From seeing topless women prancing around the house, to an addict who also suffered from PTSD yelling at himself, workers who go to people's homes share the most startling thing they've seen.
(Content has been edited for clarity)
A Traumatic Experience
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“A couple years back, I worked as a delivery guy for a pizza place. I went to a trailer in a really terrible part of town. This older lady answered the door. She went into another room to get some cash (I assumed). She came back wearing nothing but an open robe, exposing most of her lady parts. I noticed this and tried to make as little eye contact with her or her body as possible. I gave her the receipt and she said (I can’t make this up), ‘I can give you a different kind of tip.’ Those words still haunt me in my sleep.
Anyways, I told her, ‘No, thanks,’ and left. That was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life.”
Witness Of A Relapse
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“I used to deliver regularly to this addicted woman who would be too messed up to count her own money. She suddenly after two years got her life together. She started answering the door in her work clothes with her hair tied up. Her house started getting cleaner, but she never did get rid of the giant paper-chandelier that was made for a living room much bigger than hers.
I watched her relapse and get clean several times. I sincerely hope she’s doing ok.”
Getting Paid For NOT Tutoring That Day
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“I used to work as a personal tutor, nothing too heavy; I’d go around to people’s houses in the evenings and teach their kids maths, English, exam technique, that sort of thing. I usually got half-terms weeks off, as most people didn’t really want their kids to be tutored when they weren’t in school. One woman didn’t cancel her kid’s class (I figured because they were coming up to exam season, so I didn’t really question it), and so I went along with my little whiteboard and revision guides and everything, same as usual.
The mother answered the door in a pretty expensive-looking silk dressing gown (unusual for her, because she always had a pretty strict straight-to-business vibe about her) and a full face of makeup even though it was five o’clock in the afternoon. I’ve never seen such a look of disappointment on anyone’s face before or since. She hurriedly explained to me that her daughter wasn’t home and she didn’t want a class that week and pretty much pushed £20 (my hourly rate) into my hand for my trouble. Fair enough, no skin off my nose, free money as far as I’m concerned.
I got back in my car and a couple of minutes later I saw a man who was emphatically not her husband head up the path at the side of the house. I’m not saying she was having an affair, but even enough I tutored the daughter for another six months, I never saw the husband again. Funny, that.”
He Always Regretted That They Never Invited Him In
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“I used to work for a company that operated in the same way as Uber Eats, except it was a local company and didn’t operate outside of a few cities. I went to a house to drop off a delivery and when the girl opened the door, a massive cloud of smoke came out. She was getting her money out and as she was digging through her purse, I saw another girl walk by, topless, followed by another one wearing just lingerie. They both saw me, laughed and said something to each other underneath their breath, then ran into the kitchen. I don’t know what exactly was going on in that house but I’m upset that they didn’t invite me in.”
No Embarrassment
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“I work in hotels. Tons of crazy stuff has happened. One that comes to mind is a group of four girls asked for some extra towels or something and I was free, so I decided to run them up myself. The door was cracked so I knock and they told me to come in. I walked in and two were naked and the other two were in their bra and panties. They didn’t bother to cover up or seem embarrassed or anything. So I gave them the towels, they said thank you and I left. Can’t say I minded, but it was very strange.”
Things That Happen In The Poor Part Of Town
“I used to deliver pizza, we used to deliver to this one pretty poor part of town that was mostly motels and such. A rule that most of the hotels had was that you couldn’t go upstairs to the people, but I’m not waiting for Jim to come downstairs with his lazy butt when I’ve got pizzas getting cold in the car.
First one was a hotel room with a few guys making a ruckus and when they opened the door, I could see they were doing illegal narcotics in their room. They even offered me some as a tip. Needless to say, I didn’t accept.
The second one was this really chill guy who I know for a fact was a dealer. One day I guess he ordered pizza a little too soon after accepting a shipment. He and his co-workers had many large Ziploc bags on the table and scaled out. Definitely, felonious quantities where I lived.
