Have you ever had the feeling that there's something more to a situation, something happening behind the scenes? Maybe you can put your finger on it, but you just can't prove it. And so you go back and forth, wondering whether your intuition is as sharp as a tack or you're just paranoid.
From family-destroying lies to harmless conspiracies, these folks from around the world went online to share things they strongly suspect are true... but can't prove. We'll let you be the judge.
34. They're disappearing the animals
Some zoos have empty exhibits and just claim the animal is in there, you just never see them. I’ve gone to the same zoo once a year for the past 10 years and not once have I seen the wombat there.
33. Those future Ken Burns documentaries are gonna be so good
Historians +200 years from now will be able to look at all of all of the private messages and data of people who have been long dead. Similar to how we can read private letters of people from 1700’s.
I’d be amazed if Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. don’t have extensive data on me and every other user. Messages, photos, videos, links... everyone I know who works at these places know that it’s all sitting on a server somewhere.
32. The sixth scents
That Bath and Body Works has like, only a handful of unique scents. Every couple of months they just rotate the scents in and call them something else.
I heard something similar to this from a Yankee Candle outlet employee - most of the scents are identical but the names get licensed so they need to be changed from what’s in the actual chain stores, and half the time in those main stores the “new” seasonal scent has just been renamed from last season.
31. The board of directors
There's one company in a town local to me who board up windows. That's their business. Every single window, door, abandoned shop, all done by this one company.
They've got a ridiculous sized HQ, and have put a decent amount of money towards fixing up other buildings in the area.
So I've got a theory they're the ones doing the damage or paying people to do it, and then obviously getting the job of fixing it up as they're really well known in the area.
Despite having no proof of this I am 100% confident I am onto them.
30. The Apple doesn't fall far
I believe that Apple never actually intended for anyone to buy their $999 monitor stand. It was just an excuse so they could invalidate all warranty claims for the Pro monitor.
"We can't approve your claim due to the use of improper third party equipment."
29. Everyone is on the make
I strongly suspect that a lot of businesses in my hometown are just money laundering operations. 25 nail salons in a town of 70,000? 3,000 square foot DVD rental shop in the best block of downtown where commercial rents are very high? Dozens of $10 barber shops sitting empty all day but remaining open? Red flags all around.
28. Who's your daddy?
I suspect that my oldest brother is actually my bio father.
It just makes no sense to me otherwise. I have a butt chin and no one else in my family does. This older brother was (is?) a drinker, a partier, and just a big mess all around. He brought different women to my parent's house every day and we would hear them hook up. It makes no sense to me that he came out of that with zero children.
Makes less sense since he's ~20 years older than me, which means my parents would have had me at a dangerously (for my mom) old age. I know it's not impossible, but it just makes a lot more sense this way. Plus my parents always covered up for his wrongdoings so it honestly wouldn't surprise me.
I once asked my mom and she got visibility upset. Didn't even ask her outright, I just said I had a dream that they told me my brother was really my father. She got super mad and refused to even discuss or acknowledge my dream. I think that's really weird.
I would still consider my mom, my mom even if I found out. Wouldn't consider my brother my dad if he were because he's an idiot. It's just something I think is highly probable.
27. What's creepy about dressing up children like dolls and parading them around?
Pixabay
26. Lights in the sky
Aliens, UFOs and the like. I've seen one and no one can convince me otherwise.
Was about eight years ago, and I'd just driven a partner home. We were sitting in my car chatting, it was late, and the sky was pitch black, we couldn't see any stars due to all the street lights. As we're talking, I just become aware of this ball of bright orange light in the sky. At first I figured it was a street lamp, or floodlight or something, but as I looked at it, I realized it was far too high, and its position would put it above the woods opposite my partner's house.
I turn to my partner, interrupt her to say "hey do you see that light up ther-" the exact second the word 'light' leaves my mouth, it silently just moves across the sky from standstill to an unbelievable speed, before extinguishing like someone had turned down a dimmer switch.
