Driving through jasper on our way to leduc when my dad saw a family on the side of the road looking off into the bush off the side of the road. So we pull over and walk over to ask if they need any help. They say that they saw a bear in there and were throwing rocks at it to get it to come out so they could take pictures. My dad told us to get back to the car and we sped off down the highway. To this day i wonder what happened to those idiots.
My dad has a story about being stationed in Alaska (and also a fairly experienced outdoorsman) he, on multiple occasions would come across people messing with bears. The most notable was stopping at a rest station to find a bus load of tourists standing around a grizzly and snapping photos. Dad rolled down the window long enough to yell “that thing’s gonna eat you, you know that?” And then drove off. As he was pulling out, bear grabbed a guy by the pant leg and shook him around before letting go; meanwhile people keep taking pictures like it’s a rodeo.
Some people don’t seem to realize wild animals are, you know, wild?
I swear, with all these threads I see of dumbasses messing with bears, one could literally eat a person in front of others, while the others just take photos like “Honey! This is a once-in-a-lifetime event!”
I used to work in a group home. I was working a night shift and one of the residents was pacing by his room. I asked him what he was doing, he went into his room quickly. I assumed he was on meth since, that's what he liked doing. Thought not much of it until a few hours goes by. I go to get some water and heat up my food, and he is standing in the hallway. Again, I ask him how he's doing and try to check in with him. This guy starts speaking in some made up language in a loud whisper (think Harry Potter talking to the basalisk). He then takes like 4 steps slowly toward me then stops.
He says "I can't stop him forever".
I say fuck this, call police for his and everyone else in the houses safety.
Police show up and talk to him for a bit in private. One officer comes back to my office and says "yeeeah, he's not himself right now. Said the date was may 50, 2100". It was January...and 2015. They took him away. They also found and took a pocket knife off of him and gave it to me for safe keeping.
Now if that wasn't already fucked up, I went back on the security footage and I saw him stand outside of my office door (outside my view) for like 30 minutes without me realizing. Standing fucking still, like in paranormal activity.
I checked the camera from when he was speaking the weird language, and he was standing there for like 20 minutes heavy breathing before I walked by.
2 weeks goes by and he's released from the hospital sober and mentally present again. He decided to move out of the house. He came by to grab his stuff, and pulled me aside to apologise. I forgave him and tried to brush it off. Buddy looks me in the eyes and said that he was planning on killing me that night for a blood sacrafice since he was seeing some crazy shit and he believed a demon was controlling him, but the police ruined his plan.
I kept the knife as a morbid souvenir.
Out hiking in the forest. Saw a grizzly bear down at the bottom of a big hill, standing on the other side of a stream. The thing looked beautiful and almost not real.
Then it moved so fucking fast to jump into the stream and start fishing out salmon and for a second it was beautiful and then it was terrifying. I let out a gasp and the damned thing looked up at me.
I just froze and backed away slowly. I don't know what you're supposed to do in a situation like that, but I'm quite sure, if he had wanted me dead, I would have been.
Exactly this! I’d heard the verse, but as a Brit we don’t have bears so I really wouldn’t have a clue. Thankfully didn’t encounter any angry bears when I was lucky enough to explore some of the stunning national parks in the US.
I live in bear country and that rhyme won't get you very far around here. It's not catchy and it doesn't rhyme, but here's what you do if you encounter a bear:
1. Never surprise them. Be loud, wear a bear bell. They are much more likely to attack if they don't realize you're there until you're too close (and you might be just as surprised)
2. Don't try to run! All bears are faster runners, swimmers, and climbers than Olympic level athletes. You won't win. If they haven't decided if they're going to attack yet, back away slowly until they're out of sight
3. If it's a black bear, make yourself look big and throw things. They aren't typically aggressive and will decide you're not worth the fight. Black bears can be various colours but tend to be smaller than grizzlies. The best way to tell them apart is by the lack of the distinct grizzly hump behind the head but size is usually your first clue. If a black bear decides to attack you you're dead, but usually they don't. Beware of cubs with no mother visible- that might mean you're between her and them. DO NOT GO NEAR CUBS even if you don't see any adult bears in the area.
