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Weird IHTM Tales From Reddit & Other Sites

uair01 said:
A review of an AI book on Goodreads (not me, not mine):

Heh, I opened this up to find the ISBN and found dried blood all over the pages, suggesting I read this during my cocaine-intensive period back in 1999-2000. That's fitting, since cocaine and the study of artificial intelligence seem to enjoy several similarities -- incredible expense as a barrier to entry, exciting short-term effects (see: euphoria, A* search) but letdowns upon prolonged use (see: addiction, combinatorial explosions), and they've both ruined plenty of fine careers in computer science. We used this book for CS4600, but I only got halfway though that semester and remember little of it (see: careers in computer science, aforementioned negative effects of cocaine on). I went back and read most of this in 2003, and found solid coverage of most everything useful I'm aware of from AI.
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That's... a lot
 
MercuryCrest said:
This is a nice recent one from Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ycue3l
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Good find, doesn't seem to have degenerated into the fictional 'beginning/middle/here comes the shock ending...!' blatantly fictional tales that unfortunately plague otherwise decent Reddit paranormal threads.

I like the early one about the guy in the suit walking into the house, not least because everyone commenting seems to have missed the obvious question - was the front door locked....?
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Good find, doesn't seem to have degenerated into the fictional 'beginning/middle/here comes the shock ending...!' blatantly fictional tales that unfortunately plague otherwise decent Reddit paranormal threads.

I like the early one about the guy in the suit walking into the house, not least because everyone commenting seems to have missed the obvious question - was the front door locked....?
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I once heard some noise at the front door late at night like someone was having trouble with the key. My mother was out for the evening, so I went to help her. To my surprise it was a typical looking teenager who calmly waited until I asked what he wanted, whereupon he apologized and walked away. As with the people in the Reddit story, I just assumed he was high or severely confused, and laughed it off, but a neighbor saw it, was convinced it was an attempted burglary, and called the police. I'm assuming something similar for the Reddit stranger.
 
ChasFink said:
I once heard some noise at the front door late at night like someone was having trouble with the key. My mother was out for the evening, so I went to help her. To my surprise it was a typical looking teenager who calmly waited until I asked what he wanted, whereupon he apologized and walked away. As with the people in the Reddit story, I just assumed he was high or severely confused, and laughed it off, but a neighbor saw it, was convinced it was an attempted burglary, and called the police. I'm assuming something similar for the Reddit stranger.
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Good shout, I know if I wanted to enter a property without permission then wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase is a brilliant ploy because we are seemingly hardwired to respect such people. In a sense, it is like walking a dog, no-one stops to ask why you are walking down the street or hanging out in the park at any time of night or day (*)

* not condoning stalking or anything else illegal...!
 
Here's a good one, not so much "it happened to me" as "it happened to Michael Swords' family".

For clarity, Swords is a veteran UFO researcher and for a long time ran an interesting blog on various Forteana. Before retiring it a couple of years back he described one tale from his own family, which he described as "not only inexplicable but the mere fact that it happened threatens to discombobulate almost any model of reality one chooses to lean upon".

This is the story of "Helen Lane", a few paragraphs down in the post.
 
BS3 said:
Here's a good one, not so much "it happened to me" as "it happened to Michael Swords' family".

For clarity, Swords is a veteran UFO researcher and for a long time ran an interesting blog on various Forteana. Before retiring it a couple of years back he described one tale from his own family, which he described as "not only inexplicable but the mere fact that it happened threatens to discombobulate almost any model of reality one chooses to lean upon".

This is the story of "Helen Lane", a few paragraphs down in the post.
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Excellent case. Worth copying the whole post as well.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Good shout, I know if I wanted to enter a property without permission then wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase is a brilliant ploy because we are seemingly hardwired to respect such people. In a sense, it is like walking a dog, no-one stops to ask why you are walking down the street or hanging out in the park at any time of night or day (*)

* not condoning stalking or anything else illegal...!
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Also note that if you want to enter any office or other workplace without permission, then walk confidently in carrying a clipboard or sheaf of paper. If anyone stops you, just say you are 'going to meet Michael.' There is always a Mike in places like this.

It will buy you at least twenty minutes of poking-around time, and possibly a cup of coffee.
 
catseye said:
Also note that if you want to enter any office or other workplace without permission, then walk confidently in carrying a clipboard or sheaf of paper. If anyone stops you, just say you are 'going to meet Michael.' There is always a Mike in places like this.

It will buy you at least twenty minutes of poking-around time, and possibly a cup of coffee.
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I discovered the same trick in my brief stint working in an office (normally had a proper job) - if I got bored or wanted to go to vending machine in a hallway, or wanted a break, I'd pick up a clipboard or some paper, and walk about a bit.
 
Carl Grove said:
Excellent case. Worth copying the whole post as well.
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What I particularly like about it, other than the general air of no-nonsense 'credibility', is that it wraps up several Fortean phenomena - road ghosts and phantom hitchikers; the sort of premonitory apparition that features in Gaelic tradition; the Faery-like 'parallel reality' - in one not-so-neat package.

What with the deserted police station I was reminded of nothing so much as Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. Which is, I suppose, the inheritor of Gaelic traditions of the paranormal in a roundabout kind of way.
 
catseye said:
Also note that if you want to enter any office or other workplace without permission, then walk confidently in carrying a clipboard or sheaf of paper. If anyone stops you, just say you are 'going to meet Michael.' There is always a Mike in places like this.

