Have you ever just been having a normal day and then bam, you find yourself hearing a private conversation between other people, that you know you have no right to listen in on?
Well, this is what these strangers are sharing today- some of the juiciest, most dramatic, and jaw-dropping stories that they found themselves eavesdropping on.
1. “Who are you talking to?”
My freshman roommate in college would talk on the phone 24/7, to anyone and everyone. It could be his girlfriend or even the girl he was cheating on his girlfriend with.
My personal favorite was some random conversation that I was barely paying attention to when suddenly: "Oh! I forgot to tell you...your daughter broke up with me yesterday!" To this day I kick myself for not paying attention from the beginning
[deleted]
2. Oversharing with a stranger
I overheard two people's epic encounters a while ago. So a woman comes into the bakery and as soon as she steps in a man greets her.
He proceeds to ask her about what's new and how she's been the last 20 years.
The woman obviously knew the guy and they engaged in a 10 ish minute talk about their spouse's kids and jobs, basically everything new from the last 20 years.
Then they decide to meet up next weekend and have a cup of coffee...The woman then asks him to say hi to his sister from her. And his response is: "I don't have a sister."
At that point both their faces were priceless. She asks him: "Wait? Your name is Pete right?" He responds: "Ehh, no.. your name isn't Karen?"
I burst into laughter sitting a few meters away. They had been talking to a complete stranger about the last 20 years of their lives. They said bye to each other in an extremely awkward manner and went on their way.
kosmor
3. Different modes of transportation
I was at a graduation party for my best friend when she graduated high school, back in 2007, and a boy she was hanging out with at the time was there.
He had to use my friend's house phone to call his mom and the last thing he said to her before hanging up was "I'm a grown man, mom, I'll skateboard home!"
I have never laughed so hard. To this day, me and my friends still use that line with each other when we want to be dramatic.
generaldisarray420
4. Where’s the party at
In an old electronics class, we were playing with spectrum analyzers and discovered that the old cell phones broadcast on open frequencies.
If you found the spike on the spectrum and tuned into it, you could hear what they were saying. Happened to tune into a couple of girls calling some guy so they could come over and smoke some 'doobies'.
By the time they were done, my lab partner and I had the entire class clustered around listening in. I think half of them were hoping to find out where they were going so they could crash the party.
Jsrsd
5. Bathroom conversations
I was in the bathroom at my university, washing my hands, and overheard a dude talking softly in one of the stalls. (Stalls are completely closed with a wall in between them.)
When he stopped speaking, I heard the guy next to him talk in a similar way. This went on for a few more seconds until I heard one of them say "...in a minute, I'm in the bathroom right now", followed by the other dude, "Haha yeah, me too."
First dude, slightly louder already: "Wait, are you next to me then?" Second dude : (soft) "Possibly" (louder) "Hey Mark!" First dude, loud: "Hey man!"
They both started hitting the wall to make a noise and started laughing. To which I responded with "You guys are so cute", and then I left so they wouldn't know who I was.
Blissrat
6. The larger gaming community
I'm sitting in my drinking spot at the bar and two rednecks are at the counter. I'm talking old, trucker hat-wearing, flannel-skinned men who have seen more time in truck cabs than in the sunlight.
They're both sitting with their Budweisers and talking heatedly. I usually overlook this sort of thing until one goes.
"Mayne, no. Y'gotta slot them FLAWLESS gems in your gear or t'other stats ain't gonna optimize right. Y'build for your play and THEN y'get online. Where're yer skills right now?" I guess Diablo 3 has a wide audience.
[deleted]
7. Teary Conversations
I was showing a network admin how insecure VoIP can be by showing him how to hack his network with a free program. We found a call and started listening in...
The VoIP call we ended up cracking into were the VP and other heads of the company talking about a birthday party that they were throwing the network admin.
They went on to say what a nice guy the network admin was and how much smoother things ran under his care. The guy was nearly moved to tears.
Popemichael
8. Kindergarten Cop Fiasco
Two guys making sandwiches at my local deli were arguing over what the best movie ever was. One man was arguing that Kindergarten Cop was the best movie ever created, and the other was just arguing that it wasn't.
