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Weird Conversations & Interactions Involving Mistaken Identity

Hammersss

Hammersss

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Sep 30, 2017
Messages
26
About 30 years ago I would have been 16 years old, I remember a very strange conversation I had with a small child who saw me and a group of my friends walking past his house.
We were in a different part of the town, maybe a mile from where I lived, and I remember it was a winters night.
We were walking along probably chatting away when a child who was probably about 11 years old called out my name!
I looked over, I had never been to the house before, but he knew my name!
He asked me if I had finished with the the Sinclair Spectrum games he had lent to me a while ago, he then proceeded to role off a list of games that were familiar to me at the time I had last used my computer. His dad then came out and called him
I was so shocked I just told him I would drop them off to him.
I definitely had never seen him before, I had never been to his house before and I did not know his father.
It would have been about 2 years before that I was playing games on that Sinclair Spectrum, which would have made that kid about 9.
I would never have borrowed any games from a 9 year old child.
The story has never added up!
 
Maybe the kid found out who you were from a mutual friend who knew you had these games, so he tried it on - a little prank?
 
We have threads somewhere about this, where people have been addressed by strangers who know their names. I've posted in them.

One of my kids as a young teenager was assailed by a toddler who called her 'Mum' and gripped her leg firmly until its father prised it off! (The father was baffled and apologetic. He said Daughter did not resemble the mother and anyway she was much too young!)

My other daughter was walking down the street approaching a woman coming the other way carrying a baby. As they passed, the baby called out Daughter's slightly unusual name and made a lunge for her, nearly falling out of its surprised mother's arms.

(Is one thread called 'Hearing Your Name Called' or somesuch, or is that a different subject? It's very interesting though.)
 
Hammersss said:
About 30 years ago I would have been 16 years old, I remember a very strange conversation I had with a small child who saw me and a group of my friends walking past his house.
We were in a different part of the town, maybe a mile from where I lived, and I remember it was a winters night.
We were walking along probably chatting away when a child who was probably about 11 years old called out my name!
I looked over, I had never been to the house before, but he knew my name!
He asked me if I had finished with the the Sinclair Spectrum games he had lent to me a while ago, he then proceeded to role off a list of games that were familiar to me at the time I had last used my computer. His dad then came out and called him
I was so shocked I just told him I would drop them off to him.
I definitely had never seen him before, I had never been to his house before and I did not know his father.
It would have been about 2 years before that I was playing games on that Sinclair Spectrum, which would have made that kid about 9.
I would never have borrowed any games from a 9 year old child.
The story has never added up!
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Did you exchange any Speccy games with a friend who had a younger brother? If so, it's quite conceivable that he would have played them with his sibling and mentioned that these were <your name's > games or that he'd lent some games to you. Maybe he'd then given his Spectrum to his younger brother and told him to ask <your name> for some games he lent you to be returned. He could have pointed you out to his brother in the street, so the younger boy knew who you were.
I had a huge collection of Speccy games and sometimes lost track of who I'd lent or swapped some with.
 
Hi all, I rarely post but love reading your experiences. I thought I would add my 'odd' experience of something similar in regards to having conversations with folks that seem to know you. My experience takes place probably about 25 years ago if not a little longer and the conversation was via a telephone. It went much like this.......

Telephone rings, I answer and say hello. The male caller says "Hello Bloop, is your Fred there?"

I reply "No, why did he say he was calling?"

Caller says " No, there's been a bit of trouble. Your Fred and Freda has had a major arguement at home with your mum and Jim and he has stormed out and taken Freda's dad's car. The thing is, he has been drinking heavily and isn't fit to drive and now we cant find him. Can you call me if you hear from him please?"

Me, (starting to get worried and a little confused about the situation as my brother Fred isn't a drinker and he wasnt the type of person to argue not in a big way anyhow,) made all the right noises and agreed to get a message back to the person if I heard from my brother.

