Online Date Fails!

Jasbina Ahluwalia asks Julie Spira and Dr. Dale Koppel: Speaking of the strangest, I’d love for each of you to share your funniest, strangest or favorite online dating story.

I know that you have quite a few from reading your books. They’re very entertaining books. Throw out one or two of your favorites. Julie, do you want to start?

_____

Julie Spira

Online Date Fails: Dead Wife Look Alike

One of the strangest dates I had very early on was a man who went berserk in the restaurant because I looked like his dead wife. It was a very sad story.

He did have a wife who was a skinnier version of me who had passed away a year or two earlier.

Out of nowhere, something set him off in the middle of the restaurant. He stood up and said, “She looks like my dead wife,” to people in the restaurant.

He was showing everybody pictures of the dead wife. Then his voice got louder and louder. He kept repeating it.

Online Date Fails: What Do You Do Next?

I looked at him and said, “I am so sorry for your loss,” and I left. It was quite a scene. It was definitely one of the stranger dates I’ve been on.

I was also on a date that I wrote about in the book where a man told me about his vasectomy.

I thought, “Why did I need to know this?” If you’re supposed to put your best foot forward in your first few minutes, that was not the best foot.

Jasbina Ahluwalia

Wow. Dale, I know that’s a tough one to follow.

Dr. Dale Koppel

It’s hard to top those.

Online Date Fails: Shorty

One of my favorite stories is about one of my first dates.

This man asked me out for dinner. I learned quickly that it’s probably better to just go for coffee and have the requisite hour and not have to sit through much longer.

When I got to the restaurant, he was already seated. He didn’t stand up when I got to the table. I thought, “That’s so old-fashioned. He doesn’t have to do that.”

We had an okay dinner. I knew that I wasn’t that interested in him and wouldn’t see him again.

Online Date Fails: Truth Revealed

When it was time to leave and we both had to stand up, as he stood up, he threw his arms up in that “victory” sign.

I thought, “Oh my goodness.” With his arms up, he was 5’10”, as he said he was. If he put his arms down, he was probably about 5’4”.

Online Date Fails: The Recovery

That was my first indication that men typically lie about their height. Visually, it was a funny thing for me. He was a very short guy. I had no idea he was so short. He had his arms up to give the illusion that he was taller.

The best story I ever heard was of a woman who went out with this man who she met online. He got arrested. There was a warrant out for his arrest. Somebody came up and arrested him right in the middle of the date.

Jasbina Ahluwalia

In the middle of the date?

Dr. Dale Koppel

Yes.

Julie Spira

Yes, I had that story on my site, too. It was under the “peril of the week.”

There was a woman who was on a date and the man got arrested and brought to jail. They called her asking her to bail him out.

Dr. Dale Koppel

Oh my gosh. I didn’t have that story.

_____

Tell Us:

What experiences and stories do you have? Tell us your online date fails in the comments section below.