn are they perfect for the job.

We had a truck’s horn break, so when you turned the wheel it would honk. We could hear the guy driving it coming down the hill to the office… and then he arrived at the traffic circle… omg we were SOBBING with laughter.

But then it took over a month to get fixed properly and there were exposed wires on the wheel which you touched together to use the horn, like you were hot wiring the damn thing.”

6. Madness.

“We currently have over 11 beamers (big metal cages full of packages) full of first class packages including medicine and anything people have tried to send expecting 2 day shipping.

Overtime isn’t approved and we’re getting more and more backed up with first class and priority mail packages.

It’s getting worse every day.

No one is wearing masks to deliver or in the office, we’ve have 3 cases of covid, no sanitization, and people have been asked to work while they wait on their covid tests even if they have symptoms.

A few people are out for fear of covid and using their vacation or sick leave so no one else can get a day off, and we’re calling in workers from other offices to assist, putting their offices into a frenzy making them short handed.

No one is happy. Everyone is complaining, tempers are rising, some are threatening to walk out and quit, but they show up the next day anyway bc its the best paying job with no college degree in this area.

The management sucks, the supervisors are awful. They’re complaining about all of the carriers because we’re falling behind even though package volume has gone up 80% for our office since Covid hit hard in March.

Customers are complaining about us “being late” even though our daily cut off time is 7 pm, but if we’re not at their house at the time they normally expect during non pandemic and new PMG times, we’re “late” to them.

I’m expecting no Christmas tips this year, that’s for sure.”

7. Tense.

“I’m a carrier in a suburb of a large city, and honestly there’s tension.

Our sorting machines at the distribution plant were hauled off recently and quietly, a lot of the older carriers are jumping ship and retiring as quickly as they can, our trucks just aren’t getting maintained anymore, and half the damn town is so convinced that COVID is some kind of conspiracy that nobody will respect social distancing or wear a damn mask.

I’ve been at this for five years. I was lucky enough to land my own route two years ago when some carrier associates wait ten. I have benefits, I have retirement savings building up, I ACTUALLY GET VACATION DAYS.

And now some f*cker decided he wants to cheat to win again, and I’m going to lose my entire career. Every single case of carpal tunnel, every blister on my feet, every fourteen hour long day during the Christmas season, all the mountains of paperwork I did because I wanted to make my route more efficient for the benefit of my customers, and it all means nothing.”

8. Rumors.

“In the district that I work in, they’re removing one of our machines that sorts the letter mail. The PMG has also divided the Postal Service into 3 separate units, Delivery and retail, sorting units, and An analytical branch to help with logistics to make the service more profitable.

Overtime is being cut and parcels are just being delayed. New “temporary” surveys added by the PMG to track the mail volumes. And there are rumors floating around talking about every Area is going to be dismissed.”

9. A veteran.

“20 year carrier here.

They (upper management) are delaying mail like crazy in an effort curb overtime. Local management is as p*ssed as we are, and now overtime is insane.

We always complain about how incompetent management is, but the one main thing that has never changed until now is ‘Everything goes every day’

It’s obvious to us on the inside that this is a deliberate attack on the post office for personal/political gain.”

10. Delays.

“My office is probably among the better run in my area and it’s not all bad.

But the new delaying mail directives and so on has affected all crafts or positions. Let’s start with clerks: trucks have been late frequently say 4 to 5 times a week. Our clerks are in at 3 am for the first truck at 4. sometimes it doesn’t come until the second truck scheduled time (7)and it spills over their sorting when the counter is open at 8.

Basically we the carriers get sent with what we have and get alert when things are ready. Some days I’ve delivered all my packages before I got mail and vice versa. Then go out with what came. Since the directive? We have super light days followed by heavy days where start time moves from 8am to 7 am.

So no OT is BS when we have mostly rural carriers who are paid based on the evaluated route time and usually aren’t paid ot with the package influx. It’s something in their contracts that they have to do XYZ to get to pay outside of Christmas.

City carriers, which we only have a few, are expected to help out rural routes because we are paid hourly. Though it doesn’t always work the way they want because the days we only deliver minimum mail and packages are always followed by days delivering in the dark. Additionally my office is mostly part time employees so we don’t get set days off.

Though my office does try to give us each one day off. Regulars aren’t saved from this either the few we have are working their days off too. Even amazon Sundays. Before covid amazon Sundays we were always done by 3 pm if not before and no regs.

Now? We’re always out until at least 6 pm. Everyone is tired and no one really wants the imbalanced days.”

11. No more OT.

“My stepdad is a USPS employee and they’re cutting everyones overtime despite the fact that mail is just piling up.”

12. About Dad.

“My dad is a carrier and works at an office that has gone through dozens of equally incompetent postmasters over the years.

Recently his coworker whom he shares a desk with tested positive for COVID and they didn’t even notify my dad or the other employees and didn’t bother to sanitize the room.

My dad only found out because he’s friends with the guy.”

13. From the source.

“My office is fairly small and well run, so we are lucky. However, we have several employees (clerks and carriers) who are out with COVID. No one is allowed to do overtime anymore. I am sure you can see the problem with this.

