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It Happened To Me! Then I Realised It Hadn't

Years ago I was in a shopping center and I saw a teen girl hurrying down the escalator with a store security guard chasing after her.
I didn't think much of it untill about an hour later when I saw the same girl hurrying down the escalator, being chased by the same security guard. Time loop?
It wasn't untill years later that I watched the tv-show The Bridge where that exact scene happened. I don't know if what I saw was rehearsals or if they just hid the cameras really well.
 
Just had a good one when driving this morning. I glanced up out of the window on my right, and for a fraction of a second thought I saw a large oval shaped object hanging in the blue sky.

I quickly realised it was not a UFO but instead a long, streaked, saucer shaped bird crap. :hahazebs:
 
My ex father in law Fred was home on leave from the navy and had been out for a few drinks. Walking home in the countryside in the 1940’s pitch black lanes he suddenly realised he could hear footsteps behind him, quite close. Unnerved he started to walk a little quicker, not least because it sounded like the person had crept up behind him and suddenly made their presence felt. The footsteps got quicker too and whoever or whatever it was was now chasing him quickly down the lane. Eventually he decided to stop and confront who ever or whatever it was that was pursuing him. He stopped, spun round and …..no
One there. He shouted out to them and said something along the lines of ‘stop mucking about!’ But nothing but silence. He started to walk again and the same sound, right behind him. It was then he realised it was his naval flared trousers slapping together as he walked along!
 
I wasnt sure to post this here or in the transdimensional gas station thread as it did kinda happen to me - but then it didnt.

Heading for the coast in my car with a friend about 25yrs ago. Running low on fuel and wondering if we could make it to the closest only (known to me) petrol station in the area. We were on fumes at that point and a bit worried we'd be walking the rest of the way, and all the way back with a jerry can. We rounded the next corner and saw pumps. OLD OLD fuel pumps and an old shop frontage. It seemed to be open, the door was propped ajar so I quickly pulled in and thought that was lucky i'll get some fuel. As I was getting out of the car to pump fuel an old lady came out and asked how much I wanted. I was a bit suprised but I figured they'd had a few drive offs without paying or something. All of the fuel stations i'd ever been to were self serve and I was amazed as the old lady pumped the fuel for me and took the cash at the pump.

I'd driven that way a number of times and never seen this odd little quaint fuel station before. In fact I drove the route for years afterwards and never saw this fuel station or little shop again. I went out of my way to look out for it and tried some back roads. It wasnt until a few years ago when it popped into my head and I thought i'd google it to see if I was going mad or had really discovered the transdimensional gas station in my hour of need.

Turns out the shop does exist. It's had a makeover since then and it's now a little londis mini shop. Instead of following the main right turn on the B road to the coast i'd actually gone straight on. I'd driven through a quaint little village that actually had this little pumping station straight out of the 1950's.

Anyway someone was looking out for me as I got fuel. However, not at the vanishing fuel station I originally thought I had. I just spent about the last 20years thinking i'd filled up at a phantom gas station. :hahazebs:
 
I wasnt sure to post this here or in the transdimensional gas station thread as it did kinda happen to me - but then it didnt.

Heading for the coast in my car with a friend about 25yrs ago. Running low on fuel and wondering if we could make it to the closest only (known to me) petrol station in the area. We were on fumes at that point and a bit worried we'd be walking the rest of the way, and all the way back with a jerry can. We rounded the next corner and saw pumps. OLD OLD fuel pumps and an old shop frontage. It seemed to be open, the door was propped ajar so I quickly pulled in and thought that was lucky i'll get some fuel. As I was getting out of the car to pump fuel an old lady came out and asked how much I wanted. I was a bit suprised but I figured they'd had a few drive offs without paying or something. All of the fuel stations i'd ever been to were self serve and I was amazed as the old lady pumped the fuel for me and took the cash at the pump.

I'd driven that way a number of times and never seen this odd little quaint fuel station before. In fact I drove the route for years afterwards and never saw this fuel station or little shop again. I went out of my way to look out for it and tried some back roads. It wasnt until a few years ago when it popped into my head and I thought i'd google it to see if I was going mad or had really discovered the transdimensional gas station in my hour of need.