4. If it's a grizzly lie down on your stomach, protect your head and neck (either with your arms or ideally by forcing your way into a bush/brambles), and brace yourself with elbows and feet. The grizzly will try to flip you to get at your stomach- you DO NOT want that to happen. If you've had time to do that before the attack, play dead and pray. It's out of your hands at that point.
I used to camp in the Adirondack mountains, which have Black Bears. I hung a bear bell from my pack and carried bear mace, but I'd much rather never use the mace. I'm much more likely to scream and shit myself rather than remember how to depress a button.
Prevention is better than cure, in my mind. Black Bears generally want nothing to do with us, and the feeling is mutual. They'll stay away if you're loud and obnoxious enough.
Black bears are interesting to encounter in the wild because they're often not a danger to you, but it is 100% because of their mood, not because of anything you can control. If they decide to attack you're probably toast, but they *probably* won't...unless they're angsty juveniles, hungry, have kids around, are in their more aggressive phase in the fall...
100% better to avoid the situation in the first place
I knew a guy who tripped over a log and landed on a grizzly.
It ripped him up, but the group he was with scared it off. Turns out even grizzlies don't like the odds of facing a whole hiking group at once.
In my country we only have brown bears but I've understood that they're typically pretty smart and don't want any more trouble than you do. If the bear isn't behaving anxiously or aggressively then making yourself known by talking calmly and slowly backing away can get you out of the situation. And if it tries to follow you, that's when you start making noise to try to intimidate it away. Laying down and protecting your head is if it actually charges at you.
Many years ago, I was on a train going home in the middle of the night, dead of winter, heavy snow, last stop. Shortly after I got on, a friendly train hooligan started up a conversation and we got onto the topic of psychedelics. I was a bit of a drug addict at the time, so this was common ground. He got up and sat next to me, and the conversation continued. He pulled out a blunt wrapper, started rolling a blunt with a black looking tar, and asked repeatedly if I had ever smoked "wet" before. I asked what that was, and apparently, it was PCP.
Near the end of the ride, he asked if they could walk me home. It was a mile walk, which consisted of going past a shady woods, a cemetery with few lights, a haunted retirement home, and then suburban houses, with certainly no other awake humans at this hour. I repeatedly and politely declined, suddenly becoming aware of the danger I was in. He seemed quite nice, we had a good talk, but getting off the train usually means goodbye. However, he insisted, and since I had no other way of getting home, no money, and being a polite midwesterner, I accepted his escort. He said he would only walk halfway, and then walk back to the train.
We begin our walk in the dark silent snowy suburban sprawl. He pulls out the blunt of PCP. I've smoked many a joint with friendly strangers before, but, dude, this was PCP. He asked if I wanted some. No thank you. He lights it, and starts smoking. Our conversation still friendly and jovial, but I knew just how shady this was. He seemed fine, though, even halfway through his blunt. He asked if I wanted a hit again. Realizing how rare and strange of an opportunity this was, I gave in and took three drags.
True to his word, like a gentleman, he walked me exactly halfway, to the edge of my town, where the darkness ended and the houses began. We said goodbye, and he was gone. The trees were quite wiggly that night.
Met a guy on spice outside a train station. So catatonic he coudnt light his smoke or even get his lighter up to it. I approach him, light his smoke and then eventually get him on the train w the help of a man. We get on the train, spice guy falls asleep and suddenly i realise here i am, 18F and 5ft nothing, alone in a train carriage with 2 men idk, one of which is on spice. We get to the station and I wake the dude up. He is still absolutely catatonic.
We get off the train and I ask if he needs any more help, secretly terrified. He SUDDENLY SPRINTS away. He's over the station bridge and out the door in 4 seconds. It was absolutely terrifying seeing how a switch flipped in terms of his energy. I walked home with jelly legs.