One solution would be to hire more staff, but there are rules about how many employees of each type and subtype is allowed in each office. After a certain amount of hours lost, the office is allowed to hire temporary employees for a limited time. This is after the damage has been done, and employees are already stressed.

Then, a temp employee come in, and has to learn the rules, systems, routes, etc., depending on their position. It takes a month or two for a temp employee to become reasonably competent, and then their contract is up soon after.

I have friends that work in a much larger major hub post office near us, and they are still somehow being forced to work 60+ hours each week. I know of two new PSEs (basically parcel sorting monkeys) that have quit within two weeks of hiring at that big post office because they were not prepared for the crazy hours and the stress of working 1am to 1:30 pm.

It’s bananas.

We get communications from the new Postmaster General fairly regularly. The last one touted our increase in start times for carriers and a decrease in return trips. Sounds good, right?

No, this means carriers are being pushed out the door before they are ready, and that they are not being allowed to come back to pick up another load because of the new overtime rules for most offices. And that’s why your parcel is late.

I love my job (for real, it’s a great job), but DeJoy is making this difficult for all of us.

Who knows, maybe his changes will end up streamlining our business? I’m skeptical, at best.

I hope you all know that most USPS employees want you to get your mail on time, and we are still trying to help you get your stuff on time whenever possible and save you money when we can.”

How about you?

What do you think about this whole post office fiasco that is going on right now?

Talk to us in the comments and share your thoughts with us. Thanks!

The post Postal Workers Discuss the Craziness That Is Their Jobs Right Now appeared first on UberFacts.

October 5, 2020

People Discuss Their Favorite Memories From Going to School

We all tend to look at the past through rose-colored glasses…at least a little bit.

When I look back on my school days, especially high school, it seems like it was all fun and games and having a blast with my friends.

But I know that, in reality, certain days were really difficult and I was pretty unhappy for stretches of time.

But I have a lot of wonderful memories from those years, too.

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about their favorite memorial from when they went to school.

1. Sounds fun!

“My 3rd grade class had a “reading loft”.

It was a pretty good sized “fort” (probably taking up 1/3 of the classroom) covered in carpet and had lots of cool places to hang out if you wanted to read.

The teacher incentivized us to finish work early so we could grab a book and head to the “reading loft” so we didn’t have to hang out at our desks being bored.”

2. A nice gesture from Dad.

“I got bullied a lot in middle school.

One day in math I’d just been overwhelmed and couldn’t take anymore so I called my dad and begged him to pick me up. He told me I’d be alright and just ignore it.

20 minutes later I got called to the office for check out and he took me to get my favorite food and spent the afternoon in the park with me. RIP old man, that was one of the best days of my entire life.”

3. Field trip.

“In third grade, it was some reading appreciation week, and we decided as a class to visit a cemetery.

Granted it’s a pretty famous cemetery with a couple of really important people buried there, and we had a scavenger hunt to find them. Along with like the oldest grave we could find, the biggest, and we had to make a rubbing of one of our choosing.

As a strange child, it was the best field trip I had ever been on.”

4. New BFF.

“When I was in second grade, I got bullied because my whole family was deaf.

One kid kept picking on me everyday. Well one day he came up to me and started screaming, saying can your mom hear me, and this tall girl stepped in and punched him in the face.

She got suspended, but no one ever made fun of me again. We became best friends after that.”

5. Look out!

“Every morning my teacher will ask us questions about history if we get it right he would give us a snicker bar.

But this the funny part, he would throw the snickers bar at us real hard. So if get the question right you would had to dodge the fast moving snickers.”

6. Who’s the biggest fan?

“I was a terrible student and a huge baseball fan growing up. In 6th grade I had an English teacher who knew I wasn’t dumb, just hard to motivate.

She privately offered me an extra credit assignment, all I had to do was write a 2 page essay on any topic I liked at all explaining why I liked it so much. I straight up turned down her offer, being content with my C- grade.

So she flipped it around on me and publicly told another guy in my class that since HE was the biggest Red Sox fan in the class, he should write a 2 page essay about the Red Sox and present it to the class.

I practically jumped out of my seat and said I was a way bigger Red Sox fan than Mike and I should be the one writing that essay. She let us both write one. She was a really good teacher”

7. Now THAT’S a good memory.

“Skipping out on a Monday to drive to the city 5 hours away to see Iron Maiden in concert in December 1984!”

8. The good old days.

“The record for most milk cartons drank before throwing up was 26 by the time I graduated.

They started suspending anyone who tried to break the record because they were cleaning up milk puke so often.”

9. Epic!

“Nickelodeon took over my school when I was in the 2nd grade. All the Nickelodeon celebrities were there.

Mr. Wizard did cool science experiments, Barth did gross stuff with food, Marc Summers had the Super Sloppy Double Dare obstacle course we could go through and teachers got slimed and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles put on a concert.

It was literally a dream come true. And then at the end we all got free backpacks filled with Nickelodeon swag. I still think about that day.”

10. Keeping the kids interested.

“Listening to my middle school history teacher give her lectures.

In her heart of hearts she was a storyteller and always knew how to keep me captivated.”