Turns out the shop does exist. It's had a makeover since then and it's now a little londis mini shop. Instead of following the main right turn on the B road to the coast i'd actually gone straight on. I'd driven through a quaint little village that actually had this little pumping station straight out of the 1950's.

Anyway someone was looking out for me as I got fuel. However, not at the vanishing fuel station I originally thought I had. I just spent about the last 20years thinking i'd filled up at a phantom gas station. :hahazebs:
Ah you see now, that's how it happens. :chuckle:

When I met Techy and began visiting his mother with him we'd go past a nice-looking shopping centre which I always fancied going to.
Eventually I did get to pop in and was not disappointed.

However, I was puzzled for a long time first because it seemed to be on one side of the road and then the other, so we'd turn either right or left off the main road into it.

I didn't know the area so hadn't realised that it's sandwiched between two main roads which'd both looked the same to me, so we'd used identical entrances facing opposite directions. Durr.

And that, along with other personal misperceptions, is why I don't trust transdimensional gas station-type yarns as far as I can chuck'em. :nods:
 
When it comes to fortean things, poltergeists are one of my absolute favourites. I've been reading a lot about them for a few years, and delving into the archives for cases. So my recent 'it didn't happen to me' seemed weirdly appropriate. And hence, perhaps a bit fortean after all. Like a sort of cosmic joke.
Some colleagues and I found ourselves reccieing somewhere that we could take a large group of people to stay next year. We went to look at this massive georgian house surrounded by woods and fields and nothing and nobody. The staff say they're going home and the four of us'll be there on our own overnight. Oho that sounds spooky we jest. After returning from a meal out we sat in one of the big downstairs rooms to enjoy a beer or two... it's quite late by now.

I think I gradually realised that there was an intermittent banging noise that I could hear above the music and chat. I went into the next room to try and find it. The rational part of me thought it must be the plumbing so I ran the taps in there, without success. The ceilings were really high and the sound was reverberating. Feeling confused I drew my colleagues' attention to it. At this point 'poltergeist' had also popped up in my head - not really as a genuine suggestion, but just that the description of ludicrously loud banging noises (as made by a sledgehammer or something) is repeated so often in the reports I'd been reading. And here I am, in a spooky old house in the dark, listening to inexplicable loud banging noises that sound like someone's hitting something with a sledgehammer.

We ventured out into the dimly lit back hall, which had a weird iron spiral staircase disappearing into the high ceiling. It sounded like the noise was coming from up there. At this point I was a bit of a coward and let my colleagues go up (you could tell they didn't want to particularly). Eventually they descended... and the noise was coming from behind a locked door at the top of the stairs. What the hell.

but to cut a long story short, someone eventually managed to get a member of staff on the phone, they gave us a code for the door, and when we tinkered with the radiator in the room behind, the noise stopped. But for goodness sake. It was starting to feel like the beginning of a horror film.
 
I WAS TRAPPED IN A TIME WARP... BUT THEN I WASN'T.

The 90s - as some here will struggle to remember- could be very hedonistic. At some point during that decade long weekend, in the Summer of 1996, I'd ended up back at a strangers house. Substances had been imbibed, and music was blaring. The tone was changed suddenly when the host abruptly remembered some football match or other was on, killed the music and turned on a very loud TV. At that moment I'd just smoked a very large bong, and feeling a bit green I lurched off into a small bathroom adjoining the living room to ride out the hit away from the deafening football. As I entered a goal was scored behind me, the crowd roared and the commentator screeched "AND CANTONA SCORES!" The assembled stoners whooped. I closed the door.

It was a small bare white toilet, with a slightly faulty strip light. Shortly after I entered the light began to flicker in a disconcerting strobe effect, buzzing loudly, making the space seem very unreal. At the same time something strange happened outside the room- I heard the commentator screech again:

"AND CANTONA SCORES!"

The intonation was exactly the same. The crowd roared again, the stoners whooped. Everything was identical.

I then fell into a terrifying time loop, the light strobed and buzzed away, and I listened to the same moment of football happening over and over, the same roar of the crowd, the same goal... I gripped the sink and waited for it to end. It didn't, an eternity crawled past... I began to accept that I would be in there forever, the reality around me skipping like a record, a lost soul trapped in The Eternal Toilet Of Boredom.

