We asked the BuzzFeed Community for the most embarrassing lies they've ever been caught in. Here are the awkward and cringeworthy responses.
1. Heather with glasses:
"My sister once faked wearing glasses for an entire year and my parents didn't find out until her school pictures came in. About two weeks after that, my parents went in for parent-teacher conferences and the teacher kept referring to my sister as “Heather” (her name is Haley). It turns out, she had been telling her teacher that she goes by Heather. So for an entire year my perfect-sighted sister named Haley lived a double life as a girl named Heather who wore glasses."
2. My cousin Sully:
"I once told my boss that I couldn’t go to work because my cousin was on the plane that landed on the Hudson. When I went back to work, she asked where my cousin was going. I had no clue and couldn’t even play it off!"
3. The Tamagotchi accident:
"When I was a child, I borrowed my friend’s Tamagotchi and promptly lost it. When her mother confronted me about losing it, I told her that I had dropped it on the street and a car hit it and flipped over, causing another car to crash. I wasn’t able to pick up the Tamagotchi from the street because I had to talk to the police. I thought this would be VERY convincing."
4. Stranger danger:
"When I was about 7 or so, my dad took me to one of my swim meets. He embarrassed me by telling someone something personal, so apparently I thought it was a good idea to act like he wasn’t my dad. I told everyone I met there that I was an orphan. I took it a little too far and started screaming 'stranger!' when my dad came over to talk to me. The cops had to come and question him because they thought he was trying to kidnap me and I had to go admit to everyone that I lied about not having parents."
5. Lie to me, Sandra Dee:
"I told a bunch of people at work that I had never seen the movie Grease when, in reality, I had seen it several times. It proved to be a weirdly hard lie to keep up with, especially because I had no motivation other than boredom for lying in the first place. For no particular reason one day, I was humming 'Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee,' (not even one of the more memorable Grease songs) and my co-worker called me out."
—Cat Tildy Chapman, Facebook
6. The accent's all wrong:
"I was a teenager working retail at a store that sold cheap souvenirs to tourists. When I was bored, I would try out different accents as I rang up customers. One day, a customer asked me where my accent was from, and for whatever reason, I said New Zealand. 'Nope, not even close to a Kiwi accent,' he informed me. I was rather committed to this lie (which seemed infinitely better than the truth) until my co-worker came up to the register and asked me what I was doing. I am 36 years old and still mortified by this."
—Apollina Vita, Facebook
7. A death in the family:
"In first grade I told my teacher and class that my mom's sister died in a plane crash. My teacher sent home a letter telling my mom how sorry she was to hear what had happened. My mom was so mad, she made me stand in front of my whole class and apologize for lying."
—Jill Abbott, Facebook
8. Bad to the bone:
"When I was 5, in an act of rebellion, I wrote my name in permanent marker on the back of my dresser (I wanted to be bad, but not too bad). Eventually, my mom found it and confronted me about it. I lied and told her my brother did it. He was 3 months old."
9. Luck of the Lie-rish:
"When I moved to a new city, I told everyone I was born and had lived in a different country. I told this lie to a guy I started dating… We’re now married. He finally met my family and realized they weren’t from Ireland. We were on a road trip and out of nowhere he came out and said, 'You’re not from Ireland are you?'"
10. Twin lies:
"On a Friday in fifth grade, I wanted to go to the movies with my cousins instead of doing my homework, so I lied and told my mom we didn’t have any homework that weekend because our teacher was giving birth to twins and we had a sub. She believed me and I was free to go to the movies. In school on Monday, I was the only student who didn’t do their homework, so I told my teacher my mom had given birth to twins and I was at the hospital all weekend. My teacher believed me until about 20 minutes later when she called my mom to congratulate her."
11. Friends with Paula:
"When I was 9, I told a friend of mine that I had met Paula Abdul (this was in the early '90s) and that she had given me front-row tickets to her concert. I kept the lie going until eventually her parents called mine asking for details."
12. Lie times five:
"So in third grade, I watched the Disney Channel Original Movie Quints. At the time, my mom had a pregnancy scare and, being a great child, I decided to tell my entire class (including my teacher) that my mom was having quintuplets. This went on for months without anyone questioning me beyond just asking how my mom was doing. Then I had a choir concert and one of my teachers (who had had twins) asked my mom if she wanted baby clothes. My mom wasn't having a baby, and I was in trouble for the rest of the year."
13. The late gift:
"I didn’t have the money to give my friends a gift at their wedding, so the next time I knew I was going to see them, I cut a check and wrote a lovely card all about how fun the wedding was. When we got together, I felt so embarrassed that I panicked, forgot what I had written, and told them I had left their gift at home and that’s why it was so late. Then they opened the card and read my lie to my face."
14. Just one lung:
"In fifth grade, I said I only had one lung to a teacher as some sort of excuse to leave class. It actually worked, but then she repeated it in front of my mum and PE teacher (who had known me since kindergarten) saying how brave I was for doing PE when I only had one lung."
15. Henna but forever:
"'No mom, it’s not a tattoo. It’s henna!' She believed me for about a year before looking up what henna was online and I finally had to come clean."
16. Double Bubble trouble:
"When I was 6, I stole a pack of Bubble Tape from Kmart. It wasn't until we were in the car that my mom noticed. She asked where I had gotten the gum and I said my grandmother. My mom then called my grandmother, who told her that she hadn't given me any gum. My mom took me back to Kmart and made me apologize to all the employees, and then she bought four packs of gum, one for each of my siblings, and none for me."
—Beth Burgess, Facebook
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.