11. A nice reminder.

“On my first day of school, my mom sent little Debbie pumpkin smiley faces in my lunch.

Fast forward a couple of years, and due to my dads dangerous mental state, I had been in long term physical rehab, recovering from a gunshot, and living in a group home for about 6 months before my uncle got custody of me, halfway across the country.

There I was, in a different state, with different weather, at a new school where I didn’t know anybody, and I open my lunchbox, and there’s my pumpkin snack cakes.”

12. Going back in time.

“My 5th grade teacher brought in an actual 1700s musket to show us during the Revolutionary War unit.

I’ll never forget that honestly. Especially considering that would NEVER fly in schools today.”

13. Congrats!

“My last day of high school, actually. It was our graduation ceremony. The school made me sit with a bunch of kids I don’t know. Others were allowed to sit with whoever they want. The school didn’t tell us anything, just made us sit there.

Apparently my stupid *ss got the highest standardized exam grade in a subject and I was sat there because those kids got the highest grades too, in other subjects. I honestly did not see that coming at all, but I was so happy and proud of myself.”

14. Nap time!

“When I was on 8th grade a Friday at 6:40am we were at Biology class, all of us including the teacher were still sleepy, one of my classmates fell asleep and the teacher said: “I know all of you still sleepy, like yesterday everyone of you did a good work I will let you sleep half of the class”.

He also fell asleep, but he forgot to wake us up until the bell rang. Biology class lasts two hours.”

In the comments, tell us about some of your favorite memories from school.

We’d love to hear from you.

Please and thank you!

The post People Discuss Their Favorite Memories From Going to School appeared first on UberFacts.

October 5, 2020

Fed Up Folks Discuss the Topics They’re Tired of Explaining

All of us get tired of explaining certain things to people.

Maybe it’s work-related, maybe it’s some kind of religious or political belief, or perhaps it’s about something that totally unique to you that other people have no idea about.

Whatever the case, doing it over and over again GETS OLD. And it gets old fast.

Here’s what folks on AskReddit are tired of explaining to other people.

1. Don’t want ’em.

“I dont have kids, because I dont want to.

And that should be a good enough reason.

What’s insane is when some people go on to think that being childfree means you hate kids. I’m sure there are a few of those out there, but on the whole, it’s like saying I must hate elephants because I don’t have one.

Uh, no.”

2. That’s not me.

“That I’m not a heavy metal, death riding biker because I have a beard, tattoos and piercings.”

3. A new lifestyle.

“Why I left my “career” using my degree and decided to just to wait tables.

I’m so much happier honestly. F*ck the money and idea of moving up the ladder.

I’m never gonna be rich but I’m happier so that’s all that really matters.”

4. Pay attention, people!

“I’m a pharmacist…

Vaccines don’t cause autism

The pharmacy doesn’t decide your copays

No, I don’t just “put pills in a bottle”

Flu shots won’t give you the flu

Yes, mask mandates help slow the spread of COVID 19.”

5. Doesn’t work that way.

“That depression is a very difficult illness to understand. It’s not like we can influence our moods to be happy.

“Why can’t you just be happy?”

“What a brilliant idea, depression no more!”

Just sickening to be honest. That’s why isolating myself from people is easier. No one wants to hear how hard it is.”

6. Facts are facts.

“That there are things called facts and that they are different from opinions.

That you can’t substitute opinions — even ones you really, really believe in — for empirically grounded facts. Finally, that expertise exists and that opinionation is not the same thing as having actual expertise in something.

And all of this might mean that your views might not be as valid as someone else’s who possesses actual expertise in a given area. Don’t feel bad or that you have been slighted in those circumstances.

Those times are learning opportunities. Take advantage of them, learn something from someone who is an expert, challenge your assumptions and grow a little.”

7. Ugh.

“I have Schizophrenia, and usually when I get to know someone I tell them I have it just as a little warning and what to do if it gets out of hand.

But before I can even explain that they always say “omg u have schizophrenia! So you have two personalities and kill people like that person from that one tv show?!”

No, no I do not kill people, the media has a sh*t representation of the condition. So I always then have to spend the next 20 mins explaining what it is.”

8. Frustrating.

“That you have to wear a mask inside.

At my job that’s what I do 99% of the day and I’m sick and tired of these idiots.”

9. Get those Zzzzzzzs.

“Teenagers need 10-11 hours of sleep, because their brains are still developing, they also need to go to bed later because teenagers naturally want to stay up.

Sleep is important for brain development.

It helps prevent memory loss, weight gain, and likelihood of dying of a stroke or aneurysm.”

10. Here’s how it works.

“What intermittent fasting is. I’ve been doing 20:4 (20 hours of fasting, 4 hours window for feeding) for over 3 years now.

It’s a diet and helps me controle an hormonal condition I have at the same time. Yet whenever people notice I don’t eat for breakfast and lunch, they’re like “omg you’re starving yourself!!!”.

No, I’m not. I feel great, even better than when I ate “normally”.”

11. Many different views.

“That there are more than two sides to many issues. The fact that I disagree with you does not prove that I agree with those you hate. There are plenty of people who are ridiculous in plenty of ways — and they’re all ridiculous.