Finally, there was the time where I had a weapon pulled on me. Not like to rob me but because the guys were gang affiliated and they thought that I was whoever they were hiding from. They gave me a $60 tip on a $25 order so I didn’t complain.”
A Nudist And An Awkward Encounter
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“I delivered pizza for a few years back in college. Once a reasonably attractive girl answered the door just completely naked. I got no vibes from it, it was just a matter of fact thing. It was like a normal transaction except she was naked. She wasn’t trying to stay behind a door like she just got out of the shower or something, she just opened the door wide open and was standing there. Maybe she was a nudist. Who knows.
The other one was just depressing. A woman had one too many drinks and was coming on to me very hard. I was just trying to get out of there. She even went as far as saying, ‘Say you got lost for a while and come in.’
So I was trying to just play dumb and get out of there, telling her I had other deliveries to take and she asked me how old I was. I told her and she said, ‘That’s how old my daughter was…when she died,’ and broke down sobbing uncontrollably.
I didn’t know what to do. I tried to console her a little bit but I really did have a bunch of other deliveries in my car. I didn’t even take her money, I just left. I told the restaurant that nobody was home.”
Just Casually Hanging Ou In Her Sheer Robe And Heels
“A lady lived in one of the more exclusive developments up on a hill used to answer the door wearing a sheer robe, bikini bottoms, and heels. She was probably in her mid 30’s and drop-dead gorgeous. She’d pay by check, writing it out on a table just opposite the door, bent over at the waist, showing off her butt. She always tipped well, and I don’t just mean the peep show.
There was another lady who answered the door wearing just heels, but she wasn’t attractive in any way. She asked if I’d come in for a while. Nope, I have a lot of pizzas to deliver.”
The Pizza Guy Had Front Row Seats To Watch Him Fight With His Inner Demons
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“I deliver pizzas, and we have a regular named John. The first time I ever delivered to John (who lives in a duplex complex), I heard the most angry shouting from inside. I rang the doorbell, the yelling went on for another few seconds, and John came to the door acting kinda funny. He tipped huge (like $10 on a $15 order), and thanked me profusely and closed the door. My first assumption was that John was yelling at his girlfriend/wife. This was not your average disagreement yelling either. Imagine a Drill Instructor yelling at new recruits, turned up 5x. I figured he probably beats his wife and was trying to cover it up for being caught screaming, tipping me big to put me at ease and make sure I didn’t run to any authorities. Felt pretty sleazy.
Turns out he was a retired marine, an addict, and also suffered from pretty bad PTSD. He lived alone, with his dog, and was oftentimes beyond any form of coherence if he had been drinking. I had found him passed out on his porch, unable to write tips, slurring everything into one long word. According to my managers, John’s a super nice guy with some demons. I’ve come to conclude he was yelling either at himself or maybe he was suffering from delusions or schizophrenia.”
He Witnessed Her Pooches Having a Great Time
“For my first ever job, I helped deliver groceries for a chain supermarket right when shopping from home became available to everyone. We’d get a lot of people with young kids, senior citizens, and professionals that commute from the city. One of our regulars was a lovely older couple. They were two of my favorites just because they were very nice people. We always had a lovely conversation and the husband insisted on helping me with the bags and tipping, etc. Well, they had a few dogs. Very well behaved. Except for this one time I came with their weekly order. After knocking on the door with my clipboard, the woman answered and that’s when I saw it: two of their dogs going at it. She was oblivious to the situation. It was hard for me to keep a straight face, rattling off her food order while her pooches were on the pound-town express.”
The Stereotypical Pizza Guy Fantasy Isn’t What It’s Cracked Up To Be
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“I’m a pizza guy in an already not wonderful area and aside from the occasional people you don’t want to see in their underwear answering the door in their underwear, one delivery stands out.
I took a run late at night to one of the lower class roach motels in the area. The amount was on a credit card so when I was making the exchange, I handed the guy the slip through the door that he was barely holding open enough to hand it through and I watched as he signed, but didn’t put a tip.