I rang my mum's number to see what had happened and lo behold who answered the phone but my brother! Totally stone cold sober, happy as larry and with Freda. I told him about the phone call I had just received and when he asked who it was that had rung me, I realised I had no idea!I also had no idea how they had my number! I presumed it was Freda's brother. Fred and Freda had only been together a short while, think a few weeks rather than months, and as I didn't live at home I didnt see her to talk to very often so hadn't much idea of what family she had. My brother said Freda had a sister but didn't have a brother and her father couldn't drive so didn't have a car.

To this day I have no idea who rang me that night, but whomever it was knew my real name and that of my brother, his now wife and that of my mother's partner at the time. Very few folks had my phone number and it was ex directory. My husband and I only gave the number to our immediate family and other neccessaries - work, dr's etc and had only had the landline fitted a short time before this happened.

I have often wondered if the 'Fred' that got drunk and took his father in laws car got home safe that night, I hope he did. Would have loved the caller to call back and let me know :)
 
That sounds like a crossover between alternate universes!
Or somebody was pranking you...
 
You never quite know what children are thinking.
Some years ago at a shopping centre a special needs child rushed over and gave me a hug, saying to her father " This is my teacher". He was very embarrassed and apologised as I had never seen the child before,
The odd thing was at the school where my friend was principal I often did get called to work with special needs children as I had trained to do so.
 
Iris said:
The odd thing was at the school where my friend was principal I often did get called to work with special needs children as I had trained to do so.
Click to expand...
You therefore somehow exude a manner/style/empathy that the girl instantly recognised. It will primarily have been eye contact (engagement/duration, and pupillary dilation).

Conversely, please tell me (honestly, if so) that your eyes did not meet, prior to her suddenly hugging you. It would make the encounter instantly ultra-fascinating.

However, prior to us then categorising it as a genuine aphysically-catalysed tele-empathic incident, we would need to eliminate:
  • Appearance. Would you say that your clothing style/colour was in keeping with what you'd expect to wear in a classroom setting? Especially footwear (I'll come back to that). I'm also going to confidently-predict (and please, do correct this guess) that you were not wearing any black clothing
  • Voice. Were you speaking? Could she have heard your speech rhythm/speed/pitch? If behind / near you (you can see what I'm considering)
  • Movement/bearing/gait. Might you walk and make gestures like a teacher?
I'd love the encounter to have taken place at a blind corner-point at the side of a building. With zero meta-analysis gap-time for the special needs girl to have 'pinged' your profession.

And for us to prove, somehow, that you tele-cerebrally emit teacher tribe-vibe, that she was intrinsically drawn to.

(nb we would also have to eliminate the possibility that she grabs&greets every (or many) strangers that she encounters, as her 'teacher'.....ah, if only we could place people (or their projections) into petri dishes and wormeries, therein to define& discern their absolute elemental essences)
 
It was coming up a ramp into the shopping centre from the car park. I was with my husband and I don't recall talking as we went. I may have glanced briefly at the child but didn't make eye contact.
I don't recall what I was wearing but it was probably something with colours. I always got on well with special needs children and there often seemed to be a mental breakthrough when they were ready to improve.
 
This reminds me of about a year ago I got a voicemail from some company that addressed me by my name saying that they received my message about grading and moving dirt on my property. I never called this company. I’ve never heard of them. I don’t even own property. I have no idea how they got my name and number.
 
SurrealKangaroo89 said:
This reminds me of about a year ago I got a voicemail from some company that addressed me by my name saying that they received my message about grading and moving dirt on my property. I never called this company. I’ve never heard of them. I don’t even own property. I have no idea how they got my name and number.
Click to expand...
They bought your name and number. If they were smart they only bought the info on people who owned houses. But they could have bought everyone in a 10 mile radius from their office. If they keep making calls, someone is going to remember that they wanted grading done. You're right, it's not a smart way to drum up business.
 
Or someone with the same name as you had contacted them for a job but forgotten to leave their contact telephone number. So the company, not wanting to lose out on the business, looked up the name and found your number instead.