“You either agree with me or it means you support——”

No, it doesn’t. I recognize that both sides are mostly made up of angry idiots.”

12. A lot of misinformation.

“As someone into fitness, and who has done a lot of research into food, diet, and have had to overcome many obstacles to lose a lot of weight and have the physique I have today.

There’s so much misinformation out there about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, it´s insane…”

13. Listen up.

“Climate change, the importance of reducing your personal carbon footprint and your personal freshwater consumption.

Why my vegetarianism is a ‘personal choice’ that can play into that and why it is not a conviction that I ‘desperately want to push’ on everybody.”

14. Just the way it is.

“I am not skinny because I don’t eat… I am just skinny…

I can finish a month worth of your food in a day, still I will be skinny.

I just am skinny.”

15. Time for a history lesson.

“Abraham Lincoln was not a conservative.

The Republican party of the 19th century was made up of classical liberals. That is what they called themselves. The party was founded for the purpose of preventing the expansion of slavery in American territories.

I don’t know how anyone could believe that anti-slavery is a conservative stance. Slavery was a “traditional” institution. To be anti-slavery in the 19th century was to be against the wealthy elite.

It was an embrace of modern ideals. It can not, in any sense of the phrase, be described as a conservative movement.

Now, seceding from the US to prevent wealthy landowners from losing out on the profits of slavery, that is a conservative movement. Any push to retain the traditional way of doing things is conservative.”

What are YOU tired of explaining to other people?

Sound off in the comments!

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Fed Up Folks Discuss the Topics They’re Tired of Explaining appeared first on UberFacts.

September 28, 2020

People Talk About the Scariest Places They’ve Ever Been To

I’m a huge fan of all things scary and I especially like hearing stories in this genre that are TOTALLY TRUE.

I’d have to say the scariest place I’ve ever been was an abandoned hospital that was rumored to have been an insane asylum back in the day. We went in at night with flashlights and the place was covered in graffiti, trash, animals, and there were homeless people living in there.

It was pretty darn creepy and it was the only time I was brave enough to go into that building…

Let’s get creepy with folks from AskReddit as they talk about the scariest places they’ve ever been to.

1. Whoa…

“Reconstructed subway which exploded years ago in Daegu, Korea.

They memorialized the explosion on site: scorched walls, melted people’s items, burnt phone booths and all, but the scariest was the scorched walls with writings and handprints of the people that were trapped during the explosion.

This subway is one of the busiest stations even today due to being the city’s downtown area.”

2. No way I’d ever do this.

“Probably a cave, wriggling through a “lemon drop” as they called it, where you go feet first down a skinny tunnel and have to wriggle down about 12′ before you drop into a chamber below.

About halfway my shoulders got stuck and it took like five excruciating minutes to get loose.

I don’t know why I went spelunking, I’m claustrophobic.”

3. Unsettling.

“An abandoned set of buildings that were part of a former college campus, next to an abandoned military airfield.

There was a lot to explore, but it definitely gave off an unsettling vibe.

There was even an enterable hangar that had a bunch of torn gas masks lying on a pile in the middle of it.”

4. NO WAY.

“I had just crossed over the border into China from Kazakhstan – for some reason, my buddy and I made it a plan to hit as many haunted houses as we could (for whatever reason, there were plenty on our route from Moscow to Delhi).

We found out about one in Urumqi and decided to go – as we went down these dank stairs into what seemed like once was part of an underground system, everything just felt wrong.

The person there had us sit in these gross chairs in front of this odd raised platform. Out of nowhere, this girl (and I mean no more than 14) comes out in a skimpy leopard print outfit with a snake. We are getting ‘gtfo’ vibes but are the only ones there and the dude(s) running the place are right behind us.

So, we proceed to watch this girl pop the snakes head into her mouth and swing it around like a helicopter. After the ‘show’ they tried to guide us to these rooms with the grossest mattresses on the planet on the ground.

It was really sad, creepy, and disgusting. All we could do is shove some RMB in the guys hand and run out.”

5. The station.

“A Greyhound station in Buffalo NY in the middle of the night. I thought for sure I was going to get mugged.

I had a stopover there when I was going to Niagara Falls. Greyhound stations are usually sketchy, but that one was by far the worst. The bathrooms were nasty. And the station, and the way people looked at you. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. It was early morning, but I had a similar feeling as you.

I’ve since stopped taking Greyhound since some driver thought that my bag would be too big and tried to force me to board without my laptop and asthma medication (against their own policy).

It was smaller than most of the other passengers’ bags and fit on the trip up fine. Prices have gone up anyways, so other options are better. Planning on taking the train or Megabus from now on when I need to get somewhere without a car & air travel is too expensive/not worth it.”

6. That’s pretty young.

“Catacombs in Sicily.

Yup great parenting let’s bring a 6-year-old to a place where every light shines on a dead body, and everything else is darkness.”

7. Sketchy.

“Last year I lived in a suburb in Gifu Prefecture.

Down the street was a broken down old house and my friend and I decided to do a photoshoot there one night, because an old broken Japanese house looked pretty cool.