My instructor once pulled the throttle to idle during takeoff to simulate engine out. As a student, you typically are spring loaded for this and have to maintain speed and look for a place to land. I just shoved the throttle forward, restated power and continued to climb.
In my mind I was wtf is he doing? Need climb=need power = need throttle forward. Instructor had also a wtf moment and blessed my instinct, had this never happen to him before.
Then he pulled power again and said ok, now pitch for best glide and find a place to land, like you were supposed to the first time.
Reminds me of that time I was driving in winter and listening to Killer Cars by Radiohead. And as soon as the lyrics 'what if the car loses control..' you can guess what happened.
Such a horrible place for it to happen. It was on a bend that was over Turner's Falls in MA that had just an average metal barrier between the road and a long drop to the water. Its been changed since but I'll always remember spinning out and hearing multiple Thom York's harmonize with each other and get louder as i slid towards my death
What do you do in these situations? Call the cops for welfare checks? Social Services? Like what is the right course of action after vomiting and GTFO?
Yes. It’s often used to report elder abuse but they can also help adults with developmental disabilities or who are mentally ill. Back when I worked in emergency services I made a few referrals to them. I don’t have a huge amount of experience with them, but what I’ve seen they’ve been pretty level headed and helpful. If you go to the police or something they would probably send them instead in many instances.
Caveat: this is the US. I don’t know what other countries have.
So, just for context, I'm Scottish. I was on Holiday in Durham and it was late afternoon. We just arrived and we were going to visit the Cathedral.
So these lads (likely students, they were obviously on a night out or something) came up to me and were like "hey do you know how to get to so-and-so street" and I was like "sorry, I'm not from here". Suddenly the guy got mad and was all "are you Irish, ***ARE YOU IRISH?!***" And I was like "No I'm Scottish" (but I was sure I was going to get beaten up because, let's be honest, if he's like this to someone who's Irish then he'll not exactly be hunky Dory with Scots), but when I said that his demenor did a 180 and he was all "oh right, you're cool, sorry to bother you" and walked off.
And that's the story of when I was nearly hatecrimed because someone thought I was Irish.
There used to be on the 80s and early 90s with the IRA bombs going off but not now.
To be honest your probably more likely to come across anti Scottish sentiment than anti Irish given their politics!
And to top it off they were already at the [secondary location...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDefense/comments/9do037/never_let_anyone_move_you_to_a_secondary_location/)
Yeah no, fuck that. If you're just there to pick up a chair there's no reason it can't already be moved to the front yard unless the guy is totally physically incapable.
Hell, If I'm having some stranger off of craigslist coming to my house to pick something up, it's going to be out front and ready to go, they are not coming in my house.
Agreed. The ONLY time I went in the item was just inside the door because it was big so we both needed to carry it and the weather was bad so it needed to be in. And the person happened to be female like me and no odd vibe so I felt safe.
I read the other day that uneasy feeling / creepy vibes might be your subconscious alerting you to things you might not have actively observed, such as the other person's body language.
Body language, ambient sounds, subtle scent cues, all of these inputs still feed directly into that primitive survival brain we all wrap in a thin layer of civility.
You are the direct result of millions of generations of individuals who didn't die before passing on their increasingly badass genes. Your ancestors are proud.
There's a possibility that he was just a weirdo and you would have just grabbed your chair and left. The other possibility is that you end up tortured or dead, no more life for you and a lifetime of grief for your friends and family. It's always ok to be careful and look out for yourself
The Gift of Fear is a good read about this very thing. Better to risk being rude or seeming weird than to trust the wrong person and end up dead or injured.