This sort of happened to me a week ago. Someone called me and adressed me by name. They then asked if I still drove for Uber. I said I have never driven for Uber. After that the person apologised and explained that they were from the Police and were looking for a person with the same name as me. So they obviously knew the name of the person but not their telephone number and were just working through everyone with the same name.
 
This pales in comparison as my name wasn't known, no details of my life were described, but it's a telephone conversation that stayed with me as being extremely odd...

When I was a student, living with friends in Sheffield I was once awoken in the morning by the telephone ringing. It was right next to my bed so I answered before my housemates. The voice on the other line announced that he was with the police force and that there had been reports of a stolen silver Toyota parked on my driveway. I was young and frightened and sleepy, so I jumped out of bed saying I'd check, leaving the (corded) phone on the bedside table.

I went outside in my pyjamas, suddenly realising that we didn't have a driveway, we didn't even have a front garden! We lived in a mid terrace in the city. I looked up and down the street to try to spot a car that looked like the one he'd described but couldn't see anything. So I climbed back up to my attic room, having been gone a good long while at this point and assuming the voice on the line would have hung up.

He was still there and I explained that I didn't have a driveway and I couldn't see a car like that on the road. He said "Well, you sound trustworthy" and ended the call. I was left feeling so confused. Surely the police wouldn't have called in advance to warn a potential car thief! And wouldn't have let me go because I sounded 'trustworthy'! So, even if it was a wrong number I still don't understand the call.

I know you'll be thinking it was probably a prank from a friend, but I only used the landline to call my parents, I don't think my housemates ever bothered with it, so no one had that number. And they would have called my mobile to prank me, surely. If it was a prank from a stranger then they really stuck with it, holding the line for so long and it just didn't feel like a prank. It's puzzled me for years!
 
Rabbit Will Run said:
This pales in comparison as my name wasn't known, no details of my life were described, but it's a telephone conversation that stayed with me as being extremely odd...

When I was a student, living with friends in Sheffield I was once awoken in the morning by the telephone ringing. It was right next to my bed so I answered before my housemates. The voice on the other line announced that he was with the police force and that there had been reports of a stolen silver Toyota parked on my driveway. I was young and frightened and sleepy, so I jumped out of bed saying I'd check, leaving the (corded) phone on the bedside table.

I went outside in my pyjamas, suddenly realising that we didn't have a driveway, we didn't even have a front garden! We lived in a mid terrace in the city. I looked up and down the street to try to spot a car that looked like the one he'd described but couldn't see anything. So I climbed back up to my attic room, having been gone a good long while at this point and assuming the voice on the line would have hung up.

He was still there and I explained that I didn't have a driveway and I couldn't see a car like that on the road. He said "Well, you sound trustworthy" and ended the call. I was left feeling so confused. Surely the police wouldn't have called in advance to warn a potential car thief! And wouldn't have let me go because I sounded 'trustworthy'! So, even if it was a wrong number I still don't understand the call.ange one.

I know you'll be thinking it was probably a prank from a friend, but I only used the landline to call my parents, I don't think my housemates ever bothered with it, so no one had that number. And they would have called my mobile to prank me, surely. If it was a prank from a stranger then they really stuck with it, holding the line for so long and it just didn't feel like a prank. It's puzzled me for years!
Click to expand...


this is a strange one. if it was a prank, it seems kind of pointless, and actually inconvenienced them more than you since they had to hang on the phone for no payoff. certainly wasn't the police. not how they would deal with this. so just a random, pointless prank call.
 
There are prank callers who get off on pretending to be authority figures, directing people to act out their orders which might even be really dodgy. There's a recent film that was a combination of a lot of cases called Compliance that makes for very uncomfortable viewing.
 
living-in-ithilien said:
this is a strange one. if it was a prank, it seems kind of pointless, and actually inconvenienced them more than you since they had to hang on the phone for no payoff. certainly wasn't the police. not how they would deal with this. so just a random, pointless prank call.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a stoner student prank to me?
 