When I say broken down, I mean entire walls were missing and exposing the inside, floors were broken, and lots of old junk everywhere. Pipes and beams were exposed, and there were crates of old belongings.

There was one crate though that had hundreds of photos of the same girl, as a child to adulthood. Black and white, developed from film. It was always just her and no one else in the photo. I thought it was strange that the old owners could just leave photos of this girl behind.

The more I looked at them, I noticed she didn’t seem happy in a lot of them.

I got really uncomfortable and so my friend and I left and abandoned the photo shoot.

I think she might have been a victim of something and that’s why the photos were left behind in a half-destroyed house.

Got really freaked out that night…”

8. Like a horror movie.

“I spent two weeks alone at an abandoned silk factory and nuclear waste cleanup site in a small rural town.

No electricity. It was 120 years old. Roofs collapsing It was creepy. Dark, wet, strange noises. One corner of an upper floor was walled off with plastic sheeting, work lights and a table. Never did figure out what was going on
in there…

There was an eyeball scrawled on the wall in another area in red marker with the words “it sheds the blood here” underneath.

The building is gone now.”

9. Get outta there!

“We were on our way to Flagstaff, AZ for the Overland Expo and planned to camp near there the night before it started since we were on a longer overland trip.

It was this place in the woods that was recommended by other who were there before. It all seemed fine and we set up camp.

At night when we brushed our teeth we noticed there were animal skulls hanging in the trees all around us, it was super scary.

We packed up and spend the night in a hotel.”

10. Atlanta.

“Some hotel in Atlanta.

My mom and I were traveling to rescue my brother from an abusive situation and she picked a cheap hotel outside the city. It was clear the type of people who came there but figured it wasnt a problem.

As we got to sleep someone started banging on the door screaming how we owed them money. My mom called front desk for security who came and removed that guy. The rest of the night we saw Shadows come back and forth outside the window and they would just be standing there.

Eventually at 4 in the morning the banging came back. My mom called security and had them escort us to our truck because she refused to deal with it any longer.”

11. Graveyard.

“The old graveyard of Olargues in the Hérault, France.

I was camping in the neighborhood and we visited the village, old and beautiful. We were young and inquisitive and climbed the wall around an old graveyard. What we found were 19th century graves, often in little grave houses.

But grave robbers had yanked the lead coffins out of the houses and everywhere were opened coffins with skeletons. It was actually very sad to behold. There were 5 of us and without a warning we all ran to the wall and jumped back to the world of the living.

We all had had a feeling we should not stay there a second longer, we could not explain it, just an overwhelming feeling of terror. About 15 years later I passed that cemetery on the back of a motorbike and just looked through a crack in the wall. I was struck with that same feeling.

It is not a good place.”

12. Sounds scary.

“I was doing some intense, solo, off-trail hiking in the Eastern Sierras and found an old mine entrance.

Being a teenager I immediately walked in there. Shortly thereafter, I started getting light headed and ran back out.

I could have easily passed out and died, and, given the extremely remote location, remained unfound for years.”

13. War zone.

“My parents spent a lot of time in war zones for their careers and had strange ideas about what made a good family holiday.

So, anyway, we ended up going to in Egypt and Lybia in 2011. If you don’t know, this was the year of the the Cairo riots/Egyptian revolution and the Lybian civil war.

I was 15, really made me see the world differently. In multiple ways – saw lots of scary people with guns, but also slept out under the stars in the Lybian desert and saw a nights sky with 0 light pollution.

Nothing can prepare you for the sheer brightness of the stars when everything else around you is pitch black. That also changed me, made me understand how insignificant and tiny we really are. Also got to see the pyramids at a time that had no other tourists, whole place was totally abandoned. (But that’s irrelevant to the question I guess.)

Overall was an 8/10 holiday. Probably wont take any of my potential future kids into a war zone though, I wouldn’t recommend.”

14. This is messed up.

“I don’t know why this happened, but by the end of it you’ll understand when I say my parents aren’t known for making the best decisions.

So, when I was 9 or 10, my dad took me to this house that had been basically destroyed by fire. I don’t remember exactly whether my mother was there or she just OKed this (they were not together, ever). There were other adults involved in this too, I think my uncle and one of my dad’s buddies. But I was the only kid.

Anyway, we went into this fire-destroyed house to look for sh*t that could be salvaged. We found very little and really that should have been nothing at all (all I really recall anymore was an 8-track tape that had been warped just enough by the fire to play two songs at once in spots).

So there’s lil kid me, after dark, picking my way through this f*cking burnt house full of debris, and I get into one room and look in what had been the closet and there’s this…shag rug looking thing there.

Which was when my dad helpfully told me that the daughter of the house had run back inside the fire to try to save the family dog, and died in the closet with her arms wrapped around the animal…and that wasn’t a rug but the remains of the dog’s body.

And then I was encouraged to look through this dead kid’s toys to see if anything was in good enough condition for me to take home.

I’ve been afraid of dying in a fire ever since.”

Now we want to hear from you!

You know the drill!

In the comments, tell us about the scariest place you’ve ever been to!

Thanks!