After an indeterminate period some girl hammered on the door, which confused me. Perhaps she had escaped the loop? I unbolted it and stepped out to face this enigma...

... and found the room was playing FIFA 96 on a Playstation. The sounds were all samples. I wasn't at the beginning of some mind bending adventure- I was just a stoned idiot hiding in a grotty bathroom.
 
I love telling this story, but I'm pretty sure I've never told it on here before....

In high school, I lived in a small town (population at the time was around 1,000). Not a whole lot to do as an angsty teenager, but we had heard plenty of rumors about a few haunted roads around us, so occasionally we'd take a little road trip to them at night.

There was one road in particular that we actually found scary-as-hell; it just had this awful, awful vibe. Naturally, we only went to this one when we *really* wanted a scare. So it was that myself and 7-8 friends decide to head out there late one Friday night. As we approached, everyone started to get that "bad vibe feeling". Driver pulls over and only myself and J. deign to get out of the car and look around.

The road is forested on both sides but it's a bright moonlit night, so we head over and start poking around in the woods a little. All of a sudden we both hear this unearthly squealing, grinding roar close by. It makes me think of some sort of mechanical beast or something. Both J. and I run back to the car (they had naturally locked the doors after we got out) screaming, "Unlock the doors! Unlock the doors!" We both jump in and the driver hauls ass out of there. We never really talked about it after that.

Cue two years later...I'm alone in the house watching something on TV and decide to get a drink of water. Our kitchen is mostly open to the living room, but my back was turned as I was getting the water from the 'fridge. Suddenly I hear that same unearthly roar again; there's no mistaking it.

First thought: Whatever it was we heard out on the haunted road that night followed me home and has been waiting two years for the perfect time to suck out my soul.

Second thought: I left the TV on some nature special when I went to the kitchen. The special had ended and a new one started.

Realization: After I finally caught my breath and my heart resumed beating naturally, I looked over at the TV...the sound was that of a bull elk in rut, bugling. The sound is bloody otherworldly and you'll never forget it.

Might want to turn your sound down just a little....
 
Last night I came back home about 12.45am, so it was very dark and a bit starry. I parked the car and I could see a big white light in the sky, very bright. I thought 'that's a bit odd'. It was over in the direction of where they do military training, so I thought 'hmm perhaps it's a flare or something'. I was intrigued enough to stand there in the dark for a minute or two looking at it. It was completely white and bright, and large, and stationary, and totally silent. I couldn't figure it out, and I wanted to see what happened to it, so I stood there watching and peering.

After a minute or two it started moving a bit. And then two flashing lights on either side of it became very obvious. And then it got closer apparently quite quickly and I could hear the plane's engine. And then it flew over and it was (probably) Easyjet and a load of tired tourists on the way to the airport.

I told Mr E this morning, and he said where he was last night, they saw about 3 or 4 of the same, and his friend said the landing lights are so bright they light up the wall in his living room when they're shining straight in like that.

But if I had just gone in the house I would have had a nice little UFO story. I guess we were just at the right angle and there at the right time with the wind in the right direction. So now I only have a boring cautionary tale about lights in the sky :)
 
The other day I went to get showered and ready for work, and took a pair of knickers out of the drawer, my uniform and socks and stuff into the bathroom. Showered and went to get dressed and the knickers were NOT MINE. A brand I've never bought, didn't fit, everything.

I live alone. No spouse to accuse of cheating, just a dog with no access to any underwear at all.

I stared at these pants for ages. Could the have come over the fence from next door? One side is empty, the other side never hangs out her washing - she's got a tumble drier. So the mystery of the pants continued...

...until I was standing at work and remembered that my eldest daughter had been staying, looking after the dog whilst I was in Orkney and, presumably, used the washing machine, left a pair of knickers in the drum which must have got caught in a duvet case. I must have disentangled them in a daze and put them away in my drawer without realising they weren't mine.
 
Some of us can freak ourselves out even in broad daylight on a busy street.

A few years ago I was driving to work, and had reached the 'tedious stretch' of slow bumper to bumper traffic with lots of stops at traffic lights.

I became aware that there was something odd in the car in front of me. The driver was a typical young mum like all the others driving their kids to school. But what was on the back seat didn't look like an ordinary kid.

