The world can be a wild and unexpected place, so I'm not surprised to know that people have encountered some comically bizarre things. When BuzzFeed Community members started sharing the inexplicably strange moments they've witnessed or experienced, I was truly invested. Here are some of the best and oddest stories that people still think about to this day:
1. "When I was learning how to drive, my dad told me that I always had to pay attention to the road and it was important that I not be startled by anything I might see. A second after he said that to me, a man wearing a kilt and playing bagpipes ran in front of the car, chasing after a small hedgehog! How could I not be startled by that?!"
2. "My most unexplainable story takes place in a theater bathroom. I'd left my friend to use the restroom, and as I was sitting in the stall, I realized that the bathroom smelled like salsa. Curious, I went over to the next stall to investigate. Lo and behold, completely shattered on the floor was a glass jar with salsa oozing out. After finishing up in the bathroom, I reported the salsa to an employee, who reacted as if this type of thing happened all the time. To this day, my friend and I still celebrate the anniversary of the 'bathroom salsa' every year."
3. "Right after Thanksgiving, at an intersection down the street from my house, there was a guy dressed in a full Grinch costume dancing around on the sidewalk with a broken umbrella. I had no idea what was happening."
4. "When I was younger, I used to bartend in Philadelphia. One evening, a tall and unkempt gentleman wearing a long overcoat walked into the bar. He looked at me, reached inside his coat pocket, and produced a business card. He handed it to me in a very James Bond way and said, 'My card.' He then turned and walked out of the bar, never to be seen again."
—Joe, 66, Pennsylvania
5. "One day, I was chilling on my porch reading. All of a sudden, I heard all sorts of commotion. Turns out, two squirrels were fighting with two magpies over a slice of pizza."
6. "It was a few days before Christmas, and I was working in a suburban hospital. When I went to get on the elevator, there was a woman dressed like an elf. Whatever, right? People get dressed up for Christmas all the time. What really got me, though, was the miniature sleigh she had with her, which was filled with canned ham and was being pulled by several dachshunds. I told my coworkers, 'You've GOT to come see this!' But we looked around and couldn't find the elf woman anymore. We even asked around, and nobody had seen her. It was so strange."
—Julia, 54, Hawaii
7. "One day, my husband and I were walking on the path near our home. Then this guy wearing nothing but tiny shorts quickly walked past us. About half a mile down the path, we spotted the same guy standing on a bridge. Suddenly, he lifted this huge ram horn and started blowing into it. He kept it up for about five minutes, turned around, and walked back toward us. As he passed, he just casually nodded at us and continued on his merry way."
8. "I was riding the subway in London one day when a woman got on. There was a life-size poster of a man's head posted near the door, and the woman began talking to it. After a few minutes of this one-sided conversation, she slapped the cheek of the poster's head and turned away as if they'd just gotten into an argument. It was so odd."
—Anonymous
9. "I was in Massachusetts driving along a rural road when a small animal — a chipmunk, I think — ran out into the middle of the road and stopped. I stopped the car so I wouldn't hit it, and then the chipmunk stood on its hind legs and looked straight at me. I squinted and saw that the chipmunk was wearing a pair of tiny, baggy red shorts. We stared at each other for a long minute before it ran off into the woods. I tried telling people about this encounter, but after seeing their reactions, I quit talking about it. That happened 55 years ago, and it still boggles my mind."
10. "I was skateboarding in Lincoln Park in Chicago on a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon. There were people out and about — a bunch of cyclists, some geese, people walking their dogs, the usual. Suddenly, I saw a parakeet just strutting along the trail, looking like it was supposed to be there and had somewhere to be. Like, it didn't look as if it had escaped from a cage in some kid's bedroom, but more as if it does this every third Saturday of the month or something. I picked up my board because I didn't wanna scare the bird, but I didn't see any sign of the owner. The parakeet seriously looked as if it just had parakeet errands to do. As if that wasn't weird enough, I saw an older woman walking a huge tortoise a few minutes later. But she and the tortoise didn't appear to be acquainted with the parakeet, so that mystery remains."
—Adrian, 41, Chicago
11. "My now-husband and I were sitting in the living room of our first apartment at around 2 or 3 a.m., quietly watching TV. We heard the front door of the apartment building open, and what sounded like a group of five people came walking in, laughing. We heard them walk up the stairs. Then, loud enough that we could hear every word, they played the entirety of 'You Raise Me Up' by Josh Groban. When the song ended, we heard a big burst of laughter. Then the group came back downstairs and left the apartment building. I don't know what was so urgent that they needed to hear that song, but it was a treat to witness."
12. "I used to go to school in this wealthy residential neighborhood in LA. Every day when we were driving to school, we'd see an older woman walking her pet around the neighborhood. Said pet happened to be a pig — it had a leash and everything. To get it to walk, she used a bag of popcorn and left a popcorn trail for the pig to follow and eat."