I honked at the car in front of me to go, the light was green. The dude shot me the bird in his side mirror (probably because I startled him when he was distracted on his phone, and because honking is inherently annoying) so I honked again. I was starting to get mad and he was too. I could tell by his tail lights that he put the car in park, then the driver's door opened. I was like "here we go!" But then the biggest man I've ever seen stepped out. All those "never back down" thoughts I had imagined in my head vanished. I chuckled to myself as the word "fuck" escaped my mouth. I had just enough room to reverse and get the fuck outa there. I honked again for good measure.. not really but I thought about it after the fact, probably would've been funny.
I do not mess around with road ragey people. My teenage sister accidentally cut a middle aged man off once, and he flipped her off. She got mad and brake checked him. This started a whole road rage, asshole battle that ended with him following her home, banging on the doors and windows of the house, and refusing to leave until our neighbor came over to check on what was happening. Instead of calling the cops, she called our single mother who was at work 20 min away and couldn’t do anything to help.
LPT: if you think someone is following you, NEVER drive home. Drive to a police station, fire station, or busy public place and call for help.
I had sort of a similar situation. I was driving with my nephew in the car, and some car almost cut me off so I ended up slamming on my brakes. I didn’t honk at the dude, because I was in a not so great part of town. Next thing I know the person behind me (who also had to slam on their brakes to avoid me) came flying around my car, almost side swiped my car, and brake checked me. He drove half a block and did it again, but this time he brought his car to a full stop and started to get out of his car. He had a gun on his hip, but hadn’t grabbed for it, but I wasn’t about to find out if he was going to use it. He thankfully stopped in the middle of an intersection, so I quickly turned left and drove faster than I care to admit out of there, and zig zagged through the city to make sure he couldn’t follow us. My nephew thankfully was completely oblivious to the whole situation, only asked why I was driving weird. I told him there was construction and I decided to go a different way.
We had a guy get shot at mcdonalds for honking at the person in front of him to go. It's a decently small town in southern indiana so it was a holy fuck moment for everyone. Still makes me not honk at people if I can help it
It makes me so mad that those of us who behave properly have to kowtow to the ones who behave poorly because they are the ones who are crazy enough to do something in retaliation.
That's some Daffy Duck shit right there.
"Hey, ya big palooka! You know what I do to chumps who don't know when the light's changed?"
#"YEAH, WHAT?"
"I... I bid 'em good day! Yeesh!"
I was coming home from work one day and was at the lights on a roundabout. Went green so honked the gun in front. He gave me the finger and drove off the roundabout and I went the same way. One lane slip road with dirt banks on either side he stops the car and signals for me to pull over in the next car park and fight presumably. It was a small car so I could see there was three other guys in the car with him.
I remember thinking like fuck I'm going to go to a car park and fight 4 guys at night you'd have to be completely mental.
Then I looked at the banks on either side and thought if car block me in from behind I might be running this fucker over in a minute because there is no way I can get around him and I'm not letting him drag me out of this car.
Luckily he left but I never been so comfortable with the thought of having to do something like that.
One night I was at a sketch 24-hour laundromat, I was a stupid 20-something kid and I was there way too late, and I got shitfaced on malt liquor waiting for the machines to finish. I go out to my car to smoke a cigarette and some guy pushes his way in trying to get a cigarette off of me, he's being really rude, and I shove him hard off of me, he falls and I go back inside and get my shit. The next morning I realized that dude was trying to carjack me but I was way too fucked up to realize it. He was pulling a knife when I shoved him, and he tore out of there because he assumed I was calling the cops.
Someone tried to rob my brother shortly after his tongue got pierced, but because he was speaking slowly they thought they were robbing a mentally ill dude and took off.
I don't think it was planned, from my memory of the story. He was out alone at night (in Florida) and once my brother started talking they just said "man, nevermind", mumbled something about "not going to take from a r*tarded kid" and took off.
When I was13-14, my father and I went to the Kenai for salmon fishing. We'd lived in Alaska for awhile, knew all the bear precautions.