The one arguing that it wasn't, gave a couple of valid arguments that seemed easily deflected by the other man. It eventually devolved into them shouting "IT'S NOT A TUMOR" at each other.
Chocolate-Giddy-Up
9. The case of the Missing Apparel
I was in a shoe store and a little girl was playing on the floor with her mom. The mom kept asking her to stand up but the little girl would continue rolling around the floor.
Finally, she rolled under her mom's legs, looked up, and said loudly WHY DONT YOU HAVE ON ANY PANTIES? And the mom dragged her out of the store quickly
I can only imagine the conversation they had at home. That mom must have been so embarrassed by the whole thing, and rightfully so.
ladyambrosia999
10. Like father, like daughter
Was on the bus and a small girl and her father were sitting in front of me. The kid was misbehaving a bit and wouldn't sit still even though her father would tell her to settle down several times.
Eventually, he lets out an exasperated "Why won't you do what I tell you to?" and the little girl answers, matter-of-factly:
"Mom always tells you to stop washing your stuff in the sink but you still do it!"
Needless to say, they got off that bus very quickly as every single person around them was desperately trying not to laugh.
Lootapotta
11. Different tax brackets
My wife and I were at a pretty fancy restaurant, where they have their wine list on iPads. We were in a celebratory mood and decided to splurge a bit and get some glasses of wine that were $15 a pop.
Shortly after we got our wine, this old guy walked in with two young ladies. The sommelier comes up and asks if he has any questions about the wine list....the old dude says, "I trust you, just bring out something that's reasonably priced."
The sommelier looks back a bit baffled and says, "I'm sorry sir, but would you kindly let me know what reasonably priced would be?"
The old dude puts the wine list down, calmly smiles, and says "Anything under $5,000 a bottle will be just fine, thanks."
He ended up ordering THREE bottles over the course of our dinner. Crazy and entertaining all at once. It’s shocking how some people live.
Dhslax88
12. Try and remember gentlemen
Two old men talking about the plot to My Cousin Vinny. They were trying to remember the name of the movie but they couldn't do it.
My wife and I ended up buying their dinner, and we made our own little game based on it called Ambiguous Movie Plot where you try and stump the other person by giving just enough details about the movie so it pisses them off when they hear the title, but not enough so they can guess it.
[deleted]
13. Intimate conversations
One time, I heard an old man talking to someone about how he had a harem and was going to be intimate with all of the girls he had.
Also, he said that he wouldn't have to worry about getting them pregnant, because he would just make them take the morning-after pill. That would solve the problem.
At this point, you’re probably wondering who he was talking to. Well, this is the part where I feel I should mention, the person he was talking to was himself.
immatonton
14. A true Hero
While on a dinner boat ride in Memphis Tennessee, I was lucky enough to be a few feet away from a man who was discussing his bus service business when Hurricane Katrina hit the southern states.
When the flooding hit and people needed to be evacuated the government seized his buses to assist in the rescue. He mentioned that he gave everyone a brief demonstration to the military drivers on how to operate the bus before getting in his own bus and following the convoy which was destined for Louisiana.
For about a week or 2, he was down there assisting with transporting civilians out of the flood zone area and bringing in helpers & supplies to the area's medical facilities.
Then Red Cross and/or more military support came in and he wasn't needed. He drove his bus all the way back to Tennessee straight home and hugged his family.
It was one of the most emotional and mesmerizing stories I've ever heard of someone just dropping everything in time of an emergency to assist others. The whole time I'm just staring off the port of the ship watching the river for 20 minutes while listening to him tell his tale.
ejakeway
15. Rich Talk
I have a contribution from the other side, so to speak. There was a private zoo for sale here in New Zealand - in the Bombay Hills just South of Auckland, to be precise.
The topic came up cause my partner at the time was working for realestate.co.nz, the largest property portal in the country, and they had discussed the listing in the office earlier that day.
We were discussing the zoo, its price, its features, etc while we were sitting at a reasonably noisy restaurant. Our waitress snuck up on us to grab some empties just as I asked my partner...
Can you check if the 1.2 million includes the elephants? ...I'm sure I've never seemed more interesting and wealthy at any other point in my life. The poor (misled) waitress was staring at me when I went forward to pay later.