We sat there in silence for some time. I grew up watching X-Files, and have always had a healthy appetite for a good conspiracy story...but I have never thought of a more plausible explanation than aliens.
25. No one should have to hide that
I think my great great uncle was gay, but lived in a time where he had to hide that part of himself. He never had a wife or kids. He traveled a lot and was very into art. I asked my grandma a while back if she thought he was gay and she said he just wasn't interested in having girlfriends.
24. Grandma seemed to have bad luck in love...
I believe my grandmother was a black widow. She was married 7 times; each ending in a sudden death. She died in the 1980’s but everything is still suspicious and no one seems to know anything. I did find an article about her when she came to the US where her first husband died defending her after her ex-boyfriend climbed in her window in New York City. I also found evidence of her having been in prison before coming to the U.S.
Pixabay
23. You got burned
That my great uncle was burned by the CIA. He worked for them for years and often disappeared for long periods of time in the middle of the night. He died suddenly after receiving several letters that he promptly burnt according to my grandmother. He was found in his armchair one morning with a revolver on the floor next to his right hand. Only issue is, he was left handed and the only pistol he owned was a 1911. Spooky stuff.
22. The cat is cheating
I'm pretty certain that one of my 4 cats has a second home. He spends DAYS outside before coming back. And he comes back fatter. And I suspect that we aren't even the main home... We're just some side thing for him.
21. She's driving me insane too
I think that my coworker is deliberately trying to drive me insane.
I bring lunch with me to work most days, and Every day, without fail and no matter what I have for lunch, she comes into the staff room at lunch and says in her nasal voice, "Oohh that smells good! Can I have some??"
Same joke, every single workday.
So finally, one day, I brought in one of my normal lunch staples, and also brought a little extra for her to try. She came into the staff room and said her normal, "Oohh that smells good! Can I have some??" to which I pulled out a pyrex dish and offered her some. She seemed to recoil a bit, like she was simultaneously surprised and disgusted. She paused for a minute and said, "Oh...no thanks I'm heading out for lunch," and quickly walked away
Next day at lunch she was right back to, "Oohh that smells good! Can I have some?"
20. The walls have ears
Like a lot of folks, I'm all but certain that my smartphone is listening to me and pushes advertisements based on what I say.
I’ve never once searched for any tools or equipment used in welding, but I spent all day today welding at my job and presumably mentioned that I was welding to a few people today. Multiple ads after work while browsing today were for welding equipment.
19. Love can heal anything
That I got my job as charity and therapy. I came back from a combat tour a total wreck. I stayed at my uncle's home for a month and I was already drinking too much and couldn't sleep without nightmares, the kind where you wake the house up from yelling and punching air.
My uncle owned 4 restaurants and soon had me working in two of his kitchens 70 hours a week. I threw myself into the work because I had no social life; in six months, I was kitchen manager at his busy 24/7 restaurant. I did an excellent job but my uncle paid me 50% over the local scale.
I think he hired me initially just to keep me out of trouble.That man overlooked so much stupid stuff I did; we should've been the 1st dysfunctional family reality show. I mean, he fired me 3 or 4 times in 5 years for the temper tantrums and freak-outs I'd have, then show up at my home the next day, give me 2 days off, and tell me I had better be in to work on Monday. Miss him all the time.
18. Gaslighting or bad memory?
17. The wig feud
King St. Old Town, Alexandria VA - there are two, count em TWO, wig shops one building apart. They are outdated shabby looking places whose windows are filled with the fakest looking wigs, moustaches, and toupes on mannequin heads. It's on the main street, in a very wealthy town. Other businesses come and go under the competitive pressure of the area and high leasing prices but these shops stay open without a single customer. My mom lived there in the 80s and they were there; I live there now and still they stand unchanged.
100% a front for two competing mobsters.
16. One last favor
So I worked at a certain venue for a while, and the owners liked me, so they kept me around despite me being a slow learner on the job (wait staff).
The venue got brought a few months ago, and the new owners have a totally different vision for it. Some of the old staff stuck around, including myself, but many left.