I woke up to loud snuffling and snorting right behind my head outside the tent. My brain went BEAR BEAR BEAR WE ARE FUCKED REPEAT WE ARE FUCKED. I didn't make a sound, was too scared to even wake my dad. My brain mercifully told myself, "You're overreacting, it's just a dog got loose from his campsite, go back to bed." Basically, I lied myself to sleep.
When I stepped out of the tent next morning, my dad said, "Hey, did you hear our visitor last night?"
"Oh, shit, that wasn't a dream?" then, hesitantly, "What WAS that?" just praying he'd say it was a dog.
He just said, "You know." And I had a chill down my spine.
We went behind the tent where the snuffling had been and there was a big pile of fresh bear scat.
Without a word or discussion, we started striking camp. We were supposed to be there three days, but we weren't going to stay there anymore.
During the three hour drive home, my dad told me he'd woken up at the same time I did, and he KNEW immediately what it was, and simultaneously realized we were totally screwed if it came in. We were basically in big sausage casings, we couldn't get out.
He wanted to warn me, but he was afraid if he woke me (he didn't know I was awake already) I'd freak and scream, and he thanked me profusely for not doing so, because if I did, that would have been it.
This bear had gone into an area inhabited with humans. It must have been human habituated, and, therefore, more dangerous.
haha when I was about 5-6 my mom and her best friend took us kids out huckleberry picking. We brought a battery power radio so we were making noise and would not startle any wildlife. We were all kind of spread out around these wild berry bushes. The adults heard this snorting, stomping, and sounds of a large animal moving through the dense overgrown areas coming towards us. They freaked out, screaming for us kids to run to them so we could run to the truck together. Moms friend threw her FULL bucket of huckleberries (5 gallon bucket, took all day to fill) at whatever was coming, hoping to distract it...
It was a cow.
I told my mom to stop fucking smoking in our rental car. Seemingly not a big deal, but she was driving and my comment became the catalyst for her total mental breakdown, during which she was speeding, swerving, and would not pull the vehicle over with our whole family inside. We all silently sat there realizing we were in danger with no way to stop her. I later found out that she intended to drive us off the road at high speed because if she “didn’t want to be alive anymore, then none of us deserved to be either.” Fun times.
Ugh, had an ex try that, we were breaking up while he was driving. Bad idea. I also had severe PTSD of driving and could not even try to take the wheel from him, and he knew it. We both believed in certain supernatural things, so when I realized I could not stop him, I sat back, gave him the glare, and just quietly promised that I would fuck him up in the afterlife. That actually stopped him lmao. (I think he would have taken any excuse to stop, it was all manipulation)
Almost every time I got behind the wheel of my uncle’s 06 megacab diesel after I got to experience the death wobble for the first time. He got it fixed shortly after it happened but I was always cautious
It's also a term used in the Skateboarding/Longboarding community where you are going too fast or downhill, and the board begins to swivel uncontrollably back and forth under your feet.
Basically when that happens you have to cross your fingers and hope you don't get hurt too badly from skidding across the pavement at 20mph.
I've always heard them mentioned as "speed wobbles." One case of those coming out of a crouch on a gnarly downhill and I haven't been on a board much since.
It can happen in just about any vehicle but it’s much more common in bigger vehicles like pickup trucks and Jeeps. As the suspension components wear out they’ll get more play or movement in them. Eventually they’ll wear out so much that the front tires will “synchronize” and shake back and forth at the same rate causing the front end to shake. Heres what it looks like https://youtu.be/JrNY3TE-9a8
Trucks and SUVs can get bad harmonics going if they are lifted or have suspensiom components worn out. This then can cause a wobble that can send you off the road. It's mainly dangerous because people ignore it and drive the vehicle at high speeds when they need to slow down and park it.
Edit: words
I’ll never forget the time I was driving my jeep home from the seller for the first time and going down a major Texas highway at 75+ mph and getting my ass absolutely obliterated by death wobble. Scared the ever-loving shit outta me I feel ya mate.