The post People Talk About the Scariest Places They’ve Ever Been To appeared first on UberFacts.

September 28, 2020

People Discuss the Scariest Places They’ve Ever Been To

Halloween is approaching and this article is just PERFECT for this spooky season.

We’re going to hear some creepy, true stories from people about places that a lot of us would not want to be stranded in…especially if we were alone…

What’s the scariest place you’ve ever been to?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about this.

1. The outskirts.

“A small gas station on the outskirts of El Paso.

It was winter, I was 19 or 20. I remember people had mentioned random violence in the area, but I needed gas in my car. I stopped at a station to fill up, it’s cold so I wore my jacket. As in filling up, 3 guys start walking my way.

I saw them from my peripheral and kept a watch on them but didn’t make it obvious. They approached the car, one standing on the opposite side and the other two each going on a separate side.

I stopped pumping fuel and casually said what’s up, to which they asked if they could have some cash for food. I told them I didn’t have any cash on me.

I remember one of them saying “I said…” in an aggressive tone, and they started coming closer. I stepped back, unzipped my jacket and stuck my hand on my side Inside the jacket and said “I don’t know what you want, but I don’t have it and this isn’t going to be worth it.”

They looked at eachother and there was a palpable tenseness in the air, but they eventually went across the street and left.

To this day I’m convinced by the entire thing and how it felt I was close to being jumped and/or car jacked. I’m glad they thought I was armed, because I didn’t have sh*t inside my pocket but a pack of cigarettes and a Sears Tower zippo lighter.”

2. In the hollar.

“Pennington Hollow (Hollar to the locals) in Ashe County North Carolina.

I don’t know if it’s still this way today, but back in the ’90s everyone who lived there was named Pennington and you didn’t go there unless your name was Pennington. The cops didn’t even go there.

Think the movie ‘Deliverance’… There was a whole classroom in my high school for the special Pennington kids…

I once accidentally drove my little 49cc scooter into Pennington hollar when exploring random back roads. Once I realized where I was I turned off my engine and went into bicycle mode and noped the f*ck out of there.”

3. Russia.

“Russia.

Everyone I met had minimum 1-2 immediate family members who had wither been murdered, committed suicide, or died young in an “accident”, or were in prison.

Once I got home, within a month at least 3 of the very close people I’d met, all from one family, had died by different reasons. 1. Picking mushrooms, died alone in the forest. 2. Died alone in apartment, no reason. 3. Died from “tuberculosis” (doubt it, she was 7 mo pregnant when I’d seen her, bad partner, super depressed. My guess, suicide or intimate partner violence)

Scary place.”

4. This is creepy.

“Egypt. I was 16 and blonde.

The tour company made me have my own armed guard with me at all times. Men kept trying to hold my hand. One tour guy held me hand in the pyramids and tried to take me into rooms nobody else was allowed in.

Twice I was told upon entering a museum that my body needed to be searched (nobody else was told this). My guard would start yelling and ushering me away.

Very heavy moments to wrap my head around at that age.”

5. Lost in Camden.

“Camden, NJ about 20 years ago.

I was there for a concert and took a wrong turn. Literally witnessed 2 drug busts and an arson in progress while attempting to find my way back (pre-GPS on phones).”

6. Sounds horrible.

“Inside a coal mine in Mexico.

First world mines are mostly mechanized and safe. In Mexico… not so much. One day I went in and a new branch of the mine was being excavacated, so support beams were installed every so often to keep tons and tons of earth from swallowing everyone.

Wood beams support a hole in the ground about the size of a door and about twice as wide. Over time the vertical beams start to sink and the horizontal beam start bend. A week in miners need to duck to not hit their head on the ceiling. Consider the average height of a mexican is 5’4″.

Two months in and you have to hunch over and squat to get in. Pretty much all miners develop insane roadie run skills.

Also it’s dark, filthy (miners don’t go topside to take a piss), coal dust flying everywhere, hot and suffocatingly humid.”

7. Bahamas.

“Nassau, Bahamas, port side.

It’s a sh*thole to begin with, but my family and I were there on their Labor Day. They had a parade, everyone was having a good time until a dude with a big flat bed truck with massive speakers on it decided to get out to party a little while the parade had stopped.

He forgot to set the parking break and the truck rolled down a hill killing three people. Cops came and the locals started getting rowdy. There was an energy that was brewing that’s very hard to describe in words. My wife and 2 kids got out of there.”

8. Frightening.

“The market at night near my grandparents house in India.

For context, I am Indian-American, so I visit India pretty often. One time, my grandparents needed something from the market, so they asked my mom to go. Typically, women don’t go by themselves at night because, sadly, it is really common for a woman to be r*ped. So my mom asked me to come with her too.

That sh*t is SCARY AS F*CK. There were only about three street lamps (mind you, this was in a pretty big city in India, so that’s kinda uncommon). The market itself was the whole street, and we had to go deeper into the market to get to the store we needed.

There wasn’t a single woman or kid – only grown men staring at us while they had a drink or cigarette. The entire time I was only thinking about what my mother and I would do in case any of them attacked.