I strongly suspect that I was given a job at the new venue as a request of the old owners -- like as a condition of the sale or something. I don't fit the mould of the people they hire at all, and I really got the impression that they weren't sure what to do with me at the start.
I may never know, but I'm pretty thankful to the old owners regardless.
15. This is why you need real employment laws
I'm almost certain that I got fired from my job because the boss was friends with a family I had a falling out with. I guess when their son assaulted me it was supposed to be my fault and I was just sucking it up. But I can't prove it and they won't say.
14. This is a scary thought
I have a strong yet paranoid feeling that the life I am in right now is not my actual life.
I believe in alternate timelines and by believing in that also believe it's possible to accidentally walk into the wrong timeline and back again. It's long to explain and I want to keep this short but I have too many memories that I know for a fact happened that the people around me have no memory of that I strongly think I have somehow crossed into the wrong timeline and that somewhere another me is just now finding this out.
I could also just be delusional. Maybe it's bad memory? Maybe there's something wrong where I think dreams are facts? I don't know.
I just strongly know something isn't right and I can't prove it.
13. Color me convinced
Rose Art crayons are made by Crayola and are intentionally horrible. This makes Crayola crayons seem great, by comparison, which enables Crayola to make shittier crayons without anyone knowing. And this keeps other new crayon manufacturers out of the market because they assume they'll never be able to get to the Crayola level of quality.
12. Trust your instincts
The "nice " good-looking guy down the street, that everyone likes, has something really dark inside of him.I can't explain it, he's nice to look at, but my skin wants to crawl right off my body.
If someone creeps you out, be wary. I feel like people get so offended when someone says this but honestly, the number of times my instinct about someone has eventually proven true... no one is saying you should try to drive that person out of your neighborhood or assemble the torch and pitchfork brigade, but trust your instincts.
Photo by The Lazy Artist Gallery from Pexels
11. That's one way to "drive engagement"
I think my local newspaper and news stations make up fake Facebook profiles to post inflammatory statements in the comment sections of their news releases.
There are frequent commenters whose profiles have a basic name, no friends/random international friends, basic profile information and only one profile picture who will make some outlandish comment that starts a war.
10. The mysterious camera shop
I suspect that some Canadian guy who owns an antique shop that I bought a camera from in April recognized me. He acted flustered when I came in and I came back the next day to make my purchase. He sold me the camera for what I thought was a reasonable price and threw in an owner's manual in near perfect condition.
A quick Google search reveals that it's an extremely rare camera that was only produced for two years. Only 1 in 1000 still in existence are operational and 1 out of every 1000 working ones still has a certain part (mine does). This guy's whole shop was based around antique cameras and my dad talked shop with him for a while; he even explained to me how to find film or modify some for my camera.
He knew what he was selling me and lost a LOT of money on the transaction. I even got it appraised to confirm my suspicions about what it was.
9. Grandma's missing year
That my grandmother had a child before she married my grandfather.
When my grandparents met and started dating, my grandma was only 13. My grandpa was 20. They married when she was 17 and he was 24, right after he came back from serving in WWII. That was about as much of the story as anyone in my family ever knew: they'd been dating, then he went overseas, and she wrote to him while he was gone. When he got back, they got married.
A few years after my grandma died, my grandfather suddenly mentioned that they'd actually been broken up for a while before she started writing to him.
After they'd dated about a year, he went to pick her up at her house one day, only to find she wasn't home. Her parents informed him that she'd left to live with some cousins a few hours away, and she'd be gone for "about a year". He got upset that she hadn't told him about this in advance and ended the relationship.
When another year-ish had passed and she returned home to her parents, she started writing him overseas and apologized, and they started "dating" again.
My grandpa told this story very blandly and seemed to believe that the situation was what it said on the tin, but of course in the 1940's-60's it was quite common for teenage girls to "go live with relatives for a year" as a code for having an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. My grandpa would never have admitted if they'd been having sex, but I'm betting they were, she got pregnant, and she was sent off somewhere to have the baby.