DNZ_not_DMZ
16. The teleporting turtle
While eating at a fast-food joint way out in west Texas during a family road trip, I took note of a small group of friends (20s-30s men) with large tin boxes full of trading cards (probably Magic).
They weren't sitting too far from us, and the place was quiet enough that we could overhear their discussions fairly well.
At one point, though, one guy began relaying a story about a turtle that he had retrieved from the middle of a road (given the locale, I'd assume it was some sort of desert tortoise).
The man had apparently taken the turtle home and placed him in a specific spot in one room, then left briefly to do something elsewhere in the house.
Upon returning to the turtle, he was caught very much off-guard by the fact that the turtle had somehow meandered from his original spot to a new location surprisingly far from where he'd started.
The distance he had wandered was evidently so great that the man was positively astounded by the athleticism of this turtle.
The surprise he expressed when recounting this rescued(?) turtle's accomplishment was adorable enough, but then he proudly declared what he had named the animal: "Squirmin' German Herman the Magical Teleporting Turtle".
Immediately, I erupted into a barely-stifled fit of giggles. I found myself straining to keep quiet while I almost got a chicken-nugget bolus into my windpipe. That would have made for a very, very awkward eulogy...
Shebbsquids
17. Bomb Squad
Just happened yesterday. I was sitting at a restaurant for lunch and at the table right next to me were two bomb-defusing guys from the police (shirts that said it, police jackets, radio on the table, quite official).
I'm German and work in a rather small town so such a thing is quite rare. One of them told the other, they seemed to be new colleagues, that one of his former colleagues had a bomb once with four buttons in each corner of the room and the bomb itself with some weight trigger.
A team consisted of two bomb specialists so one of them ran in circles pressing the four buttons in the corners and the other was sitting on the weight-trigger and trying to defuse the bomb itself.
I'm not sure if it was just training or if this was a real bomb, otherwise... man, that sounds more like an action movie than a real-life bomb.
___Preek
18. What If…
A great moment overheard while on honeymoon, an American couple walking just behind us on Dubrovnik city walls. The man begins "It's crazy how they've managed to avoid Starbucks or McDonald's setting up here."
"That would be like opening a strip club in a national park" the lady replies with righteous indignation. With absolute sincerity her partner responds "But what if it were a really nice strip club?"
azlana
19. Savagery in the grocery store
Was walking in the grocery store today, and in come two, ahem, "large" women. Both were on those powered cart deals (rascals?).
The older woman (mom?) definitely needed it, though the younger of the two (daughter?) clearly had little to no need for it as she wasn't THAT big, and kept getting up from it and walking around/grabbing stuff/running at one point.
So I end up behind them and I overhear:
Mother: "What else do we need? Eggs, milk..."
Daughter: "Pie. I vote we get pie. Pieeeeeee"
Not A pie. Not a slice of pie. Not a specific pie. Just PIEEEEEE. At this point, the young guy they are with (boyfriend? brother?) turns around, looks right at me, then at her, and says,
"I'm not buying your fat bum a goddamn pie when you won't even use your freaking legs in the grocery store." I involuntarily gave him one of these and promptly stuck my face in the nearest freezer door and chortled as quietly as I could manage. Made my day.
GiR4TACOS
20. Weird Crystal Guy
Been lurking forever, and never felt more inclined to chime in than now. I was riding the ferry from Anacortes to Lopez Island with my friend visiting her family and decided to walk out to the bow for some fresh air.
Proceeded to overhear two men conversing out there, one was telling the other about his healing powers and how his hands would light up "like ET".
Apparently, he was traveling out to the island to recharge his auro via some crystals... Yeah, it’s official, the San Juans are weird.
Redditmanthrowaway5
21. The Most Adorable Girl In The World
There was a little sweet girl and her mum on the train, and they were watching some video about fairies on the mum's phone.
The girl turned to her mum and said matter-of-factly 'Mummy, you are my best friend, and I am your best friend, yes?' The mum agreed, of course.
The little girl then nodded and said 'OK, I love you mummy.' She promptly fell asleep on her mum's shoulder. I got off the train almost crying because that's freaking adorable.
