What has been seen... cannot be unseen.
You've probably heard that before.
You might even have experienced that yourself.
After Redditor B_K asked the online community, "What's something you saw that you weren't definitely supposed to see?" people shared stories of their own.
"My dad gave me his phone..."
My dad gave me his phone to order something because mine was out of battery and on Google the first tab I see is "how to tell your child a loved one is dying." My mum has been ill for years now and I've been in denial about it getting any worse but this finally broke me.
We're sorry about your mom. That's no way to find out something so heavy.
"I was a nosy child..."
I was a nosy child and I was looking through my grandmother's address/phone number book. she had little post-its tucked in random places. I came across a note that was a list of things she wanted to do to be happy and one of them was "find a man that loves me." My grandfather had died a while back, probably eight years previous. It didn't make me sad then but it really does now because she has dementia and can't remember things that happened a few seconds ago.
Dementia is so scary and caregivers sacrifice so much. It's commendable but should not be as difficult as it is.
"I was living with my girlfriend..."
I was living with my girlfriend and her parents. One day I run down the stairs real quick to use the bathroom to see her parents getting down and dirty under the blanket on the couch. At this point it was too late to turn around so I just ran past them. I use the bathroom and come out to her dad waiting in the kitchen... most awkward moment I've had when it comes to parents lol.
Well, they're human. They're going to want to enjoy their... um... personal time.
"When I was young..."
When I was young, maybe 6-8 I was at my grandparents' house. I was talking with my grandma and said, "I wonder if there is a website named after me." She was just as curious as me so we go to look it up. I type in my name then .com and to both of our horrors, it was a porn website.
Talk about awkward! Bet you wish you could take that back, huh?
"I needed a USB drive..."
I needed a USB drive at work one day, and asked one of my coworkers if I could borrow one.
It didn't work though, for some reason files wouldn't transfer to it. I started looking around for clues and found an absolute massive porn collection on there. The coworker was looking over my shoulder the whole time. The only thing I could think of to say was "Hmm, interesting."
That would do it. But there's so much free porn out there! WHY?
"Living out in the country..."
Living out in the country, when I was 10 years old, my parents went to the local video rental place and brought back a few VHS. They told me to pop in Planet of the Apes. I did and whoever had it before didn't rewind it and it started mid-video...and all you heard was moaning and all I saw was an eyeful of adult video. And I stared glued to the TV, and my parents freaked out and ran to turn off the TV. Apparently, the small video rental store back then doubled as an adult video store as well and somehow they accidentally grabbed a copy of Playmate of the Apes by accident.
Playmate of the Apes sounds like the American classic we've needed to unite the country.
"After he passed away..."
Grandpa's porn stash. After he passed away in the hospital, I went straight to his room and purged it.
Probably best to avoid any awkward moments with the family afterward.
"Saw my upstairs neighbor..."
Saw my upstairs neighbor and another man push a crying girl through a door. I knew they were involved in drug-related business so I felt it necessary to call the police despite suspecting that I was being a busybody.
I'd asked for my name to be kept out of the case so I wasn't told the specifics, but my neighbor was gone for good so he was definitely up to no good.
Good thing you were able to have your name kept out of there. Things could have been much worse had that not been the case.
"When I was about 9..."
When I was about 9 years old I was sat in my mum's car at a T junction right at the front and I was in the passenger seat. On the opposite side of the T junction was a hill with a bunch of houses on and a path going directly up the hill which had quite tall fences on either side. I could see a woman walking down the hill with a big pushchair in front of her and her view of the path along the road was obstructed by the fences. She just walked out onto the path, pushchair first and didn't see that there was a guy on a bike cycling along the pathway. He couldn't see her either as she was obscured by the fence.
He swerved to miss the pushchair and came flying off the bike and straight into the road, just at the moment a lorry drove by and it ran straight over his head.
Me and my mum saw EVERYTHING. She quickly put her hand in front of my face so I couldn't see but it was too late. I can still remember the woman's screams and seeing the blood splattered on the road. My mum had to stick around to tell the police what had happened as we saw the whole thing play out. I remember my mum taking me home and buying us pizza and us spending the whole night on the sofa under the duvet as it clearly messed her up too.
I had nightmares about it for years, but I haven't thought about it for a little while until I started reading some of the other stories here!
Sounds like you saw a mighty bad accident, and that's traumatizing at any age. We're sorry you had to see that.
"One time I went to a concert..."
One time I went to a concert at a dive venue that was tucked away in some back alleys. Was having a dart with a buddy out front during the show and amidst the surrounding abandoned housing, I saw two dudes make an exchange of what looked very much to be a bag of guns and a bag of money. The bigger dude instigating the handoff immediately noticed and made eye contact with me. He slowly started reaching towards his waist. I held my cool and casually looked back towards my buddy who was drunkenly ruining a joke and followed him back inside. I know what I saw. The man knew I saw him. I didn't look back.
Good thing you didn't! Sounds like a scary moment – it's best to mind your business in these cases and keep walking. You never know how quickly situations can unravel until they do.
On a light note, I walked in on a teacher of mine while they were smoking a cigarette in an empty classroom.
They'd forgotten I was going to see them for a quick meeting about a grade.
That teacher jumped out of their skin... and swore me to secrecy.
I never told anyone higher-up.
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