Let’s be real. We’ve all been on a date leaving us thinking, “I’m outta here!” Whether it’s the cringe-worthy pick-up lines, the weird food choices, or something else entirely, some unmistakable red flags can make you ghost your date faster than you can say, “Check, please!” In this article, we’re going to dive into some real-life dating horror stories and explore the warning signs causing these people to hit the eject button on their relationships. All content has been edited for clarity purposes.
Table of contents
1. “There Were Red Flags, Strange E-Mails, And Bizarre Behavior”
“I met someone online while casually dating after my divorce. In hindsight, I was a bit naive. I started talking to a guy who seemed nice and clean-cut, had a nice car, and had an impressive-sounding job. He started to get a bit intense, but I was blinded by excitement. So, I let him pick me up at my home on our third date.
Soon enough, there were some red flags, strange e-mails, and bizarre behavior. He was younger than me and became completely obsessive. I ended up cutting him off and he took it poorly. I started receiving crazy texts, calls, and e-mails asking why we couldn’t see each other anymore.
One of the texts read, ‘Why did you leave me? We could have had such good-looking kids.’
Weird.
When I didn’t reply, he started sending me texts and leaving voicemails cursing me out. I blocked him as best as I could and printed out screenshots of the messages just in case.
I told him, ‘Get lost and never contact me again,’ several times. He didn’t care.
Months later, I was seeing a new guy and pretty much forgot about the creep. I was visiting my aunt for New Year’s Eve one state away. On New Year’s Day, while driving home in a snowstorm, I received a call from the stalker.
He left a voicemail saying, ‘I’m driving by your house. If I don’t hear back from you, I’m going to stop by.’ WTF!
I was terrified. I called my aunt, who then advised me to call the police. I was worried my landlord would get upset if the cops were sitting outside when I got home. I called my then-boyfriend, but he was on vacation and couldn’t help. As a last resort, I texted my mom and immediately got a call back from my dad.
My dad asked, ‘What’s wrong? Is some guy bothering you? Send me his number. I’ll handle it.’
My dad called the guy. In his thick New York accent, he told the guy, ‘I hear you’re botherin’ my daughta. You better leave her alone or there’s going to be some serious consequences. You understand what I’m sayin’?’
A few minutes later, I got a text from the creep saying he just heard from my dad.
The text went on to explain, ‘I’m so sorry. You’ll never hear from me again.’
I didn’t know what my dad said at the time, but I could only imagine.
One year later, it was my birthday. As I was celebrating, I received a random text saying ‘New phone, who dis?’
I was convinced it was the same guy. The phone number had the same area code. Why would he have texted me on my birthday of all days? I never heard from him again afterward, but I was paranoid for a while. I wondered how many other girls had to go through the same thing.
Luckily, my current husband passed the sanity test.”
2. The Crazy Conspiracy Theorist
“A few years ago, there was a guy in my college history class. Over a few months, I would catch him looking at me. Eventually, he asked me on a date.
I said, ‘I’d love to,’ and we agreed to go to an Italian restaurant.
When I arrived at the date, he was nowhere to be found. Our date was supposed to be at 6 p.m., and he didn’t show up until 6:45. I was a very punctual person, so this got under my skin.
When my date finally walked in, he apologized profusely and said, ‘I’m sorry. I got out of baseball practice late, and I came as soon as I could.’
I let it go, and we started talking. He bragged and stressed to me about how he was in the minor leagues and about to go pro in baseball. Now, my date was 28 years old. I wasn’t too familiar with baseball, but I thought 28 years old was WAY too old to go professional. Plus, he looked like he hadn’t played a sport in years, but whatever.
After a while, we started talking about what we wanted for our futures.
He said, ‘All I want to do is get married and play baseball. Nothing else matters.’
‘So no kids?’ I replied.
‘Absolutely not. Why would I want to add ANOTHER murderer to the world?’ he said.
I just sat there with a blank stare. I didn’t know what to say!
‘Well, I think the odds of your child being a murderer are pretty slim,’ I remarked, trying to lighten the mood.
Then, he proceeded to cut me off and say, ‘Are you stupid? Pretty slim? Do you hear what you’re saying?’
Afterward, he went on a 40-minute rant about the Roman empire, mass murderers, and crazy conspiracy theories. He would go back and forth between this cool laid-back guy to a crazy the-earth-is-going-to-burn extremist. I ended up excusing myself to ‘go to the bathroom,’ found the waitress, personally left her a tip, then ran to my car and left.
When I saw him in class the following week, he completely avoided me. Like, picked up his desk and moved it across the room to avoid me. Every time I’d answer a question, he ALWAYS had a snarky rebuttal, even if my answer was clear-cut and correct. After so long, he dropped the course and I never saw him again.”
3. “There Was No Way I Would Have Been Safe Around Him”
“A couple of months ago, I went on a date with a man I met on Tinder. We chatted for a few weeks before deciding to meet each other.
When we finally went on the date, it went well. He was a nice guy, but I wasn’t particularly interested in him romantically after meeting him. As the date ended, I insisted on taking an Uber home, and my date didn’t push back. However, while we waited for my ride to arrive, my date went ahead and lunged at me fixing his lips on mine for a kiss.
I immediately pulled away and said, ‘Don’t touch me, and don’t EVER do it again!’
While this happened, I was leaning on his car, so I was essentially cornered. I couldn’t move much to escape. I struggled with him and managed to wriggle my way out of his hold and move away.
Just then, I saw the headlights of the Uber taking me home from a distance. I ran toward the car and didn’t even tell my date goodbye. I never saw or spoke to him again. Clearly, there was no way I would have been safe around him. I didn’t need another experience with him to figure it out.”
4. “No Wonder His Ex-Wife Was Angry”
“Recently, I went on a date with a tall, handsome, gentleman. At first, he seemed nice enough. He was funny and engaging, and he knew how to hold a conversation. Then, he started telling me about his ‘angry’ ex-wife and his daughter who was upset about her recent nose job. Weird, but it wasn’t enough to put me off, immediately anyway.
After we got off the subject of his ex-wife, and while sipping on wine in the lovely restaurant, he told me, ‘It’s SO easy for me to make money. Do you want to know how I do it? I manipulate people into doing whatever I want. I think it’s an admirable thing.’
I had to do a double-take. I replayed what he said in my mind and was SO disappointed.
I immediately thought, ‘Okay, wait. Am I being manipulated right now? If I let myself keep seeing this man, I’ll be manipulated next!’
The next day, I thanked him for the date, but I let him know we weren’t compatible. I never heard from him again.
No wonder his ex-wife was angry.”