Mikesbitch
22. You don’t say
Work overnight in a college apartment community. Around 3 am, Saw this girl walking back to her apartment with a guy I'd never seen before (I'd worked there 3 years at this point and knew all the residents and some of their friends).
She was holding on to his arm, maybe she just wanted to be close to him, maybe it was kind of cool outside, or maybe she was just doing that thing that girls do sometimes where they try to be so close the only way they could be closer is if they were sharing each other's skin.
She told him, "I don't normally do this." The funny thing is she did it all the time, bringing random guys back to her apartment in the middle of the night. I literally LOL'd as they walked past me.
Mindbodydisco
23. Rock on!
This one time I was on tour with a band called Weatherbox, in New York, playing a show in a basement venue. We got parking for the van right across the street, so a few of the band members and I walked around to get some food.
After a few blocks, we approached this group of people walking slower than us.
As we came nearer, we could hear snippets of them discussing our band, and the show they were going to, which we were going to play at.
I looked at them and said loudly, "screw Weatherbox, that band sucks." They were put off and continued walking. We were walking in the same direction though, so we had to keep walking together, and they eventually figured out we were in the band. Laughs were had.
Tsrdrum
24. Munchies at their finest
Recency bias here for sure, and it's more of just one line that I heard than a convo..... but a few days ago I was at a convenience store and this college-aged dude was just walking through the aisles.
He was not picking anything up, going through the same 3 aisles over and over and over. Meanwhile, I'm grabbing my drink and snack. I'm in there for about 3 minutes and he's just pacing the aisles, very creepy.
I am paying for my stuff and he walks over to the counter, and I can instantly smell pot on him. The cashier looks at him and says "Can I help you?" The kids reply: "Am I going crazy, or do you not have Milk Duds?"
The kid was just mega-baked and wanted some milk duds, and here I was judging him like he was some criminal. He is my spirit animal.
BKusser25
25. Bright Blue Rattlesnake
In a forestry class in college when I hear this conversation between two guys taking place. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but it was just so juicy.
Guy 1: "Yeah man, we were just walking through the woods and I almost stepped on this huge rattlesnake."
Guy 2: "Oh snap what happened?"
Guy1: "I flipped out and my boss ran over with a can of spray paint and unloaded on the snake with paint"
Guy 2: "What why?"
Guy 1: "His reasoning was "Hey next time we will see it"
So I guess there’s a bright blue timber rattlesnake somewhere in northern southern PA. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life.
[deleted]
26. Chaos at the beach
I went on a trip to the beach recently with my boyfriend, and it was stuffy in the room and there were no fans/AC so we opened a window.
This couple came out of their room and sat in the courtyard right by our window arguing. It was annoying since it kept us up, but eventually, as we listened we just started cracking up.
The gist of it was:
Her: I just can't believe you'd say that to me!
Him: I just said that one outfit was MORE slimming, that doesn't mean I think you look fat in other ones!
We pretty much lost it. We couldn't believe that cliché argument actually happens outside of sitcoms. We laughed so hard once we were alone.
NikaNuss
27. False News
One for all the fantasy football fans out there. It was 2009 or 2010. Tom Brady had just been involved in a minor car accident and the news stations were all over it.
I overhear two guys talking in a diner in the small town I lived in. One guy sees the headline and remarks, "Oh no, Tom Brady got in a car accident? He's on my fantasy team."
The other guy says deadpan, "Yeah, he's dead." It was just silent from that point on and I laugh at the memory every time Brady makes the news.
[deleted]
28. Some fun in the woods
On the first night in college my roommate and I got to Perkin's (diner-ish restaurant) for a late-night meal and to get to know each other. They sit us next to 3 girls in their early 20s.
These girls decided to play "What's your weirdest intimate experience." My friend and I bonded over our silence and immediate facial expression-based "don't say a word and just listen" agreement.
One girl said she met a guy on a blind date, he had flowers, so she got intimate with him on a tree limb. They started in the tree house and wanted to be dangerous.
I still don't care if it was staged or a lie or a sorority dare, but that roommate is still like family. It's been 20 years since that day.
zigzampow
29. It was you!
A girl I went to high school with changed universities to the one I was attending, without realizing I was there also (we weren't good friends).
Sitting in a library computer cubicle, I overheard her talking one day about how her high school was so bad.