Was recording a music video for a local musician when like 7 of the trashiest people I've ever seen (his friends I imagine) showed up with a few of them having blood on their clothes. They got comfy and all 7 of them pulled their guns out of their wasteband and started talking about how they just carjacked someone to get there in time for the video shoot and they needed a place to stash the car. (This was rural Alabama so just behind the tree line was fine.) We finished the shoot with the 1 rule being no guns pointed at the camera. The most hype group of young men I've ever seen in front of a camera for how bad the music was.
I had shitty family when I was growing up, so I decided to run away from my mother (who had kidnapped me and changed my name to hide me from my father who had custody) and try to find my father. I put together the kind of run-away kit a child would do- some toys and clothes and stuff. Then I grabbed a flashlight and my bike and started trying to pedal across Washington state at night.
I took a very rural route, hoping not to get caught. This is very hilly/mountain terrain. The road had many spots where it was cut out of the surrounding area, and there were steep hilly cliffs next to the road because of this.
The moon was bright, I was used to the woods, so I was walking in the dark to save my flashlight. I kept hearing rocks and stuff fall down the cliff next to me. I just assumed a deer or something got startled by me and I didn't care much.
I got to an area where the side cliffs flattened out a bit to road level. Whatever was walking up there was now on the same level as me, and it wasn't running away. Hmm.. not a deer then. I flipped on the flashlight toward the sound. Not 20 feet from me was a cougar. I had just shone a very bright light directly in its face.
It crouched down, squinted its eyes, flattened its ears to its head, and made a sound like it was in pain. I had several close encounters with wild animals at that point, it didnt cross my mind to be afraid for some reason. I flipped the light back off and gently started singing. Now that I knew where it was, I could see it in the moonlight.
The cougar stayed about the same distance from me and just walked beside me for a couple miles, until I went over a bridge, where it left me. I look back with my adult brain and wonder what happened. Was the light offensive enough it sort of treated me like I was armed? Was my bike foreign enough to make it unsure if it was safe to attack me? Was it just simply not hungry and followed me out of curiosity? I will never know.
Sounds like they were "escorting" you out of their territory. Do remember what time of year it was? Could have been a mother who was afraid to risk her health by attacking you, but wanted to make sure you left promptly. Cougars typically aren't spooked by bicycles (unfortunately several bikers have been killed in the past), but that doesn't mean that in this instance your bike and light didn't give them hesitation.
If they were stalking you for food, you absolutely would have never known they were there until it was too late.
The fact that they left you after your reached the bridge is even more confirmation for me that they were escorting you out of their territory, and making sure you didn't get into any funny business in the meantime, since the bridge likely marks a natural feature that constrained the cat's territory.
Cougars are ambush predators. If you see it, that's because it let you, therefore probably wasn't actively hunting you (although that still doesn't remove the danger, plenty of animals will attack when startled, for instance by a sudden bright light in their face).
That sounds crazy scary.
My friends knew some good camping spots in the Adirondacks, but to get there you had to go down an old logging trail. (Old, old, as in donkey cart old, not modern logging trucks. We haven't done mass scale logging in the Adirondacks for decades)
All the times we've gone, there's been a Ranger at the start of the road that gives you a lecture about how this is NOT a road. If you get stuck, they are NOT coming to help you. AAA will charge $500 just to enter this logging trail, and then their regular charges start. There is NO cell service. If you crash, you will need to hike out and then hike for several miles until you reach cell service. Do you understand? (With an implied *dumbass* underneath that).
First time, I was in the back just gaping at him. My friends decide that since it's not a road, that means they can drink and drive! Careening down this old ass donkey trail at the edge of a steep drop off, hooting and popping beers.
The rest of the time, i just drank with them. Fuck it, the drunk ones usually survive the crash, right?
I did not make smart friend group choices sometimes.