The 'Thing in the Back Seat' had a head covered in perfectly ordinary human hair... but the head was no bigger than an orange! Despite this the mum would turn around and smile as she talked to her passenger, and the Head would bob up and down, turn to look out of the window, and generally behave as if there was nothing unusual about having a cranium the size of a clenched fist.

I began to feel rather freaked about this. What was this microcephalic abnormality? I could only see the head through the back window. The body wasn't visible.

Eventually my growing mix of curiosity and horror made me decide that I simply had to see more. I took the risk of cutting into the lane of traffic beside me so I could draw level with the Head.

And it turned out to be.....


classic-topknot_110863_0-1550025890.jpg


A perfectly normal little girl with her hair tied up in a topknot! Like this example, which I shamelessly filched from Google just now.
 
Mysterious Blob: Earlier this week I was walking dog along one of the lanes, right had side fields with old hedges on the left fences an garden hedges, about 6 foot above the road level. The light was fading and it was foggy when a ghostly white blob slowly crossed the road ahead of us, it paused, hovering about a foot off the ground apparently watching us then shot over a fence. A few minutes later it was back, again it paused ahead of us then melted into the old hedge.
As we headed back to civilization (and street lights )it reappeared, this time it was closer and revealed itself to be a white cat with black tail, socks and patches on its head.

If I hadn't seen it the third time I would have had a great tale about the blob of Lippiat Lane
 
Years and years ago when I was a teen I was talking to my dad and cousin about UFOs. My dad, a firm sceptic, was telling us how anyone can mistake mundane objects for something unexplained.

We both refused to accept this.

But then, with perfect timing, he pointed out the window into the sky and said "what's that?"

We both looked and then gazed in some astonishment.

What I saw was a roughly spherical object, metallic and seemingly hovering in the air. The top of the thing had several lights attached and was rotating as the thing hovered there.

My distance eyesight was pretty good And the object was not that far away. I looked at it, trying to fathom if I was mistaken, trying to make it into something more recognizable.

My cousin was doing the same.

But no. We both agreed about it - it was a metallic sphere with a series of rotating lights in the top. Almost a cliché UFO.

But then my dad said "it's a helicopter" - and instantly I could see that was exactly what it was.

it was traveling quite slowly toward us and so looked to be hovering. The rotating blades were reflecting the setting sun and looked like flashing lights.

Since then I've always taken the most convinced eyewitness testimony with a pinch of salt
 
Mysterious Blob: Earlier this week I was walking dog along one of the lanes, right had side fields with old hedges on the left fences an garden hedges, about 6 foot above the road level. The light was fading and it was foggy when a ghostly white blob slowly crossed the road ahead of us, it paused, hovering about a foot off the ground apparently watching us then shot over a fence. A few minutes later it was back, again it paused ahead of us then melted into the old hedge.
As we headed back to civilization (and street lights )it reappeared, this time it was closer and revealed itself to be a white cat with black tail, socks and patches on its head.

If I hadn't seen it the third time I would have had a great tale about the blob of Lippiat Lane
I have had a VERY similar happening! In the twilight on a foggy evening, seeing a white 'something', but very oddly shaped and trying to work out what the hell it could be.

It was a black and white cow, on the other side of the hedge but with only it's white bits visible because the black shaded into the twilight. Because the cow kept raising it's (black with white markings) head, I was seeing a fragmented white shape going up and down next to a weirdly shaped white blob (cow body, with black patches).

It is such an odd feeling when you're staring at something with your brain desperately trying to make sense of what it is seeing and coming up with nothing! The only reason I wasn't running for home was that the dog was behaving normally, as though this was something we encountered every day. Which, of course, we do. Just not in the fog and dark.
 
Following on from my near experience on Lippiat lane. My friends were walking along said lane on a misty morning ( with my dog!) when they saw what appeared to be a Swan sitting in the road, on getting closer they realised it was too small for a swan so decided it must be a duck that has been injured and left lying in the road.

Moving cautiously towards the poor injured beast so as not to frighten it (whilst restraining the dog) it suddenly wiggled about and resolved into a large white cat with odd black markings which disappeared into the mist.

Neither of them can explain why they thought it was a duck or a swan. I blame the mist.
 
