β€œThat’s when I learned that his family was connected to organized crime.”

I'm a Senior Staff Writer based in New York City, where I've been covering classic BuzzFeed-style content since 2020.

"This was five years ago now, but from what I remember, they definitely knew I heard them. I was like two feet away. I froze for a second and then turned and went straight into the kitchen. I was freaking out with the kitchen staff and trying to figure out what to do. When I came back out, they had paid cash and left. I debated calling the police, but had no other info besides what I thought I heard. I never heard anything about anyone drowning. I didn't keep it a secret, either; I have told this story a LOT. And this was a small town where people had nothing better to do than talk, so if there was a scandal, it was common knowledge what I had heard."

"I decided to just keep it to myself. He started buying us gifts and stuff, and I would get really scared, but I still just kept it to myself. I remember one day on the weekend, I woke up in my bed to a loud bang coming from my dad's room. I lay there in bed for probably half an hour, frozen. Once I worked up the strength, I went to his room and opened the door.

He wasn't in the bedroom. I was so confused until I saw that the bedroom window was open. What had happened was that there was a gust and the wind had slammed the door shut, but my paranoid brain had heard a gunshot. After that, I was laughing hysterically, and I don't have much memory of the day that followed.

Shortly after this incident, my dad returned most of the gifts he had bought us kids, and I slowly started to believe that he had changed his mind. I never confronted him about it until last year, about 14 years or so later, but I never fully accepted that he was okay now.

I called him distraught about a separate matter, and he started talking to me about depression. He told me on his own about how he had considered taking his life, and went into detail about it, and all I could do was cry and tell him 'I know.' We talked a lot longer after that, and we were finally able to put it all to rest."

"My aunt (mom's older sister) apparently got pregnant out of wedlock, and this letter from my grandparents was about how disappointed they were and what types of financial/emotional support they were willing to provide. I don't remember details, because it was at this point that my mom walked in and saw me reading the letter. I don't remember the details of that either, because I was flustered due to being caught, and she was flustered due to a family secret having been leaked. I have no idea if my cousin knows."

"Mind you, this was my very best friend. I spent more time at their home than my own. We went on vacation together. Her dad was a father figure to me, as mine was gone a lot. My friend told her mom, but I was not yet aware that she had. About a week later, I drove to their house as usual, and when I walked inside, her parents told me they needed to speak with me privately β€” just the three of us. Her mom asked me if I had told her daughter that I'd seen her husband kiss another woman. I said yes. They looked at each other, and then she laid into me about lying and how it can destroy marriages and reputations, and asked me how I could ever want anything bad to come of their home life, etc. He didn't say a word. He just stood there nodding as she scolded me. Years later, while I was out of state for college, I learned that they were divorcing and that the woman he was leaving her for had long red hair. Imagine that."

"As far as I know, she never found out, and I don't think anything else happened between them after that. I wasn't dumb enough to tell his girlfriend for fear my bro would string me up by my toes. My brother's a dick."

"I walked back to the car with a blank look on my face. I might have been in shock. My mom asked if there were presents in the car, and I shook my head no. She asked me what was wrong, and I shook my head again. She got out and walked to the van.

She came back and asked me if my dad and the lady were just sitting in the van when I walked in, and I shook my head yes (I had no idea what I should have done in this situation). I guess they had dressed and were just sitting there at this point. She kept asking what I saw, and I just couldn't say anything. Then we drove home and never spoke about it again."

"I thought he was going to hit me. I locked myself in my room for days. Only to come out when he was at work.

They stayed together... I never had the same relationship with my father. I went to therapy for months."

"Yes, she's amazing, and no, she never got in trouble. She was the second employee that the boss hired when he started the company two decades ago. This event happened almost nine years ago now, and she's still an indispensable employee.

My coworker, who unexpectedly saw the boobs, never heard what happened after that. Nobody talked about it, and everyone just carried on like it never happened."

"One of the functions of my job was to carry 'The BatPhone,' which had a direct line to an FBI office, because our corporation was pretty big on turning network intrusions into federal cases, and if the FBI wanted something, the FBI got it, warrant not required.

The guy had brought in a case of burned CDs full of child sexual abuse images and was distributing them off our network via LimeWire.

I missed dinner that night and had to keep what was happening from my wife for about a week before they finally arrested him, which put a strain on our relationship.

But that guy got sent off for a long time."

"I lay awake the rest of the night thinking about how close to dying I had come."

"To answer some questions about leaving quietly, I was just in shock at first and most likely stoned (hence the late-night kitchen trip). I remember watching them for a minute and then just being like, 'Eh, fuck them' and leaving. It went from 'he is groping my girl' to 'look at these two shitty people I don't need in my life' real quick. And at the time, it seemed important not to give them a chance to spew excuses to me and feel better about it because it wouldn't matter what they said. And the longer I didn't talk to them, the more cathartic it became. If it happened to me today, I don't know I'd manage that. That said, it was a long time ago, and I hold no long-term ill feelings toward them. In the big picture of awful things people do to each other, it sucked, but lots of people have worse stuff done to them all the time, and I ended up with a pretty great life. My reaction when seeing they were still together was more like, 'Huh, would you look at that.'

We had the same friend group, so it got passed on to them pretty quickly that I saw them. Those friends had my back and also stopped hanging out with them, which was nice."

"Yes, I still feel like shit. Yes, they're divorced."

"Anyway, it was not mentioned or shown on the show, so I'm guessing legal said 'hell naw.'"

"Then one day I walked into the owner's office while his secretary was recording figures in the ledger. I can read upside down pretty well, and it was very obvious that the figures she was recording had fuck all to do with the business we were doing. We sold maybe $60 of golf fees a night, and maybe $100 in coin cups, but she was recording $600 and $1,000 for each. I commented on the discrepancy and quipped that someone would think we were in the laundry business, and she got *really* squirrely and told me to leave the office.

The next day, the owner called me into his office, and we had a very circumspect conversation about how much I was enjoying working there and the perks of the job, and I very much got the sense that he was trying to decide if I was going to tell anyone anything. Apparently, he decided I wasn't (and I wasn't), and so I kept working there.

About a year later, the owner was arrested for money laundering, and we all got fired. Still the best job I ever had. The mob is an A+ employer, would work in a fake business again."

"There were texts with his family members that contained things like Social Security numbers and banking information. His contact list contained personal phone numbers for several of my teachers and school administrators. There was a number saved in his phone as 'Dr. Feelgood,' who was clearly a drug dealer, whom he appeared to be calling almost every day. I had him as a sub again, maybe a week or two later, and it was awkward, to say the least."

"I immediately forwarded the email to my personal address before IT realized and shut down the server. I contacted my union rep and the MD's boss and informed them of the ongoing theft and his behavior toward myself and colleagues, etc., etc. A huge investigation was started, and he got sacked. I no longer work there, but the people who still do are so glad he's gone. He was a prick."

Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.