People Share Their Worst "It Isn't What It Looks Like" Moments


Life is made up of moments and memories that connect along the way like dots on a map. "Remember that time?" Or... "Remember when you?" Those are things you find yourself saying pretty consistently right? Lord knows how those sentences end though. They can be tales of laughter from joy or tales of laughter from embarrassment and tears. We all have those moments where we've been caught in a... shall we say... "delicate" position. And when you're in the moment no matter how hard you try... the words coming out of your mouth will NEVER make sense.

Redditor _leopardgreen wondered how people explained away some cringe worthy life moments by asking... What's the worst 'this isn't what it looks like' situation you've ever been in? If you have to say that... you've already lost. Just take the strike and run.


Got pulled over for expired tags, trooper asked me for my license and registration. Forgot that I had placed a pellet gun in my glove box to freak out a friend, opened said glove box and a very real looking metal revolver drops onto seat. State trooper unsnaps his holster and takes a half step back. Explain the situation to him, he checks the gun, and tells me to keep it in my trunk. Ticket got dismissed 2 months later.


In the wonderful year 2000, I was about 10-11 years old. At the time X-Men had come out, and it was also around this time that the internet was (sort of) booming. The only computer in our house that was set up to the internet was in my older brothers' room---2 older brothers, they shared a room. One particular weekend my brothers were away with some friends out of state, and I had a friend spend the night over. We went into my brothers' room to see what dumb things we could look up on the internet. We randomly started typing things into the URL bar like, Generic kid stuff. friend suggests we go to as we had recently watched the loads, except it was NOT the movie, it was a adult film site. The screen was suddenly inundated with pop ups and none of the windows had Xs to close out. Being young and stupid we did the logical thing....turned off JUST THE MONITOR and ran out of the room. That would surely make it go away. Except it didn't, and the next morning my super Catholic mother had many questions for us. I don't think she believed for a second that we weren't actually trying to look those up.


I've been caught breaking into my own place several times. Once by a cop. I had to show him my drivers license to prove I lived there. After that he held the window open for me so I could get through. 10/10 would let cop help me with B&E again.


Oh man, I've got one for this. I had an office job and there was a woman in my team that I got along with pretty well. She was about medium height and blonde with a pony tail - i.e. she looked a lot like a whole lot of other women in Australia.

She got a promotion to another part of the business on another level, so I didn't see her day-to-day after that. Then one day, I see this medium-height woman with a pony tail bent over the dishwasher (which is on the ground) in our kitchen. I think it's my old co-worker and I walk up to double-check, because I'm puzzled why she's down on our level of the building again.

She looks behind her, and it's some other woman I've never met before. All she sees is a large male stranger, standing behind her, staring at her butt while she's bent over the dishwasher. I can't even remember what awkward excuse I mumbled before I got out of there. But yeah, that was two years ago and I still cringe thinking about it.


I worked at an outdoor shop and it would be freezing in the morning. So, I took a beanie and cut out eye holes and a mouth hole to protect me from the elements. It wasn't something that I had mentioned to my wife until she was doing laundry and found this "mask." She was convinced that I was a burglar of some sort.


Not necessarily bad, but kinda funny. Playing Ark I recently had a moment like this with another player, I was the one that caught the moment.

I'm running around minding my own business when I get a message that one of my dinosaurs I left inside my base was killed. Of course I rush back, and I see everything I own on fire. Guy inside my building and he's shooting fire arrows at my dinosaurs. I charge him and he starts screaming over the voice chat "THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE I SWEAR, I'M SORRY I'M SORRY." I killed him and after he reveals what happened, he was flying over my base, accidentally hit the dismount button, and fell in. He landed on some spikes I set up for defense and it triggered my dinosaurs to attack him.

I don't think I'll ever forget the desperation in his voice as I see everything burning and him screaming, "THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"


One time two of my college friends and I decided we wanted to give our friends who were girls flowers just to be nice. Unfortunately, we we're all completely broke so we decided the next best option was to take flowers from the school arboretum.

We waited until dark to go because obviously they wouldn't let you just take flowers. The problem was security was out there at night to stop people who would do drugs etc. We were on our way out with the flowers when one security guard heard us walking. We gave the flowers to one of my friends who hid while my friend and I got escorted back to our car and we're informed that if they caught us doing drugs we would be in a lot of trouble. I saw that security guard around a lot more and he always looked at me funny. I never told him I wasn't doing drugs I just was stealing flowers.


I recall when I went to a fancy dress ball early on at University. Being a big film lover, I thought it would be great to go as Lawrence of Arabia. Found myself a great costume, the full flowing robes etc. So far so good.

However, it was only a month or two after 9/11 and I simply hadn't connected the dots. A lot of people thought I'd gone as Osama Bin Laden and my attempts to tell them about the life of T.E. Lawrence fell on deaf ears. A fair few death threats received that night.


Years ago, I was working in DC and walked outside to get some lunch. It was freezing, so I dressed appropriately - heavy coat, knit cap, black gloves. I start walking west toward a falafel shop a few blocks away and there's a gaggle of girls about 50 yards ahead of me on the sidewalk, chattering away. I don't really give them a second glance but am walking quickly because, again, it was freaking freezing.

So maybe a block later, all of a sudden a dude walks up beside me and starts acting super weird. I slow down, he slows down. I speed up, he speeds up. I ask him what the deal is, he refuses to answer me, and I decide I'm gonna cross the street and he grabs my arm and says"we're just gonna keep walking together for a little while longer." It's at this time that I notice his earpiece. And his partner across the street, walking parallel to us.

A block later, I'm at my destination, so I go right, just as the group of girls turns left and this guy breaks off to cross the street. Apparently it was Hannah Montana and her friends, and her security detail thought I was a legitimate threat.


I walk into the high school woman's restroom during third period (morning). Head of the Muslim Student Association (female, in hijab) is sitting on the sink, sitting really close to the male redneck football player, talking and smiling and stroking his football shorts. She sees me, I freeze. She yells, _"THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE." He's frozen in place. I look at them both. I say _"I saw nothing." _and start to leave. She panics again and says nothing is going on, please don't say anything. I tell her _"Nope. Wasn't here. Bye" and leave.

She gave me the nervous side eye in the hall every time she saw me after that for like a year.

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