She then went on to tell a story about a fight in the girl's toilets, and one girl was drenched in wet toilet paper.
It took all my willpower to not laugh because it was her. She had been bullying a poor girl who attacked her in retaliation. Let's just say, it was a hard story to let down.
[deleted]
30. Cultists, maybe?
My friend used to work at PetCo in an Asian market in high school. He told me about this bizarre exchange between 2 older asian men and 4 Middle Eastern men.
They both sat down at a table outside near where my friend worked. "So do you have it?" The Asian guys put a wooden box on the table.
They open it and inside is a spiked metal ball. They then bowed to each other and the Middle Eastern guys walked away with the ball.
The way he described it to me it seemed like some kind of cult exchange. ‘M caught between thinking it was cool and thinking it was creepy.
estafan7
31. Child’s Prophecy
Was at a supermarket and noticed a dad and his small boy (approx 6-7 years old). The kid is sitting in the trolley his dad is pushing.
He looks up to his dad randomly with wide eyes and says; "Daddy, we're all going to die" Dad is shocked; "oh come on son, we're okay. Why do you say that"
At this point, he's struggling, and going through some serious WTH moments. "I saw it dad, we're all going to die." By this stage, I've moved away from them. I was petrified for the rest of the day.
[deleted]
32. Ignorance Magnified
Was flying from Canada back to London a few years back. Could overhear the conversation between two early 20s-aged women in front of me.
They discussed all the places they were going to, London, Paris, Barcelona, etc all the usual places people visit on euro trips.
Then one of them said to the other "You know half these places don't even have toilets, they just have holes in the ground"
The other agreed and they discussed how to deal with that. I had to hold back my laughter and could see everyone else in the row doing the same.
half_deer
33. Toilet Conversations
I went out drinking at this yuppy bar in a town full of snotty-nosed college prep kids. I was pretty drunk, and so I went to relieve myself to the bathroom.
As I'm using the urinal, I hear some of the guys talking behind me. They're discussing how they like each other's shoes. One guy says, "Yeah they were $800."
As I'm midstream I look around, with the drunk confounded demeanor, and say aloud to them, "I am in the men's room aren't I?"
mind_crushed
34. Extreme embarrasment
So mine isn't so much of a conversation but still one of the greatest lines I've ever heard. Whilst I was at a hospital a doctor came to see one of the patients on the ward, the patient being a very elderly man who I assume was having some pain due to a catheter.
Of course, due to his age, he didn't have the greatest hearing and so the doctor had to speak in a loud voice to get the man to hear him.
So he goes through the standard medical procedures, at which point, with regret and embarrassment in his voice, the doctor has to shout the line "I'm so sorry about this, but is it okay for me to touch you down there now"
I look at the nurses who are trying to not burst out laughing as you can feel the embarrassment of the doctor after he came out behind the exam curtain to all these people sniggering.
Newosan
35. Angry Italian Chef
I was at this Italian pizza restaurant that I really liked. They make really good pizza, and every time my friend and I would walk in they would all at the same time shout, EEEYY!!!
One time we went when they were pretty busy (we didn't get an eyyy) but I heard one of them, in the most Italian accent I had ever heard.
"I swear to GOD, if he does anything to break my baby's heart I'll put a freaking .22 in his head." It was so comically Italian that I couldn't believe it.
mitch13815
36. Implant Talk
I lived next door to a couple in a crappy apartment with very thin walls. I once overheard them arguing about the girl getting breast implants.
The dynamic of the conversation was really weird. The girl was the one saying she wanted to get them, but blamed her reasoning for wanting them because she knew he was a "boob man" and somehow how also blamed it on his mom (not really sure why, missed that part).
He was trying to say that he didn't want her to get implants, but it was obvious he kind of did want her to. One of those "I don't want you to unless YOU really want to" things.
They went on and on for at least an hour and it turned into a conversation that I accidentally overheard with a cup pressed against the wall and my ear so I could catch every word.
Ihistal
37. Candy to spare
I was about 13 at the time and I was shopping at Costco with my dad who was general director at a summer camp close by. We were buying all the junk food for camp for the next few weeks, (Tuck time where every camper gets to spend 2-4$ a day on chips/freezies/candy, etc).
