While eavesdropping is typically considered rude, sometimes it’s unavoidable- especially when you’re overhearing some juicy gossip. These nosy people share about the best gossip they’ve ever heard while eavesdropping. Content has been edited for clarity.
Videos by Suggest
Why The Cold Shoulder?

“I used to get treated like a regular at the liquor store across the street from my house until one day the entire staff just started giving me the cold shoulder. I thought it was all in my head for a week, but then one of the cashiers wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. Finally, I asked if I had done something wrong.
Then the cashier told me that I make the entire staff uncomfortable because of what I told my friend the previous week. At first, I honestly had no idea what she was talking about, and I told her so. Then she said, ‘We overheard what your friend did to your niece, and what you had to say about it.’
That’s when it all started clicking! In the liquor store the week before, I was telling my cousin about how my new dog had humped my niece the last time he was over there, and how I put a stop to it immediately. I did say, ‘I mean he doesn’t know what he’s doing, if I were him I’d probably want to hump people too, but he and I had a long talk about how you need consent before you start touching people.’
The moral of the story, I think, is that sometimes you don’t always get the full story when eavesdropping, and sometimes context is everything.”
Investigation

“A few weeks ago, I went to have lunch with my parents downtown. It was a barbecue place with an outside seating area, so we ordered and sat out there. While waiting for our food to arrive, my parents and I happened to overhear a (very loud) conversation between an old couple and a well-dressed man at the table beside them. The couple started off by asking, ‘Are you a lawyer?’ The man said he used to be.
The couple launched into a story about how they were still being investigated for a 1999 murder inside their old home in Kentucky. Apparently, a family member had been staying with them for a while, and one night when showering, she slipped and busted her head on the marble bathtub.
The lawyer asked a few questions, and the old woman kept yelling, ‘There was blood! So much blood!’ She supposedly moved the corpse onto her bed where she tried to resuscitate the girl. It didn’t work, so she and her husband called 911.
After help arrived and the body was taken away, the old woman said she called a cleaning lady to get the blood stains out of her bedsheets (That poor, poor cleaning lady. I can’t imagine what went through her head when she saw that).
Anyway, the old couple was still talking about their court case even after my parents and I had already finished our meals and prepared to leave. On the way to our cars, we couldn’t stop talking about what we heard. The old couple looked so nice and innocent, and yet they were being investigated for murder.
I still find it hard to believe that I overheard that strange (and surprisingly loud) conversation between elderly citizens at a barbecue joint.”
Uh Oh!

“I was riding on a bus from Manila to Nasugbu in the Philippines. Keep in mind the Philippines is a very conservative country. There was the driver, two women well into their 60s, and me.
Everyone ignored me and assumed I didn’t speak or understand Tagalog. So they talked freely in front of me. The two women were talking in serious detail about their boyfriends. The conversation got loud, then silent very fast. I noticed how angry both of them were. That’s when I realized what had happened.
Somewhere during the conversation, they discovered they both had the same boyfriend. The rest of the ride the conversation was about how they could get back at him. They even asked the driver if he knew someone who could help. I was totally shocked by the boldness of the two women. I can only assume this boyfriend had plenty of so-called girlfriends.”
Rob, Bob, And Janet

“Around 10 years ago when I was about 20, I was contacted by my eye doctor’s office to participate in a trial of a new type of eye drop that was being developed. My part consisted of using the drops and then coming into the office every week and having my eyes examined. For this, I would receive monetary compensation at the end of the study.
On day one of the eye drop trials, I go into the office, check-in, and take my seat in the waiting room. An older couple, roughly mid-50s, was sitting a few seats away from me. There was no one else in the waiting room. I begin flipping through a magazine waiting to be called back when the man and woman started talking. The conversation began rather mundanely:
Husband: ‘I don’t know, how about Friday?’
Wife: ‘Saturday would be better I think, we don’t have to be anywhere the next morning.’
Husband: ‘Have you asked Jim what they’d be interested in?’
Wife: ‘Actually, I think we should ask Rob and Janet. I haven’t tried Rob.’
My ‘huh?’ radar goes off and I start paying closer attention.
Husband: ‘Rob? I thought you’d tried him.’
Wife: ‘No, ROB. Not Bob. I haven’t tried Rob. What do you think?’
Husband: ‘I would love to try Janet!’
At this point, I think, ‘SWINGERS. THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT SWINGER STUFF HOLY SHIT.’ They’re talking LOUDLY, and still, no one has come in or left the office. I continued flipping through my magazine and kept what was hopefully an uninterested expression on my face.
Wife: ‘We could invite all of them over and see who everyone feels like that night.’
Husband: ‘I think we need to stop by <local sex shop> after this and pick up some provisions.’
Now I’m thinking this whole eye drop thing is a scam and I’m on some hidden video show. For some reason, I adopt a ‘screw you guys, I’m not falling for it’ attitude and keep reading my magazine with no expression on my face, while these old dirty birds continue their conversation about Rob and Bob and Janet for the next ten minutes.
I’m finally called up to the reception desk where they told me the trial was canceled and sent me home with part of the compensation. I still have no idea wtf was going on in there that day.”