—Delilah, 14, California
13. "I was working at Target when a woman approached me asking for vitamin E oil. As I walked her over to the section, she mentioned that she had a dermatologist appointment later in the week and hoped the vitamin E oil would help with her issue. After I gave my little safety speech about how you're not supposed to drink the vitamin E oil (sadly needed), she said to me, 'Oh, I know. It's for my hand, see?' She brings her hand up to show me, and I see that her thumb is dangling off her hand, barely connected by a few flaps of skin. I could see the bone and everything. I stood there in shock and suggested she go to the hospital, but the woman said she was fine to wait until her appointment. I'm not sure how she was so casual about it, but it was the strangest experience I've ever had."
14. "I'm an American woman who taught English in Japan for three years. I had a washing machine, but I had to go to the public laundromat because I needed to use a dryer. I was alone until a man came in. He hesitated once he saw me, but then he proceeded to take off his clothes, save for his underwear. He put his clothes in the washing machine and left wearing only his underpants. I sat there bemused, wondering what on earth was happening."
—Terri, 50, Louisiana
15. "When I was maybe 10 or 11, I was in the car, waiting for my sister to finish gymnastics. My mom was inside, but I wanted to stay and read in the car. It was a beautiful sunny day with a cloudless sky. For context, we lived in Southern California, so the weather was fairly predictable. I'd been reading for quite a while until I heard water plopping on the windshield. Sure enough, despite a perfectly blue sky, it was raining. I was perplexed and looked around at the other cars, but they weren't getting wet. I got out of the car to investigate, thinking there was a sprinkler somewhere nearby. But when I got out of the car, there was a comically tiny gray rain cloud low in the sky, hanging above my car. It looked as if I was in a cartoon! I ran inside to tell my mom, but when we got back to the car, the tiny cloud was gone. The car was wet, though!"
16. "One day, I was driving to work for a night shift. It was around 9 p.m., and I was at a stoplight with a van in front of me, waiting to make a left turn. When the van made its turn, the passenger door flew open, and a man and a random chair flew onto the road. Mind you, this was all happening right in front of me; I was frozen in shock. The van parked in the middle of the street, and the driver got out. The dude who fell from the passenger side slowly made his way back to the car; meanwhile, the driver picked up the chair and threw it back into the van. I laughed my way to work that night. Twenty or so years must have passed since that incident, and I still remember it, clear as day."
—Anonymous
17. "I was stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection. I then saw a man riding a unicycle across the street in front of me. He used one hand to push a baby stroller and another to talk on his cellphone. Talk about multitasking."
18. "When I was in the military in the 2010s, a friend and I always carpooled home after drill. We were in a very rural East Texas one evening with little to no reception, and my friend was behind the wheel because I don't like to drive. We were in the middle of a narrow road with no divider lines when, all of a sudden, he slammed on the brakes and swerved. Why, you ask? Because there, in the middle of the road, were two dogs 'doing it.' What made this incident more bizarre was that there was a long line of other dogs just patiently waiting for their turn. Aside from the fact that my friend nearly wrecked my car, it's something I still laugh about to this day."
—Kristi, 38
19. "It was close to midnight, and my wife and I were in the drive-thru for a late snack. It was sprinkling rain. While we were waiting in line, a woman, probably in her 20s, got out of the car in front of us, bent over, and pulled down her pants and underwear. She wasn't peeing or doing anything lewd, either. She literally leaned on the car and let the rain splash onto her naked bum for a few minutes. Once she had her fill, she pulled her pants back up and got in the car. To this day, I have no idea what she was doing."
—Josh, 46, Minnesota
20. "Years ago, when I worked at a public library, a woman came in carrying a plastic container with a mouse in it. She handed the container to me and asked me to watch it for her while she gathered her pickup items. She told me that the mouse was 'just napping' and she was planning to take it to the vet. I'm fairly certain it was already dead, though. I 'watched' the mouse for a few minutes until the lady finally came back for it and left. You see a lot of weird stuff at the library, but this was one of the weirdest things I've ever experienced there."
—Kate, 38, Pennsylvania
21. Last but not least: "Back in the '70s, my husband and I were still dating. Disney's Fantasia was playing in the theater, so we decided to watch it. We never did drugs all that much, but we thought it would be fun to smoke a joint and go see the movie. On our way to the theater, we were sharing a joint, and then all of a sudden, 25 police cars came flying down the street to block the intersection. My husband nearly swallowed the joint because he didn't know what to do! Then a huge semitruck came down the road, accompanied by a crowd of people pouring water on whatever was in the truck. It turns out it was an orca being transported to SeaWorld! We could not believe what we were seeing. Over forty-four years later, we still laugh when we recall the story. That was the last time we ever smoked a joint."
BRB, I need to lie down after reading some of these. Have you ever experienced a super-bizarre moment that you can't explain? Let me know down below in the comments, or you can anonymously submit using this Google form!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.