I've done commercial DNA testing, so I'm on the lookout for someone to turn up as a sibling match to my mom someday. The only other explanation for my grandma suddenly leaving town would be if her parents didn't approve her relationship with my grandpa, but from everything I know of them they were perfectly fine with their 13 year old daughter dating a guy in his twenties.
8. A political prisoner, or just a prisoner?
That my abusive step-"father" went to jail, not exile, for 8 years when I was a teen and that for a few years prior we were actually running from the law, not hiding from the government because of his activism.
This suddenly dawned on me about a month ago, more than a decade later. Kinda like how it suddenly clicks that the dog didn't go to a farm.
Here's what I vaguely remember. I just did the math and this was almost 20 years ago.
I'm Kenyan and at that time, we were under the dictatorship of Moi, and back then you couldn't say anything that painted the government wrongly. I was too young, maybe 13, to fully understand but what we were led to believe by my mother is that dad did something bad to the government. At that time it was common for political activists to go into exile so we didn't question it.
For about two years prior, I remember them making us move cities and stay indoors. The two kept disappearing without warning for weeks at a time, leaving me behind to babysit my 3 siblings. My mother ain't a saint either but that's a story for another day.
Towards the end, we lived in a 4 bedroom bungalow and were instructed to stay in the bedrooms in the back at all times, never switching on the lights in the living areas that faced the main street. We skipped a school year because of this.
Then one day she came back alone and he never came back. Later she mentioned he might be in Turkey. I think I made the connection that he had fled there and left it at that. To be honest, I was happy that he was no longer at home and I was finally free. His presence had been a constant darkness in our lives.
Years later, my mother mentioned he's back and asked if we wanted him back. We all said no. He moved back to his hometown. I've never seen him since. Back then they only kept manual records. If I wanted to find proof, I could check for his records at the high courts but honestly he was and still is good riddance so why bother.
7. A deal with the devil?
Apologies for a bit of a rant (and my generally poor writing), but this one just bugs me.
I have an old coworker who is in her 70s. She works a bottom level job (no promotion after 21 years, almost nobody stays longer than 5 without moving up or to a different department), is physically unwell, does very little actual work, and is a RAGING monster to people. She always greets you, cheery attitude and a big smile, never needing a reminder of your name. Basically, she is the ultimate Walmart greeter. To her credit, this is generally a good thing for customer relations.
But praises for her end there. The sweet old lady facade crumbles almost immediately, sometimes with no warning at all. She will suddenly go into a raging fit and no amount of reason will calm her down. She will stink eye you for the rest of the shift, and then it's back to her sweetest old lady on earth act the next day.
Except for talking to customers, she generally does a poor job (sometimes outright ignoring her duties), she is very rude to younger employees because she can be, and is blatantly racist to the female foreign workers. If I called her out on her behavior, she would always deflect with, 'I am 70 [bleeping] years old!" followed by some snide remark. She is never punished no matter what.
Towards the end of my first year, I found out that she was run over by a company car that ran a stop sign (both she and the driver were on the clock) and the driver was found to be absolutely at fault. She did not sue for any damages beyond medical expenses and pay for the time she was out of work due to her injuries.
I strongly suspect that she struck a deal with the higher ups. She doesn't massively sue them, and in exchange she gets job protection. This is the only way I can imagine her getting away with what she does everyday.
Her constant drama, whining, undeserved outbursts and loud arrogant attitude would be more tolerable if she wasn't such a tremendously unsuccessful person who very clearly has no idea what she is talking about. She has had a very difficult life, and I would feel very sorry for her if she wasn't such a truly horrid person. Every coworker universally hates her, and eventually she will hit a point where she cannot even stand up long enough to "do" her job and she has to be let go. I will feel not one ounce of sympathy in what are sure to be a miserable last few years.
6. You might have to join the CIA yourself just to find out
I suspect that my Dad was a covert agent for the CIA. I don’t want to reveal too much, but he had a job that frequently took him around the world. We even lived overseas several times while I was growing up. He often was working as a “special science advisor” for the US Dept of State when overseas. There were just enough oddities that didn’t add up. I even asked him once if he worked for the CIA and he laughed but never answered the question. Unfortunately he died a few months ago so I’ll never know.
