I’m a paramedic and I just had a very strange call

So I’ve been a medic for 5 years. This was my last call of my 36 hour shift, and I’ll get right to it. I got a call for a 30 something year old male having a psychotic episode. When I got to the address I was given the address was a feed store. Not like a feed and grain store but like a place where you can buy dog food. It was just closing (this call was around 8pm) and there was a guy standing outside by the entrance having a psychotic breakdown. <br><br>When I got to him he was talking about how he “can’t believe they’ve done this.” He looked like a fairly well kept guy, so this didn’t seem like drug induced. I figured he was probably bipolar or another disorder and hadn’t been taking his medicine. When he started getting upset and saying things about “They’re watching me so I can’t say anything in here.” I tried to see if he was having a breakdown over working there, but he said no. <br><br>I asked if he wanted to get in the ambulance and talk to me to feel more comfortable, because there were employees standing out there. He did. So he said “They made this store, you won’t believe this, just to mess with me. I shop here because it’s convenient, but today I walked in to buy food for my dog and the employees were strangers. Everything was different. The isles are now on different sides, the checkout stands are different, they even changed the name of the store slightly. But the building itself is the same, it’s just inside everything is different.” <br><br>Now I’m thinking confirmed bipolar. But I also figure he might be right about the employees though. I’ve worked at a couple fast food places and retail jobs and a lot of times employees just quit without warning. But I still ask him if he’s been having anxiety or anything lately. He said yes but he’s feeling worse now than ever, and today was the breaking point. I’m listening to him go on, preparing for a trip to the psychward, when one of the employees comes to the back of the ambulance and asks me if I needed anything. I said no and was about to close the door when the guy I’m talking to grabs my arm and has this horrified look on his face. I turn and look and ask the employee what her name was. She said “ Pattie.” My patient is saying “Oh my god no, you’re fucking with me now.” <br><br>I ask him what her real name is and he says it’s Cindy. I ask him what the name of the store is, and he says it’s Ferughsom Pet Feed, or something like that, with an H in it. I ask the employee Pattie the name of the store and she says it’s Smith Brothers Feed and Grain. I thought this was a little weird, but I had never been there and it was in an area that I don’t run a lot of calls. So I still just thought this guy needed to be admitted to a psychward for a week or 2. <br><br>I ask if I can use her phone to call the hospital for report, and she hands it to me. Right next to her text messages there’s an icon of a picture. I click on it and it’s a selfie of her and a few coworkers standing in front of a wall with the name Smith Brothers Feed and Grain on it. I asked her how long she had worked there, and she said 8 years. I handed her phone back and told her we were going to transport and shut the back door. <br><br>At this point I’m still thinking this guy is nuts, but I’m also trying to figure out how he knows so much about this place and the employees if it’s a different store. I finally asked him how he knows the employees and the inside of “Ferughsom Pet Feed” if he’s just now finding out that it’s different, and he said he’s been shopping there for almost a year. That’s when a very strange feeling crept over me. I’ve been a medic a while, so I’m used to dealing with all kinds of crazy shit, but it was the way this guy had uncomfortable panic in his eyes that made my stomach do a little flip. <br><br>I decided to keep escorting him since he didn’t need an ekg or anything, but I told my partner I was going to stay in the back with him. As we were driving I asked him what made him think they’re now messing with him. He told me that he’s been seeing strange things for years but lately it’s gotten worse and he can’t take it anymore. I’m still entertaining him mainly so that he doesn’t get violent, but I’m still wondering why he’s so convinced that they’re fucking with him. <br><br>He told me that he’s seen things disappear in front of him. Food from his fridge or his kid’s toys, just random things that happen all the time to everyone. But then one day he was driving to work and he felt like he took a wrong turn. Everything on the road looked different. There were different buildings and landmarks, and when he got to work one of the secretaries was a different person. But everyone acted like everything was normal, it was weird he said. I figured confirmation that he’s bipolar or something, and I was about to stop entertaining him when he told me that he went to a bar he had never been to, and there was a woman working there named Pattie. She looked exactly like the Pattie/ not Cindy from the feed store. <br><br>I was now interested enough to keep pushing to see where he took the story. I asked if they had been talking and they had. He said that one of the things he talked about was his dog, and she told him about this new feed store that just opened up in his neighborhood, and it was called Smith Brothers Feed and Grain. He told me that he thought it was a coincidence, but he’s been there several times since and she’s always working, and their conversations always seem to not make sense. For instance, she’ll ask him how his dog is, but she always refers to it as a female dog when his dog is a male. <br><br>Now I actually start thinking that this dude is being messed with in some way. I ask him how long ago all of this started, and he said maybe 8 or 9 years. That was close to how long the employee said she had worked there. So I ask him if he knows of any secret government projects he might be involved in, not really thinking that would be the case, but I was trying to open more avenues for him to go down. He said no, but he does have some distant relatives that work for Lockheed Martin. So maybe that could be it, but who the fuck knows, I just wanted to get this call over with and get some coffee and sleep. <br><br>So now I’m just riding on the trip, and he’s not saying much. I ask him if he felt okay to write his name and answer some questions, and he said yes, but he was just gonna mark all his answers as 5s. I said that’s fine. I just don’t want to get my ass chewed. <br><br>There ended up being 2 male nurses, one female nurse, and a doctor, a psychologist, and 2 techs in the room while I was giving my report. The doctor asked me a few questions about what he said, but they were all pretty brief. I told them everything that happened and that was basically it. They did ask that I stay for a few minutes in case they had any more questions but I said I really didn’t want to, because I was tired as hell at that point and still had 2 hours to drive home. And honestly looking back now it might have been good to stay because who knows what else they might have found out. <br><br>Anyway that’s it. That’s what happened. The guy seemed normal, it wasn’t like he seemed like a stoner or drinker or anything. And everything he said just seemed so ridiculous until it wasn’t. Idk what happened <br><br>Edit 1: I just thought I’d let everyone know that I’m back home safe, no one has shown up at my door, I don’t feel like I’m being watched, and nothing has disappeared. Not trying to be sarcastic at all. I just wanted to touch on those things since it was brought up by a couple different people. <br><br>Also, I don’t feel any different or anything like that. Its the same feeling that I got when I read a good conspiracy theory, just a little spooky weird feeling. I also feel like I might have some kind of confirmation bias going on. It’s like when you buy a car you never notice that car until you own it, then you see it everywhere. As far as the names go, I did also use fake names. The names I changed were first names. Everything else was a direct recall. <br><br>Edit 2: Just to clarify on the phone thing. I wasn’t in the phone’s settings, and I didn’t click on her pictures. I just opened her texts to look at the address on the hospital she was texting, and on the home screen it had the icon of a picture of that selfie, with noClicking needed. I wasn’t snooping, and everything just seemed weird.