Have you ever met someone and simply sensed a negative vibe from them? Perhaps it was a friend’s boyfriend or a friend of a friend. These individuals are sharing their experiences, and it’s fortunate they trusted their instincts, as one can only wonder how things might have unfolded otherwise. Content has been edited for clarity.
The Nanny’s New Boyfriend
“We had noticed one of our live-in nannies (who had been with us for nearly a year and had good references) was seeing someone new. Like any parent, I asked questions about male strangers that I did not know who showed up at my house.
During breakfast, I engaged in small talk with her about how they met, what his name was, how long they had been seeing each other, whether he was working or in school, and if I could see a picture of him, etc. There wasn’t much to it. They had met at a community event, and he was working.
Now, this wasn’t the first guy she had been with. Several guys had picked her up at our place in the past for dates, but with this new young man, I felt VERY annoyed around his presence when his car pulled up. He never stepped foot inside the house or introduced himself, and I still felt so annoyed! I had never had any impression like that with anyone else!
I couldn’t pinpoint why I was feeling that way, but the annoyed feeling kept rummaging over and over. His behavior seemed off like he had something to hide.
I kept agonizing about it all the time to my husband, saying, ‘I’m just annoyed by this guy! I don’t know why!’
One night at 2 AM, wide awake, I decided to google his name, and I gasped in horror at the first result on the page. He had been arrested and convicted of assault! I woke up my husband and showed him what I had found out.
A few hours later, we woke up the nanny and sat down with her about what we had discovered. She did not know about his past. We were so concerned that he may have done something bad to her (according to her, no) and begged her not to see this guy again because we did not want her or our children to be harmed. She agreed not to.
Unfortunately, like most predators, they are very good at grooming their victims. She told us several times that she wasn’t seeing him, but we discovered a few months later that they had continued to see each other in secret, and it was getting serious.
By that point, it was very hard to recover the trust we had in her because of the lying. We sat her down again and told her that as parents, we absolutely could not trust anyone with that sort of history and really did not want anyone caring for our children associated with someone like that.
I asked her, ‘Knowing his past, would you be comfortable leaving your niece or your child alone with him?’
She said yes, and at that point, we had no choice but to let her go and have her move on with her life with this man.
As a parent, I firmly believe in a mother’s intuition. Mothers have an innate need to protect their children! If something is off, it is!”
Don’t Let Her Fool You
“I remember when I first moved to New Orleans, my husband and I used to go to a little corner bar that had the best pizza in town. There was a woman who frequented it nightly, named Joy (she had it tattooed on her wrist so she wouldn’t forget it). The minute I laid eyes on her, I knew she was bad news. My husband said that when he was single several years back, he had tried to talk to her to see if she was someone he’d like to date, but she snubbed him cruelly.
She was sitting at the bar, drunkenly oozing like slime all over an older, obviously well-off gentleman who was EXTREMELY intoxicated. I was unabashedly making fun of her obvious attempts to dig for gold, pretending to be Sir David Attenborough narrating a nature documentary. Yeah, it wasn’t very nice of me, but it was just too good to pass up.
My husband said, ‘Honey, come on; don’t be so brutal. She’s just a pitiful little girl looking to be loved. She’s kinda sad.’
I immediately responded with ‘That’s her game: I’m a poor little thing with daddy issues; feel sorry for me and buy me stuff. That girl is working that dude like a pro.’
About 6 months later, my husband proposed to me! Along with the man of my dreams came a 3-carat diamond solitaire. We went to the bar a couple of days later to tell our friends there the good news!
Of course, ALL the women always said, ‘Let me see your ring!’
The lovely Joy happened to ask and remarked on how pretty it was. I gave a gracious ‘thank you.’
I went home to Chattanooga about a week later to see my family and start thinking about planning our little civil service. I was at the kitchen table talking to my Mom when the phone rang – it was my husband.
I said, ‘Hey, sweetheart!’, and the first words out of his mouth were ‘You were right.’ Huh? Right about what?
Apparently, he had gone over for a beer and pizza with our neighbors. They were eating at the bar, and who plopped down beside my husband? Yep, you guessed it. Joy.
She proceeded to try to talk to him, put her hand on his shoulder, which landed her a quick ‘please leave’ (my neighbors said it was hilariously cringeworthy).
She persisted, even trying to touch his leg. He became more annoyed, finally saying, ‘Look, five or six years ago, you wouldn’t give me the time of day. Now that you see I have a beautiful, intelligent, cool fiancée who happens to adore me, you’ve got to tear it down. You can’t stand to see anyone else happy. I’m sure, since you’re so disgustingly shallow, that ring played a huge part in your sudden interest in me. Now, get off me.’
He paid his tab, used his cane as a cattle prod to push her off him, and left. He rushed home to call me to tell me what had happened.
We laughed for a bit, and then he said, ‘I have no idea how you knew her deal in 10 minutes, but you hit the nail on the head! That woman is a total con.’
It happened quite often when I met new people; if I could spend just a few minutes with someone, I could figure out if they were terrible human beings or not pretty quickly.”
A Dog’s Instinct
“One night, I decided to throw a party at my old apartment. I invited my friends, and they brought some of theirs, and before too long, my little flat was packed. I wasn’t worried about it; it was a common occurrence for me to host such a party. Everyone was having a great time.
Until these ‘friends of some friends’ walked in that I had never seen before. The Black Lab/Australian Shepherd mix I had went absolutely crazy. Miah was a very people-friendly dog too, so her behavior was unnerving.
Not wanting to dampen the mood, I took Miah to her kennel, and my tipsy brain thought nothing of it again that night.
I woke up the next morning with a large amount of cash missing, my wallet, and a camera. It turned out those strangers had robbed me. I knew to always trust a dog’s instinct; however, I chose to ignore her warning and definitely paid the price.”