We got to the store we needed and got the thing. But the store keeper looked at us really weird, as if he was surveying us. Even after we left the store, I could still see him looking at us. I wanted to go back to my grandparents house as fast as possible, but my mother was wearing a saree (she doesn’t wear that in America, just in India), and it is impossible to run in that sh*t (at least the way my mom was wearing it, it was super hard).

Eventually, after we passed a group of men sitting on a motorcycle, we see them all get up and start following us. At this point, my mom also started to panic and we both practically ran (more like speed-walking but my mom was going as fast as she could). We got on to the main road, where there were far more people and a lot more light. The men stopped and went back to the motorcycle.

I honestly can’t tell you how scary that was. The fact that I could have been murdered and my mom possibly r*ped before she was murdered. There was no mistake – those men were coming after us, and ever since then, neither me or my mom or anyone from my family went to that market at night.”

9. Interesting.

“My friend and I visited a Scientology church for an extra credit paper back in college. We knew next to nothing about it at the time, other than some bizarre stories we’d heard about people mysteriously going missing after trying to leave the church or speaking out against it, etc.

All three of the people we directly interacted with had a sort of emptiness to their eyes and interrogated us about why we were there. They refused to believe we were writing a paper for school, like we were there for some malicious purpose or something, and kept asking more and more questions to get to the bottom of the purpose of our visit.

They finally let us go to the second floor (first floor was only reception and bathroom), large room with but one or two people in sight. They made us sign in with our name, address, and email address, and my friend whispered, “You didn’t leave your real info, did you?” It was already so incredibly creepy and intense, and nothing had even happened.

They sat us down by ourselves to watch a video which was super vague and boring, and all we wanted was enough info to write a one page paper (which we weren’t getting from the video), so we got up to explore.

Immediately, an older woman was in our faces (empty eyes and all) asking why we didn’t finish the video, we needed to finish the video, sit down and finish the video. We felt like five year olds being punished for not sitting still.

After another attempt at finishing the video, we were getting antsy and creeped out, so again decided to take a quick look around then peace out.

The area we were in was set up like a museum with gallery walls covered in blown up versions of news articles documenting the public’s attempt to understand Scientology. We expected to come across something that would indicate what Scientologists do or believe in or something, but never did.

We only did a quick loop through the room, but every time we looked over our shoulders, one of the sign in/interrogator guys and the woman demanding we watch the video were lurking behind us, glaring at us suspiciously, whispering to one another. We held hands, completely terrified, our imaginations racing at what could possibly lie in our future.

When we felt the opportunity, we jetted to the elevator, pushed the buttons frantically, and literally sprinted across the parking lot to our car.

The intensity of being in that place (especially on the second floor) is incredibly difficult to put into words, but has stayed with both of us. We still talk about how lucky we feel to have gotten out of there without them taking our souls (that we know of, anyway — ha).”

10. Holiday in Cambodia.

“When I was in my late 20s my dad and I went on a tour to Cambodia.

Part of the tour included half a day at the Cheung Ek killing fields about half and hours drive outside of Phnom Penh. My dad must have seen that movie The Killing Fields because he opted to stay at the hotel but I wasn’t as bright as he was and gladly went with our group.

The entire atmosphere was really creepy. Even though it was in the middle of a jungle, I don’t recall hearing any birds or insects the entire time I was there. It was like nature itself knew the place was cursed and abhorred it.

One of the trees was called the Baby Killer because Khmer Rouge soldiers had smashed out the brains of infants against its trunk and the branches were festooned with trinkets from its victims. I even had to be careful where I stepped because there were human remains buried all over the place and they poked through the soil in certain places.

And if all of this wasn’t disturbing enough, the center of the killing fields had a stupa (a buddhist shrine/grave thing) with a display case loaded with the skulls of the killing field victims. Many of the skulls prominently displayed the gruesome injuries which had killed the victims. And there were speakers playing a creepy sounding buddhist dirge.

I never want to go back to that place ever again.”

11. Never went back.

“I’ve been to most of the Middle East and not in a tourist capacity, but getting chased by teens with machetes yelling Mzungu Mzungu (white devil) in Uganda kinda sets the bar.

Last time I went to Africa as a tourist.”

12. Totally sketchy.

“An Airbnb in Barcelona. I’ve spent quite a while in Spain, speak Spanish, and have visited Barcelona multiple times. I’ve also used Airbnb multiple times, and know what to check for. Two friends and I (all 20sF) picked an Airbnb with several favorable ratings, in a good neighborhood. One of the ones that’s a room in someone’s apartment.

Show up, and the two guys look nothing like the picture, but are very hospitable, so we went inside. They showed us around, and the apartment looked like the photos. Then they showed us the room and let us be. We open the door to the room and it’s nothing like the photos.

It’s essentially a closet, 3 dirty twin mattresses on the floor with no pillows and blankets covered in old food. Furthermore, the door to the room has no interior lock on it—but it DID have an exterior lock. It’s at this point that we also realize they never gave us a key to the apartment.

We took pictures of everything and waited until we heard them leave the apartment, and watched them from the window until they were out of sight. We gathered our packs and SPRINTED out of there, with no plans on where to go, just calling random hostels until we found one that had room.