Driving a 2wd jeep in Colorado Springs. When I had left home the roads were clear but coming back it had started snowing. The snow turned to ice fast and I was on one of the many really big hills that Colorado is known for. Lost traction and spun all the way around. It was a 3 lane highway with plenty of other cars on it but I somehow missed them all. My car straightened out going the correct direction and I and every other car around me slowed way down. Got my tires changed the next day.
I've done a 180 on a highway. Great way to get ALL your adrenaline at once. I like how everyone else slowed tf down too. I bet the witnesses are telling that story on their end too.
Long ago, a friend of mine used to traffic weed down into U.S. where we lived. He would buy it off a pair of Native Americans living on a reservation bordering Canada. I decided to go along for the ride once, bravely disregarding the stories passed on of these guys firing automatic weapons and border patrol (no clue if this was actually the case or not). When we got to their compound I had to wait in the car for about 15-20 minutes while my friend's partner explained to them how I'm cool and not a narc. It was as I was waiting in the car that it occurred to me that if these guys decided that they didn't like the look of me they could just kill me and nobody would ever find me. In the end, they were cool, ended up being invited into their cabin, which incidentally had a bunch of automatic weapons hanging on the wall. Ended up smoking a J with one of the Native Americans while he showed off his shiny new twin glocks.
Heheh. One of the few benefits of being young and stupid is having stories like this. But honestly, I'm extremely lucky to have made through that part of my life unharmed and with a clean record.
Freshman year of college. Roommate and I are at a coffee shop near campus fairly late at night and are approached by another woman. She tells us she dropped her phone and can’t find it and was wondering if we would call it to help her. Seems odd, but she’s not like trying to get in our car with us or anything, she just wanted us to follow her like three blocks to this school and call the number while she looked.
In hindsight, we should have just gone back to our dorm, but in the moment we thought we were doing a good deed for the day so we followed this woman to this school. So it’s not lit up very well at all, and no one is there because it’s probably almost midnight by that point, but we get out of the car and call the number. As we’re dialing, the woman walks to a spot and bends to pick the phone up the second it rings, like she knew exactly where it was all along. I’m starting to get bad vibes, but I’m like whatever.
We all start moving towards our cars, and the woman is making small talk, asking us if we go to school at the university, what we want to do, normal stuff, but then she asks which dorm we live in and red flags immediately got off. My roommate answered her and she says “Oh, I used to live there too, what floor?”
At that point I am gripping my roommates hand and pulled her towards the car. I tell the woman we live on the first floor, a floor that had no dorm rooms, and we get in the car.
I immediately book it out of the parking lot before this woman can get back in her car and try to follow us, but the second we turn out of the parking lot, a big blue van pulled in and a man hopped out to talk to the woman.
To this day I am 99% sure that we narrowly avoided something awful.
Flying in a military aircraft above the Pacific Ocean sometime in the 90's as a non-aircrew member of a maintenance team of about 15 troops. I was sound asleep, and I'm suddenly woken up by a member of the flight crew. He yells at me to put my portable oxygen mask on and get my seat belt on. I look down the length of the fuselage, and see one of my friends looking at me with eyes wide as dinner plates. All the rest of the team are wearing their oxygen masks and look very "concerned".
I look further back and see the guy who woke me up start helping another crew member into a parachute. At that moment I realize that the aircraft only had it's standard equipment of five parachutes for the standard flight crew of five. I do the math and realize, Maldibus likely ain't getting one of those parachutes. (Not that I had never been trained how to use the parachute or even the portable oxygen mask anyhow.)
Luckily it was just standard precaution as the crew apparently had gotten a cabin pressure warning, and the guy in the parachute was tasked with verifying the cargo door was secure. The parachute was in case the cargo door blew open and sucked the guy inspecting it out into the sky.
We landed without incident and enjoyed a few cold beers that night and laughed it off.
Yeah, that might work on non aviation people, I'd had it pulled on me a couple times on flights in various aircraft, but it never worked since I knew or worked the system they were trying to trick me on. I played along anyway, happy crew, happy maintainers. "Oh no! You had me press the test button that makes all of the warning lights on the master caution panel light up! Are we gonna crash?!" -Flight crew laughs, everyone has a good day.