Years ago I was in a shopping center and I saw a teen girl hurrying down the escalator with a store security guard chasing after her.
I didn't think much of it untill about an hour later when I saw the same girl hurrying down the escalator, being chased by the same security guard. Time loop?
It wasn't untill years later that I watched the tv-show The Bridge where that exact scene happened. I don't know if what I saw was rehearsals or if they just hid the cameras really well.t
that reminded me about yesterday early evening I was home with the dog (wife and kids gone down the country) and I looked out the window and a couple passed, him in front and her behind carrying a pizza. I was distracted playing with the dog and I think about 1-2 minutes later I looked out the window again and the same couple again her behind him exactly as before carrying the pizza box. It struck me as weird but I suppose they could have doubled back for some unknown reason and then passed again into our cul de sac. I would have thought it would have caught my eye though.
 
This is not strictly a It Happened To Me, Then I Realised It Hadn't story, but it does tally with some of the above accounts in terms of our capacity for self-delusion, particularly where wishful thinking is concerned.

I was in a British pub one evening with a friend. We were standing right at the back of the room nursing our pints. It was one of those self-consciously `modern` and slightly hipsterish kind of places. I noticed, that there was, afixed to the wall, a gobstopper dispenser. There was a sticker on it clearly saying: GOBSTOPPERS* It was a glass cone shaped thing were you could see the gobbstoppers lying temptingly in the glass container - and these could be yours by placing money into a slot.

I had a nostalgic image of putting the hard sphere into my mouth and how its aniseedy taste would go nicely with my beer. I fished out a twenty pence piece and put it into the slot.

`I haven't had one of these for...oh, ages!` I said to my slightly bemused friend.

No sooner had I shoved the item into my mouth than I almost spat it out. It was not a gobstopper - it was chocolate - sickly sweet gooey chocolate - surrounded by a thin sugar coated shell. It did not go well with beer.

I glanced back, indignantly, at the dispenser only to notice this time that it had nothing on it indicating that the contents were Gobstoppers - indeed nothing was mentioned at all (you were expected to somehow know that it would be chocolate). My wishful thinking brain had confabulated the sign!

* For the benefit of Johnny Fotreigner and the Young Generation: a gobstopper was a kind of sweet, the size and shape of a big marble, made of hard sugar with an aniseed flavour. The idea was that you couldn't speak whilst sucking on it - hence the name.
 
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Following on from my near experience on Lippiat lane. My friends were walking along said lane on a misty morning ( with my dog!) when they saw what appeared to be a Swan sitting in the road, on getting closer they realised it was too small for a swan so decided it must be a duck that has been injured and left lying in the road.

Moving cautiously towards the poor injured beast so as not to frighten it (whilst restraining the dog) it suddenly wiggled about and resolved into a large white cat with odd black markings which disappeared into the mist.

Neither of them can explain why they thought it was a duck or a swan. I blame the mist.
Yeah, Im quoting myself. Don't care.

Back to the murky Lippiat lane.

One of my dog walking friends quoted above, said to me in passing " Did I tell you about the pig that chased us down the lane a few weeks ago?"

Apparently there is a large sow who lives behind the cottages who wandered off looking for new friends. She tried to make their acquaintance, by trotting down the lane after them. The nipped into the allotments and shut the gate.

Its not usual to keep pigs in back gardens around here (infact many of us have covenants that forbid livestock keeping). so the pigs existence was not generally known at this point

Maybe a general low level weirdness field surrounds the area.
 
Yeah, Im quoting myself. Don't care.

Back to the murky Lippiat lane.

One of my dog walking friends quoted above, said to me in passing " Did I tell you about the pig that chased us down the lane a few weeks ago?"

Apparently there is a large sow who lives behind the cottages who wandered off looking for new friends. She tried to make their acquaintance, by trotting down the lane after them. The nipped into the allotments and shut the gate.

Its not usual to keep pigs in back gardens around here (infact many of us have covenants that forbid livestock keeping). so the pigs existence was not generally known at this point

Maybe a general low level weirdness field surrounds the area.
The sow's owners need to secure their garden to stop it roaming or they'll lose their pigkeeping registration. (One assumes the owners have one as all owners of pigs in Britain, even pet or 'teacup' pigs, need to register with the Animal and Plant Health Agency.)
It's big deal because of the danger from highly infectious pig diseases.