5. Stealing from the staff
My management at work pinches money out of our checks (it's mostly teens that work there during the summer, so we aren't put on payroll right away and get paid cash). I think part of it is that we have an old-timey punch in-out system and the clock is always wrong. When I first started working it was behind an hour, so I was like "ok makes sense, with daylight savings time" but now it's like 5 hours off and it's really messing with me. Every time I bring it up my coworkers always agree that it seems like something they'd do too, so it's not just me. I regret not adding up all my hours, but it's too late and I'm about to quit anyway.
4. When CPS can't help
I strongly suspect that my ex wife’s boyfriend hurts my sons. They used to tell me it happened but I never had proof. I then saw a mark one day and they said it was cause of the boyfriend and she explained it away. (All of these times I’d call CPS and nothing came of it.)
One time my boy told CPS that when he talks bad about the boyfriend, mom hits him, but still nothing happened. After that point they stopped telling me things, which in my opinion means that they are just afraid of being hit by mom for telling me things about the boyfriend.
3. "Hey, wanna come to a remote, isolated area with me?"
Suspect my domineering ex husband was planning on offing me during our separation/divorce. He got a $75,000 life insurance policy on me during our separation. Found out 2 years after our divorce when he had overpaid the policy and the insurance sent me a refund check. Mistake on their part.
During our separation, he had invited me to join his “family” vacation at Grand Canyon, I said no. He invited me to the mountains that same summer to try to be a family again, I said no. Then he invited me to Mexico for “reconciliation,” again no. (I said no because of the gut feelings I had and my mom told me not to. She had 3 dreams in a row that my soon to be ex husband would tell her I was dead.)
I have no proof, just the insurance policy and my mom’s dreams. Two years after our divorce, he canceled the policy. I didn’t know you could get insurance on someone without them knowing.
2. Mystery solved
Not so much of a conspiracy theory anymore but it made me both satisfied and irritated to find out the truth.
Back in elementary or middle school I had one of my friends (who we’ll call C) come over to my house. My brother and I shared a room and, upon looking through my brother’s Nintendo DS games, mentioned something about how he wanted to play Pokemon Soul Silver(which my brother had).
Fast forward a couple weeks or even months and my brother complains he can’t find his Soul Silver game. At first I think nothing of it, stuff goes missing all the time, especially tiny things like DS games. Later I get this suspicion that my friend might have taken it, but there’s no way he would’ve done that. I even ask him about it and he denies it...
YEARS go by and I’m working at my job, talking to a coworker (who we’ll call N) who knew C back in those school days. N mentions that C actually showed off my brother’s Soul Silver game to him and bragged about nabbing it. What a dweeb.
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
1. Cheater cheater pumpkin eater
I strongly suspect my best friend's mum is cheating on her husband, and has been doing so for at least 5 years. However, proof is hard to come by. Also, I don't think it's a good idea for me to rip apart a family, so I haven't pursued the issue.
There are multiple reasons.
- She's always leaving the room to go to her study, saying she's calling her mum, but when my friend has spoken to her grandmother, she's said she hasn't spoken to her in a couple days.
- I've seen her phone lying on a counter, and when a text comes through she's snapped it up really quickly. It happened a couple times, and now she never leaves her phone alone. However, I once saw a glimpse of a message, and I'm very sure it said "I love you xx" on it.
- A few years prior, I overheard her husband talking to her about being concerned with a guy from her work, that it seemed like he was making advances on her. She still works there, and is friends with this guy (the one I think she's cheating with).
- She says she's going out to a bar with her girlfriends quite regularly, and will often crash at one of their houses and come back mid morning the next day
This is why I don't want to mention anything, though. It's all quite circumstantial. She could be calling her mum, the text could have been from her mum, and she genuinely might be crashing at her girlfriend's house. Again, no proof though, and even if I did, I don't know if I'd mention it.