It will buy you at least twenty minutes of poking-around time, and possibly a cup of coffee.
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Back in the 90s I was asked to go with another engineer to check out a possible gas leak in a church in town. We got there as quickly as we could and rang the bell and the chap who answered said he didn't know anything about it but asked us to come in and have a look around. There were a few people about in the main church and in the church offices but no-one even asked who we were. After a good check in every room we couldn't find anything so thought we had better contact our office to find out a bit more -we then found we had gone to the wrong church a few hundred yards up the road. No- one asked for any ID although, in fairness, in all the years I was Corgi and latterly Gassafe registered I don't recall anyone ever asking to see my ID card.
 
Back in the early-90s a ’burglary’ took place 5 star Chewton Glen hotel in Hampshire. Some men in overalls entered the reception area during daylight and started carrying out all the antique furniture and fittings. Nobody stopped them. Loaded it all into a white van and drove off….
 
I work is Argos as I’ve said before and when we had our own shops we had small selection of white goods on the shop floor. In one branch people came in in hi-viz jackets and just went off with a fridge freezer. No one realised they shouldn’t be there.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Good shout, I know if I wanted to enter a property without permission then wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase is a brilliant ploy because we are seemingly hardwired to respect such people.
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Conversely I remember a bit of a Father Brown story where the Authorities were called to a disturbance in the area and the knock on a door is answered by someone in a dressing gown. The assumption was that he was the home-owner - not the villain who had murdered the real home-owner and hung his body on a coat hook behind the door.
 
Bad Bungle said:
Conversely I remember a bit of a Father Brown story where the Authorities were called to a disturbance in the area and the knock on a door is answered by someone in a dressing gown. The assumption was that he was the home-owner - not the villain who had murdered the real home-owner and hung his body on a coat hook behind the door.
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Book or tv?
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Back in the early-90s a ’burglary’ took place 5 star Chewton Glen hotel in Hampshire. Some men in overalls entered the reception area during daylight and started carrying out all the antique furniture and fittings. Nobody stopped them. Loaded it all into a white van and drove off….
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I've heard a few stories of robbers who cased a house and waited until the owners were on vacation, then showed up with a moving truck and cleaned them out. Of course, the neighbors didn't think to question anything.

Don't know if those are just urban legends, but interesting none-the-less.
 
MercuryCrest said:
I've heard a few stories of robbers who cased a house and waited until the owners were on vacation, then showed up with a moving truck and cleaned them out. Of course, the neighbors didn't think to question anything.

Don't know if those are just urban legends, but interesting none-the-less.
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lt happens:

“A WA woman who allegedly used a removal van to steal the entire contents of a home in Bunbury is facing almost 150 charges over a statewide crime spree.

Maria Gallea is accused of committing a number of burglaries in Port Hedland, Perth, and Bunbury between May and October 2015.

The 41-year-old from South Bunbury has been charged with 149 offences that include stealing personal information, electronic goods and homewares.

Police allege she also stole mail and used the identities of her alleged victims to commit several frauds.

Constable Michelle Widmer said one of Gallea's most brazen alleged crimes involved clearing out the entire contents of a Bunbury home using a removal van.

"Witnesses have seen the van pulling up to addresses without realising that the houses were being burgled," Constable Widmer said.

"A couple of the witnesses I spoke to, a lot of them said they didn't know their neighbours very well and just assumed that they were moving out and didn't take a lot of notice at the time." “

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02...r-accused-charged-over-wa-crime-spree/7133646

maximus otter
 
I worked in an office - a bloke used to come in regularly, walk down the length of the office, make himself a cup of coffee at the machine and then walk out. Nobody turned a hair.

After a couple of years I asked about it and it turned out that he was a sales rep, calling in on his way past, stopping to use the loo and make a coffee. Some of the older people knew who he was and didn't react, and so that non-reaction just permeated down through, so that even when the older people left, the younger ones (despite not knowing who he was) had learned not to react.

And my next door neighbours (VERY big house, very posh people) were burgled one day at about two o clock in the afternoon. They didn't live in the house, it was used as a holiday home, so when a van turned up and took stuff away, nobody took any notice as everyone in the village assumed it was just the owners moving furniture around. (I wasn't about, I was at work, I walked past before I went to work and noticed people were in the place, that was all). Police questioned us all, but nobody was going to challenge a bunch of blokes with a van and brown coats moving furniture.

Neighbours got a swish alarm system after that.
 
MorningAngel said:
I work is Argos as I’ve said before and when we had our own shops we had small selection of white goods on the shop floor. In one branch people came in in hi-viz jackets and just went off with a fridge freezer. No one realised they shouldn’t be there.
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My brother in law used to be a shoplifter. He once went into a garden centre and asked one of the staff to help him load a swinging garden chair onto the roof rack of his car, it was a self assembly one so was in a large box. Nobody questioned him and he just drove off without paying. The odd thing about him was that he had a highly paid job and could have easily afforded it. His shoplifting was always like a challenge to him.
 
I feel I should point out that the sales rep in my above post actually did work for the company we were all working for. He wasn't some random sales rep. So the older people knew who he was and let him in, and everyone just carried on accepting him even though we hadn't a clue who he was!
 
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