I know a lot about this. :(
 
One of my dog walking friends quoted above, said to me in passing " Did I tell you about the pig that chased us down the lane a few weeks ago?"

Apparently there is a large sow who lives behind the cottages who wandered off looking for new friends. She tried to make their acquaintance, by trotting down the lane after them.
Sounds like the pig is lonely, or maybe bored (as opposed to boared . . .).
Maybe you could play a little footie with her if it's you that sees her next time.
Carry a football . . . and disinfectant . . .
 
This happened to me a few years back when I was living in Wales.

There was a circular walk that I did a couple of times a week and on this particular day as I started up the hill I noted to my astonishment that a house had been built at the top. I could clearly see the white painted pine end (what the gable end is known as in Wales) nestled among a small group of trees so I could see it was orientated the perfect way to get the views.

I was wondering who the hell had managed to get permission to build in that particuar spot and was getting a bit indignant and muttering to myself about back handers to a corrupt local council (ie getting jealous I've always wanted to build my own house lol).

The lane was betweeen steep banks and there was a bend at one point which hid it from view for a bit but by the time I could see it again I'd decided it must have come under the regulations for the farmer building a home for an essential worker or a member of his familly ... but there again how did they build it so quickly even a kit house couldn't have gone up that quickly I'd have noted the foundation works on my last walk earlier that week.

So then I moved from jealously to excitement ... I must be seeing one of those fantom houses that's the only explaination! Oh er ... I kept my eye on it as I got nearer looking forward to seeing what the rest of it would be like!!!!! Then the white paint started to gradually turn blue which was even more spooky and quite thrilling in a way!

Damn and bloody blast it ... all I'd been seeing was a slow moving white cloud behind a couple of crossed tree branches so not a house and not magic blue paint but blue sky.

I was well and truly gutted :(
 
Here's a good one from my father, an avid fly fisherman when he was younger:

Dad was working his way up a stream when heavy brush along the bank forced him to cross over to the other side. As he hopped from one rock to another, something grabbed him by the pants leg and tried to drag him into the water! He managed to regain his balance, but whatever had hold of him continued to yank repeatedly.

So, did he narrowly escape falling victim to a mischievous or malevolent water spirit?

Nope! A green branch caught in the current oscillated back and forth.
 
Last week, lozzocking between jobs at the work depot, I started hearing tapping coming from behind me.
Everything was quiet so the taps were distinctive.

Recently having been treated to a demonstration of old-fashioned Spiritualist tapping, I was about to attempt communication with a One tap for 'no', two taps for 'yes'! suggestion when I realised the ancient depot radio was on with the volume turned down.

Reached over, switched it off, no more tapping. Case closed. :chuckle:
 
Just had a good one when driving this morning. I glanced up out of the window on my right, and for a fraction of a second thought I saw a large oval shaped object hanging in the blue sky.

I quickly realised it was not a UFO but instead a long, streaked, saucer shaped bird crap. :hahazebs:
Driving a car full of kids one day, all of us chatting happily, I suddenly sneezed just as a huge bird crap splattered all over the windscreen. Kids howled with laughter. :chuckle:
 
It might be the cheese fumes affecting all and sundry, do folks get a sudden craving for pickled onions? :)

(that's if I'm guessing your location correctly ;) )
No, main smell at moment is slurry as is spraying season. Last autumn witness a group of proper walker ( long Socks, cagouls, sticks, maps etc) striding diagonally over a field where there is a permitted path ( most of us go round edge) as the spraying tractor turned in, you’ve never seen walkers move so fast.

l’m on the south west side of Bath, th forgotten people.
 
Here in my part of the world on Monday and Tuesday there was a smell of onions in the air (not cooked but raw onions) driving between sites yesterday took me through country lanes where I could see they were harvesting leeks mystery solved
 
Washing up whilst it was dark outside. I saw a flicker of movement at about head height out in the garden, and for a moment I wondered what the devil it might be. Then it occurred to me that it was probably a cat walking along our back fence. I don't know for certain as it was very dark out there, but I reckon that fits the bill.

Or I've just misinterpreted some major Fortean occurrence.
 
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