No worries there, any pizza guy or girl will tell you stiffs happen and there’s no point worrying about it. But after he handed it back, I noticed him check his pockets so I thought, ‘Okay maybe he doesn’t want it on the card and has a couple bucks,’ but he clearly came up empty. So I handed him the pie and this played out:
Him: ‘Hey sorry man I ain’t got no tip for you.’
Me: ‘Oh that’s fine sir, it’s no problem.’
Him: ‘No, wait,’ and he started looking around for a second before opening the door and gesturing like Monty Hall on let’s make a deal and said, ‘You want a go with my girl?’
And I noticed in the dark, on the bed is this girl laying on her stomach naked.
Now, this may be the stereotypical pizza guy fantasy, but I was trying to get money, not STDs, and I was certainly not trying to get with someone too cracked out to notice her guy selling her out for a cheese pizza.
Me: ‘Uhh no no, that’s okay sir.’
Him: ‘No, it’s cool. She gives great dome.’
Me: ‘…I’m good sir,’ and I turned on my heel and got out of there.”
The Sketchy, Suspicious House
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“So I deliver adult beverages and there’s this one address that we call the crack head house because every time we deliver there, whoever answers the door is strung out on something or another.
So one day I went to this house and some greasy looking guy opens up, looking pretty out of it, nothing new. The inside of the house behind him was pitch black, but I could hear that there are other people in the house. I told him the cost and he fumbled around with some crumpled up cash before just handing me the whole wad. I counted it out and it wasn’t enough, so I told him that he was short.
‘Ah sorry, man. Let me…hold on.’ He stepped out of the doorway, letting the sun, the only source of light, illuminate a tiny bathroom, maybe about 20 feet away inside the house. I looked up and made eye contact with someone sitting on the toilet, hunched over, craning their neck to look at me and squinting from the sunlight. After about 10 seconds of a really uncomfortable staring contest, I noticed this person had a needle sticking out of their arm. The person just slowly closed the bathroom door, while still holding eye contact with me.
I then heard some ruckus going on inside the house, like banging around, some muffled loud-talking, then a door slam. The greasy guy came back looking kind of disheveled, and he kept looking past me like someone was behind me or something. He shoved some more crumpled up cash at me saying something like, ‘My bad, man! My fault! This should be right now. Sorry about! My bad!’ The whole time, he was speaking kind of quickly and his eyes are darting back and forth between looking at me and looking behind me.
I barely even took the cash out of his hand before he shut the door. I kind of just stood there for a second thinking what did I just witness. I turned to walk away and I heard the banging around and muffled yelling start again. I didn’t know what was going on in that house but I didn’t really think it was any of my business.”
The One House That Stood Out
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“I drove for a local pizza place for a few months and you do meet quite a few interesting characters as time goes on but one house stands out in particular.
First was an elderly couple that I had delivered to on a few occasions, really nice people who always invited me in when it was raining, tipped well and overall really friendly. Fast forward a few months later, wife answered the door in a nightgown, odd since it’s the middle of the day but they’re retired, who am I to judge. I was invited in to set the pizzas down for them and out of the back room walked out three other older gentlemen dressed in tank tops and boxer shorts. The thing that got me was I basically walked into the aftermath of a geriatric love-making session and how normal everyone was about it. As it turned out they’ve been customers for a long time (this shop’s been in business for over 20 years) and one of the owner’s kids has walked in on far worse.”
Ivan Managed To Ruin That Man’s House In Only 10 Minutes
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“The worst thing I ever saw was actually caused by another driver in our store, let’s call him Ivan. I was working as a shift manager and occasional driver at the time and I got a call from my boss while I was out on a delivery. He said he had an irate customer calling and screaming at him about one of the other drivers, but he wasn’t sure exactly what was going on except that the guy kept shouting, ‘ITS EVERYWHERE! HE RUINED IT.’ He couldn’t get a clear answer out of the guy and Ivan wasn’t answering his phone, so he wanted me to go check it out. Now, Ivan was a recent Eastern European immigrant who didn’t speak much English and was a bit of a fish out of water, but he seemed to be picking things up pretty quickly.
