Tinder definitely has its share of conveniences: You can find local flings with just a swipe. But dating apps also have downfalls, like being full of creeps.
If you're one of the 50 million people who use Tinder, you likely have at least one memorable date story.
One user recently asked other Redditors to share their worst Tinder experiences, and some responses might be enough to make you delete the app or quit dating altogether.
What's your Tinder horror story?
'I got auto-zoned.'
If you're meeting strangers from the Internet, it's best to take precautions for your own safety: Meet in a public place, let someone know where you're going, etc. But you should also take care to ensure the safety of your personal belongings.
Redditor pointynipples69 shared the story of a friend who was far too trusting with his Tinder date:
"My buddy isn't the smartest man. He picked a chick up and drove to a motel. They were walking into the room and she says, 'Oh sh*t, I forgot my purse in the car do you mind if I go grab it?' He says, 'Yeah that's fine,' and tosses her the keys. 5 minutes later he walks outside wondering where she is and his car is gone."
'Have you seen my child?'
Once in a while, it feels like you hit the jackpot: You're on a Tinder date with a smart and attractive person you have chemistry with.
That was the case for Savannahsusername, until their date turned into an uncomfortable slideshow of kid pics:
"There was this guy, he was a solid 10 in his pictures. He messages me, asks me if I want to meet up for coffee, so I say yes. He messages me and tells me that I have to pick him up... I was all, okay fine. I pick him up, we go eat, he's super funny and cute, so I invite him back to my place and we start smoking. He then pulls out his phone and proceeds to tell me that he has a son and his baby momma took him and left and he has no idea where they went. Then he hands me his phone and tells me to go through the folder in his pictures and it's all pictures of his son. Like 300 of them, and he sat there and made me look at every single one. I felt so bad, I didn't want to hurt his feelings but man I was happy when he left."
'Dating is a crapshoot.'
Some Tinder horror stories are so extreme, they almost sound fake.
Redditor Saramanders needed a last-minute date for a Passover dinner, so they turned to Tinder, where luckily, they found a match.
"He wore a vest and a news boy hat, then introduced himself with a bow and a hat flourish," they wrote.
Unfortunately, the night only went downhill from there.
"He refused to eat any of the food because 'things on the plate were touching' (It was f*cking soup) and wouldn't shut his mouth during the 12 minutes of Seder. When it came time for his train home, he purposely missed it so he could stay the night.
After a movie with uncomfortable levels of hoverboob, I convinced my friend to come with me to drive him to the nearest train station. During the ride he thought was the best time to tell me he was schizophrenic but didn't take medicine because 'it was the devil.' He tried to hold my hand, saying that they were small and made him feel like a pedophile."
The horror story didn't end there.
"The night ended with him telling me he was going to sh*t on the subway and write my name in it," they said. "There was no second date."
'Seemed good on paper.'
Redditor PM_ME_A_SULTRY_LOOK matched with someone they dated for about a month.
"Seemed good on paper: masters student, yoga teacher, cultured, etc.," they wrote.
Everything about her seemed great, until she revealed that she recreationally engaged in heroin: "I actually had to explain to her the definition of a high functioning addict because she felt that having a job and going to school meant the heroin thing wasn't a problem. We broke up and she went back to her junky ex-bf."
Apparently, enough Redditors messaged the user to warrant a response: "lol all the people PMing me trying to confirm if I was simultaneously dating their own sh*tty gf. If you find yourself wondering if I'm describing your gf, you should just break up with her immediately."
There might be more heroin-using, yoga-practicing, graduate students on Tinder than one would assume.
'Are you a crazy cat lady?'
Redditor DrTobagan might vouch that there is such a thing as too much pussy.
After matching with a girl on Tinder, he wound up at a barbeque with her and her co-workers on the same night:
"I'm pretty hesitant to this at first as I don't want to meet someone for the first time at some bbq. I caved and I ended up meeting her at this bbq and in all honesty, it was pretty fun. L and I are getting along pretty well, she's trying to feed me shots of rum (I don't have any because I have to work in the morning), and all is pretty damn great."
That's when things got weird.
"She abruptly says 'Okay, I'll talk to you later' and leaves. Confused, I drive my ass home and as soon as I get off the freeway she shoots me a text saying 'You could have come over to my house if you asked.' I tell her I still can, she shoots me her address, and I turn my ass around and speed to her house.
I pull up to her house and she meets me out front and greets me as I walk up. As I'm walking up the stairs to her door she mentions that she takes in stray cats. I'm allergic to cats, but really as long as I don't touch my eyes it's a non-issue. Also, I'm thinking she probably has maybe 4 cats at most. These thoughts are running through my mind as I'm still walking up the steps when she says 'Yea, so I have like 15 cats,' and then opens the front door.
The front living room was pitch black, but I saw at least a dozen pairs of eyes all turn and look at the now open front door. Then they all scattered like a bunch of cockroaches. Now I haven't broken stride this entire time and continue right through the door. As I crossed the threshold I thought I had walked through a god damn wall as the smell that washed over me was horrific and it felt like it had weight. Cat piss, undeniably it was pure cat piss from 15 unwashed stray motherf*ckin cats. There isn't a light on in this house, but I can still see stacks of bins all over the room like it was something out of one of those hoarder TV shows. From the tops of these rubbish towers sat some of the cats, peering down at me."
"She mentions having just cleaned her room and having scrubbed everything down with bleach, as if that's a normal thing to do when you clean a room. Any sane guy probably would have backed out well before now, and I should have too, but I had come too far and my cock was way too hard to turn back now.
She picks a Saw-esque type movie called Adrenaline (I think), and makes herself comfortable as the little spoon. I make some advances during this f*cking horror movie and she's completely unresponsive. So after about 45 minutes of nothing, I tell her I need to get home and go to bed since it's 2 a.m. and I have work in the morning."
Even though DrTobagan spent the night in their own home, the true horror arrived the next morning in the form of a severe cat allergy:
"I wake up with my alarm at 4:45 a.m., bleary eyed and feeling like total sh*t as I expected. My eyes are heavy and I can barely open them as I shamble to the bathroom to take a shower. I flip on the light and see (or rather, barely see) a f*cking horror show. My right eyelid had swollen out to the point where it was nearly in line with my brow, and was completely swollen shut. My left was not much better. Even worse, it felt like sand had been poured in both of them.
I had to call in sick to work and go to the doctor to get a prescription to bring the swelling down when it looked like it wasn't going down after a couple hours.
I text L mentioning that apparently I was more allergic to cats than I remembered and I never got a response."
A cat lady and a ghost? L might just be a new Internet hero.
As horrendous as some Tinder dates can be, we hope they don't discourage your future dating adventures.
Just make sure you swipe right with caution, and ask yourself before confirming your next date: What are the chances this could end with my name written in sh*t or my eye swollen shut?