But it was on the other side of the city, and the metro had closed for the night. So we walked an hour and a half. Thankfully the hostel was lovely, and Airbnb refunded us and removed the listing, but we’re convinced it was a human trafficking setup.”

Okay, now it’s your turn!

In the comments, tell us about the absolute scariest place you’ve ever been in your life.

We can’t wait to hear your stories!

The post People Discuss the Scariest Places They’ve Ever Been To appeared first on UberFacts.

September 28, 2020

What’s the Best TV Show That Was Canceled After One Season? Here’s What People Said.

For me, it would have to be Freaks and Geeks.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a show about teenagers in the early 1980s in suburban Detroit. It really was a great show and it launched the careers of so many people, including James Franco, Seth Rogen, Linda Cardellini, and others.

And, sadly, it was canceled after only one season…

So let’s hear about some more!

AskReddit users shared their favorite shows that were canceled after only one season.

1. Flopped in the U.S.

“Forever

It’s a crime tv show about an immortal medical examiner

Incredibly good show, but i think it flopped in the US and therefore never got a second season.”

2. Heard of this one?

“Awake.

Such a cool concept of 2 timelines, where in one his wife died, the other his son. Used both “realities” to solve crimes.

Just felt like they could have done so much more with another season or two.”

3. Almost Human.

“I liked Almost Human.

Who doesn’t like robot cops?

I enjoyed this show so much and then blammo, it’s gone.

Karl Urban was great in it.”

4. Here are a few to check out.

“Jericho (It was canceled after season one, but super-fans pushed for another season and got a few more episodes)

Limitless.

Terra Nova.”

5. Yes!

“Freaks and Geeks.

I saw it on Netflix for the first time and was absolutely dumbfounded that it just ended.

Definitely one of the best shows I’ve ever watched. I couldn’t believe and still can’t believe they didn’t continue it.”

6. A classic in the making.

“Terriers.

It only had 13 episodes, which coincidentally is also the number of people who watched it.

But it really was a classic in the making.”

7. A ’90s hit.

“My So-Called Life.

This show had me wearing my hair tucked behind one ear for all of 6th grade because I thought it looked so cool and sophisticated.”

8. Undergrads.

“Undergrads.

Early 2000s sitcom about freshmen in college.

Luckily a kickstarter was funded for a follow-up movie!”

9. Comedy classic.

“Police Squad!

Of course it came back years later in movie form as The Naked Gun.

But it counts!”

10. This was a good one.

“Eerie, Indiana.

They had so much potential for more stories in that universe.”

11. Sounds cool.

“Harper’s Island.

Not sure if this only aired in Canada or USA too.

It was like a season-long horror movie with characters getting picked off 1 per episode.

I was a kid when it aired and loved the suspense each week.”

12. Bruce Campbell!

“The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

I loved that whole show! I watched them as they aired when I was a kid and was so heartbroken they canceled it.

My parents still bring up my reaction from time to time. I basically threw a fit.”

13. Never heard of it.

“Bunheads.

It was written by the same person who wrote Gilmore Girls and had the same smart, fast-paced humor.”

14. Interesting…

“Kings (2009)

A show on NBC that was a modern-day take on David and Goliath.

It starred Ian McShane as the Goliath King Saul character, Christopher Egan as the David character, Susanna Thompson as a compelling matriarch, and Sebastian Stan as a gay prince.”

15. Good Omens.

“Good Omens.

I mean, I know there was only one season because Terry died before a second book could be made, but it still doesn’t make the disappointment go away when you finish the final episode…”

16. Right up my alley.

“I’m gonna say Everything Sucks!

It was a Netflix Original that didn’t make it past the first season, but I thought it was pretty great.

It’s very similar to Freaks and Geeks (which is funny since they only got one season too) except it was set in 1990s instead of the 1980s.”

17. Selfie.

“Selfie. The one with Karen Gillan.

The premise is simple, a bubble headed social media addict realizes during a business trip that her life is a mess due to her addiction and seeks help from a guy opposite to her.

The show started being dumb, but as the episodes went by, it became entertaining.

Sadly the showrunners burned the character’s development by rushing the plot and it got cancelled before premiering the last few episodes.”

18. Missed this one.

“Pan Am it was actually a really good show from what aired.

A period drama that worked really well. I don’t even think the full season aired to be honest.”

19. Horror series.

“The River.

It wasn’t necessarily the best show but I really enjoyed it. Was a really good jump scare horror that I enjoyed and wanted to know the answers in Season 2.

Now I’ll never know and I’m sad.”

20. Whoa!

“Anyone remember Now and Again from the 90s?

John Goodman gets hit by a train and his consciousness is transplanted into Eric Close, a super-human government prototype in a program run by Dennis Haysbert.

They’re using him to fight terrorism, he’s secretly trying to reconnect with his family. It was nominated for a bunch of Emmys, but I heard it was too expensive to continue.

The only season ended in a huge cliffhanger. I’m still sad about it!”

Now it’s your turn!

In the comments, tell us what you think is the best show that was canceled after only one season.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The post What’s the Best TV Show That Was Canceled After One Season? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.