I headed to the address and everything looked fine from the outside, but I barely made it out of my car before the front door slammed open and this furious little old guy came flying out of the front door, screaming at the top of his lungs. He kept saying, ‘IT’S EVERYWHERE. YOU HAVE TO FIX IT!’ as he dragged me over to the open door and just pointed at the stairs, which looked like they’re drenched in water. I stepped closer and then the smell of feces hit me and I realized what was all over the stairs.
I walked the old guy outside of the house away from the smell and finally got at least the gist of the story from him. Apparently, Ivan asked to use the bathroom as he was dropping off the pizzas (definitely against policy), and the guy decided to let him. So Ivan went on upstairs, was up there for 10 minutes or so and the owner started getting worried about the strange guy he let into his house. He heard the toilet flush ‘two or three times’ and then Ivan came barreling downstairs and out the door, not even stopping to say thank you. The old guy thought he heard water still running, so he headed upstairs and found the toilet overflowing and still running, feces water all over the floor and starting to leak into the hall.
I got on the phone with my district manager and explained the situation. He told me to inform the guy that we are in no way responsible, as its policy for our drivers to never go into a customer’s house. He said to tell the guy to hire a plumber and to offer him a free pizza next time he orders to ‘make up for it.’ The guy started yelling again but I just got in my car and rolled out. As I was leaving, he was just standing there staring at his front door with his hands on his head.
Ivan never called the store, never showed back and as far as I’m aware, never answered his phone when we called. Just disappeared.”
The Strangest Delivery Experience
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“There was this guy I delivered to a few times in college. My boss kinda gave me a look as I went out the door with the food and I knew I was in for something.
When I arrived, it was a pretty nice house. Normal looking guy, wearing scrubs but something told me he wasn’t a doctor. He invited me in as some people do.
In the middle of his living room was a woman, completely naked.
She stood up, walked over and asked what he ordered. I worked at a calzone shop near my college so, you guessed it, calzones. She was still completely naked, and as I tried not to look, he said, ‘Go ahead, look! Isn’t she beautiful?’
I politely agreed. He smacked her behind and she ran away to lay on the ground reading a magazine or something. He ushered me over to this amazing glass bar and started pouring himself a drink. He offered me one, I may or may not have accepted.
We started talking. He had all sorts of advice on women, and what this girl likes while she occasionally overheard and giggled. Then he said, ‘Yeah you probably have to head out. Here you go. Keep the change and I’ll see you again sometime.’
He gave me a $14 tip on a $12 order.
Strangest experience I’ve had by far. Every time I delivered there, it was a different girl butt naked in his living room.”
Forgetting To Put On A Shirt
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“A couple years ago, I was working for a Pest Control and was still being trained on doing the regular inspections. My co-worker and I walked up to this one house and knocked on the door. A woman in her mid-20s opened the door and was completely topless. She looked incredibly tired and 100% disinterested about who could have been at her door. Once she saw that it was us, she said something like, ‘Oh that’s right, you were coming by today. Please, come in.’ We followed her into the house and we saw a crib with a newborn baby sitting in it. About halfway to the couch, she realized that she was topless. She apologized and put a shirt on. She had just finished breastfeeding her son and didn’t even realize she didn’t have a shirt on. My co-worker and I were very understanding and professional about the whole thing. That is until we got back into the truck and laughed about it all the way to our next stop.”
The Awkward Encounter With A Cheating Wife
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“I used to go door to door delivering reviews and evaluations, I may have gone stupid now but it had to do with statistics. It mainly had to do with the neighborhood and anything that might need more attention.
I knocked on the door of a house in a somewhat weird neighborhood. It was a mix of higher and lower income families and no in-between.
A guy answered in just his pants and I noticed a woman running around trying to look for something, the most memorable thing about it was the guy was around twenty and the woman looked twice his age.
I went around some more and arrived at the last house, the same woman answered the door. I remembered her and she remembered me, as indicated by her pale face.
Her husband saw me and answered for her, she just walked away. I honestly don’t know what happened to her but it was awkward talking to the guy knowing a younger man was inside his wife a couple of hours earlier.”