Years ago the phone rang and and a familiar but not often heard voice of one of my mum's sisters, Pat, greeted me "Hello, love, its Pat. Is your mum there?"

"Oh hi. Yeah just a second"

I hand the phone to mother dearest, telling her it's her Pat.

Mum takes the phone and swaps the usual greetings and pleasantries and responds to the question "how have you been?" with "Well its just this toilet business getting me down" and continued for several minutes discussing her problems with constipation. Then there was a pause.

"Oh. Ok. Sorry about that. Bye"

It was a wrong number.
 
I had a very similar thing happen to me, Gattino! Several years ago when I lived down south, the house phone rang. I beat off the attendant small children, and answered, and a man said 'Hi, Cat, is himself at home?' I said no, himself was at work. Man said what a pity, continued to chat, he asked how the children were doing - I was tired, run down, largely parenting alone and was a long way into the conversation before it struck me that I didn't know who was calling. We were too far into the chat for me to ask, and I assumed (because it sounded like him), that it was my partner's boss.

So we talked a bit longer, and it was only when the man said, after about five minutes casual chat, 'well, tell him when he gets in that we're going shooting this weekend if he fancies bringing his gun along.'

Partner had never shot, didn't own a gun and was quite 'anti' shooting. And it was only at THIS point that I realised something was wrong. I sort of made excuses and, in a very British way, sidled out of the conversation. I often wonder what happened when 'himself' was finally contacted and his wife evinced no knowledge of the five minute chat about the family that she'd apparently held...
 
When my oldest was a teenager she loved to talk on the phone.
One day it rang and she answered and went on to talk for half an hour.
After she finished I asked who it had been and she said that it was a wrong number.
 
My late father would occasionally do the same thing. I recall one incident in particular from my teen years. A Roman Catholic priest who shared our surname lived in our community but he was no relation to us. One evening the phone rang and my father answered it. According to my father, the caller asked if he was speaking to Fr Tabby. For reasons best known to himself, my father said yes. (For the record, my father was never a member of the clergy of any faith community). The man introduced himself and said he had recently been elected president of the local branch of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood. My father congratulated him and went on to ask questions about the organisation and its activities. They chatted for at least twenty minutes before my father finally revealed the truth. The caller invited him to give the opening prayer at the group's next meeting in a few weeks' time. At this point my father was compelled to point out that while some people might refer to him as Fr Tabby he was not in fact a priest.

My father said the caller was quite apologetic and they both had a good laugh. The caller showed far more generosity of spirit than I would have done in the same circumstances. It's a wonder the caller didn't give my father a good ticking off for having wasted his time.

Both my parents were boisterous extroverts with a knack for striking up conversations with total strangers, so this behaviour was very much in keeping with my father's character. Neither my sister nor I inherited this trait it seems.
 
One New Year's Eve I went to bed at half eleven or so as I was up early for work next morning. When the fireworks started my Staffie cross, who was mortally afraid of bangs, jumped on the bed and woke me up. The phone then rang and I answered it, half asleep.

It was a posh lady wishing me and my femily a Heppy New Yair. As I couldn't think who this might be I said oh yes, thank you, and a happy new year to you, my dear!

She went on a bit and I said ''old on, let me just move the dog out of my face!'

She replied 'Don't be silly, you don't HAVE a dog! Go and get your father!'

So I knew it was a wrong number and told her so, but she said 'No I DON'T have the wrong number, Toby! (or Crispin or Algernon or whatever her foxhunting grandspawn was called, I forget.)

Stop being so silly and fetch your father!'

This went on for a bit until I realised I didn't have to placate her, I could just go back to sleep; so I put the phone down, covered it with a pillow in case it rang again (it did) and tried to settle down again.
 
bloop said:
Hi all, I rarely post but love reading your experiences. I thought I would add my 'odd' experience of something similar in regards to having conversations with folks that seem to know you. My experience takes place probably about 25 years ago if not a little longer and the conversation was via a telephone. It went much like this.......