So we had two HUGE carts holding about 300 pounds of junk food and on our way to the checkout line we heard a little kid tell his father "Hey dad, can I go home with THAT family??" My dad freaking died of laughter. We still talk about it 10 years later.
[deleted]
38. Worthy of national praise
My 8-year-old boy was in the bathroom. He had been in there awhile so I went to check on him. I stopped outside the door and could hear him singing.
He was singing the National Anthem. I couldn't help but think to myself "I have never had a crap so good it deserved the National Anthem. What did he eat?"
I couldn't bring myself to interrupt him. So I waited for him to finish. And at the end felt guilty for not putting my hand over my heart.....
T1mom23
39. Bigfoot
I was walking home to my residence hall freshman year of school. These two somewhat well-built guys are walking in the opposite direction.
"We all have different goals in life man. Some of us want to make a lot of money, some of us are trying to get girls. Me? My goal is to get as big as humanly possible".
I had to hold myself together after hearing that. That was probably one of the only times I've struggled to not laugh at strangers.
Wisconsin1009
40. The burden of knowledge
So, I was at a (spectacular!) Tom Waits show in Memphis. The seating area was pretty dark, and the girl in front of me kept getting texts.
I'm not trying to snoop, but I see something about, "You're sexy, meet me in the bathroom." She squeezes/kisses the guy she's with and runs off, presumably to meet her texter.
So, I wrote a note that said something to the effect of, "Your girlfriend's cheating on you," and planned to slip it to the guy.
Well, the show ended, we were all standing up and clapping, and as I went to slip the note into the guy's pocket he turned around to face me. I tell him, "I think your girlfriend's cheating on you." He says, "I know."
HuecoTanks
41. Ding, ding
Not something I heard, but what someone eavesdropped on me. I used to work at a restaurant, and every member of the kitchen staff was Indian and didn't speak English very well.
There was one white guy that worked there, and for whatever reason, they all called him "Ding-Ding". The white guy was having a birthday party and invited us all.
One of the Indian guys, and I were standing outside the restaurant smoking, and the Indian guy said to me *Indian accent* "Hey man, you going to ding ding party?"
A guy walking by us stopped, and said "I'm sorry, I just overheard you guys, and I have to know what a ding-ding party is?" I couldn't stop laughing and eventually told him what it was.
bobloblaw0127
42. Paranoid much
Once listened to a story a woman was telling her friend sitting next to me in a café.
She became suspicious of her husband cheating on her when she was helping him unpack from a business trip and noticed a weird white stain on his shirt.
She told the whole story of her googling how to figure out what it was, which I think included using specific light and stuff. I never actually got to hear the ending tho, unfortunately.
lilacti
43. Euro Tour
Mum and I toured Europe on her long service leave. In our group there was this American couple - now I'm sorry to stereotype but she was your standard bombshell blonde dating your standard big black dude.
This couple gave my mum and me days of repressed giggling because they only had two settings: excitedly nattering about the things they had bought in the last city or stone-cold shoulder silence.
Like "get up and move to another seat on the bus but still stare/glower at each other" kind of silence. I don't know if they knew we were snickering at them but my god did it make those bus drives fun
Zeruvi
44. The dancing kid
Eavesdroped at an airport. The guy sitting behind me talking on the phone to his wife. He gets noticeably angry and says "Put him on the phone now!"...long pause, and what I assume is his son gets on the phone.
Dad says in a very angry tone "If I hear that you are gyrating in front of your sister and her friends again, I am going to come home and smash your Xbox with a baseball bat!" I immediately wanted to meet this kid...
gremlin78
45. Gotcha!
This happened way back over 10 years ago. Went to a party where I didn't really know anyone. My friend who'd invited me over was out when I got there, so I got in and saw an empty seat in the apartment and made myself cozy.
Two girls were discussing this guy (who was standing across the room) in a language they thought I didn't understand.
Sure enough 15 minutes later my friend walks in, sees me, comes over hugs me, says hello, and then introduces me to the girls and says hey he too can speak the language you guys keep talking in...
Their faces fell, and then they asked me "Did I follow everything they were saying" I said yes. One of them smiled the other who was the one being rather vocal avoided me like the plague that night.
niXor