Telephone rings, I answer and say hello. The male caller says "Hello Bloop, is your Fred there?"

I reply "No, why did he say he was calling?"

Caller says " No, there's been a bit of trouble. Your Fred and Freda has had a major arguement at home with your mum and Jim and he has stormed out and taken Freda's dad's car. The thing is, he has been drinking heavily and isn't fit to drive and now we cant find him. Can you call me if you hear from him please?"

Me, (starting to get worried and a little confused about the situation as my brother Fred isn't a drinker and he wasnt the type of person to argue not in a big way anyhow,) made all the right noises and agreed to get a message back to the person if I heard from my brother.

I rang my mum's number to see what had happened and lo behold who answered the phone but my brother! Totally stone cold sober, happy as larry and with Freda. I told him about the phone call I had just received and when he asked who it was that had rung me, I realised I had no idea!I also had no idea how they had my number! I presumed it was Freda's brother. Fred and Freda had only been together a short while, think a few weeks rather than months, and as I didn't live at home I didnt see her to talk to very often so hadn't much idea of what family she had. My brother said Freda had a sister but didn't have a brother and her father couldn't drive so didn't have a car.

To this day I have no idea who rang me that night, but whomever it was knew my real name and that of my brother, his now wife and that of my mother's partner at the time. Very few folks had my phone number and it was ex directory. My husband and I only gave the number to our immediate family and other neccessaries - work, dr's etc and had only had the landline fitted a short time before this happened.

I have often wondered if the 'Fred' that got drunk and took his father in laws car got home safe that night, I hope he did. Would have loved the caller to call back and let me know :)
Click to expand...

That reminds me when one of my aunties' mother died. I was about 15. At the time, we were living in the same suburbs and auntie Pierrette parents were elderly and had came to live with her and my uncle Guy, my Dad's elder brother. The old lady was very sick and one day, we received a phone call, like this:
'Allo Monique, my mother has died." And my mum offered her condolescences, etc. My mum put down the phone and, maybe the day after, my auntie rang my mum to tell us her mum passed away that day. Her dad died two or three weeks later.
Overlapse with a parallel universe? Some kind of weird time slip?
Anyway, someone named pierrette had a very sick mum who died nearly the same day as my auntie's mum. That Pierrette knew a Monique who had a very close phone mumber to ours! What are the chance of that?
The world and especially reality are just unfathomable.
 
A few years ago, one evening, the land line phone rang and this bloke started in with a whole barrage of abuse and threats. It appears that someone had dobbed him in to the police over something or other, and he wasn't happy.

This rant went on for a while and then he said something like 'and that dog of yours won't stop me'. Now, I don't have a dog. So I knew this person had the wrong target. I do have an idea of who he was talking about.

So I told him that he was having a go at the wrong person, but if he really wanted I would meet him round the back, I would have a long sharp knife so he had better bring one too. And only one of use would walk away.

After wishing him a good evening, it may be his last, I rang off.

But to this day I don't know who it was or how he had my ex-directory phone number.

He never turned up for the meeting.

INT21
 
escargot said:
We have threads somewhere about this, where people have been addressed by strangers who know their names. I've posted in them. ...
Click to expand...

My guess is that you're thinking of this thread:

Doppelgänger
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/doppelgänger.4461/

... in which there are multiple reports of some stranger knowing one's name, leading to the presumption one must have a doppelgänger.

The flip side version - reports in which 'you' mis-identify a stranger, can also be found in this thread:

Strangers Who Seem Familiar?
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/strangers-who-seem-familiar.46666/
 
escargot said:
(Is one thread called 'Hearing Your Name Called' or somesuch, or is that a different subject? It's very interesting though.)
Click to expand...

Different subject ... That thread is focused on hearing the sound of one's own name in general or out of the blue, as contrasted with having some stranger address you by name.
 
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