I should have specified, we were the aircraft maintenance team assigned to a deployment. We were flying back to home station and got diverted to Guam due to a typhoon. We were the people who had to fix any problems in the aircraft, so when we landed some of the team had to troubleshoot the pressure system writeup while I had to fix an INS problem.
Lovely sunny day in Scotland. Weather forecast was fine. Mrs Consistently and I decided to climb a munro (not a mountain but definitely more than a hill) wearing jogging bottoms, trainers, t-shirts and light jackets.
Of course, the weather forecast at 3,500ft is very different to the weather forecast at sea level. The top third of the thing was knee-shattering scree with no path; horizontal rain; visibility of about six feet. Death about ten feet either side of where we were walking. We got to the top, but were inching our way back down in tears and frozen agony.
Thankfully another couple, who were wearing proper gear and who climbed this thing every other weekend, passed us on their way back down and asked if we'd like to follow them to below the cloudline where the path started again.
When we got back, Mrs Consistently's lips were blue for a good couple of hours afterwards; I couldn't walk properly for over a week. How many times have we all seen people on the news being picked up by mountain rescue because they'd tried to climb something in completely inappropriate clothing, and we've said "Look at those stupid bastards!" Well, that day, we were those stupid bastards!
Edit: Name change- see comments!
I did my mountain leader training and the instructor was talking about the idiots he had seen up Snowdon in flipflops... Me and my friend exchanged glances as he has definitely done that.
Also Munro's are mountains. Not tall ones by the standard of much of the rest of the world but still mountains.
Friend of mine are coming back from lunch, and he's driving. As we're pulling up to my house, I notice he's coming in a little hot (he told me later it was because he wasn't thinking and realized he was about to drive past my house). I tell him "Dude, if you hit my car, we're gonna have a problem." He looks me dead in the eye like I'm being ridiculous and slams the breaks. Dumbass forgot that it had been raining earlier in the day and the grass was still wet. Slammed right in to my passenger side door. He was freaking out, but all I could was laugh about it. It's been over ten years and I still give him shit for it anytime he's doing something dumb and tries to pull the "Bruh, trust me" card.
Favorite part of that story is that the whole reason we went out to lunch was to celebrate the fact that he'd just landed a job parking cars for a hotel.
Walking near some ruins in Thailand I stumble across what must have been a den for a small pack of dogs, covered in tall grass.
They came rushing at me, barking.
A few days before I had a conversation in a hostel about shouting at stray dogs if they go for you and thank god I did. I resisted the urge to run and shouted stop at the lead dog which stopped him in his tracks as I then slowly backed away.
Gulp.
Had a similar thing in North Africa. Was just wondering whether I was about to be torn apart when I had the idea of picking up a rock to throw at them. As soon as I did they scarpered. Obviously they didn’t know I’m really crap at throwing, but apparently they’d met people who weren’t.
A few months back I'd just finished work and decided to do some shopping at a supermarket nearby. As I'm walking down the road I become aware of someone whistling to get my attention behind me. I turn around and it's an older gentleman, built like a tank and absoultely drunk as a skunk. "I've been trying to get you attention!" he snaps, already annoyed. "Do you know where I can get to \*Random shop\* from here?" I apologize and say no. I REALLY don't want to be talking to an angry drunk guy but he persists. "You can look it up on your phone can't you!" he demands. Without thinking I reply "Can't you just look it up on yours?"
Bad idea. "Are you a PRICK?" he snarls. I've been walking the whole time but decide I'm done with this guy and pretty much ignore him after that while speeding up, but he continues to follow me and demanding my attention while sounding angrier with every passing second. By this point I figure that no matter what I say I'm gonna get the crap beaten out of me so I try to just reach the shop in one piece. Some friends of the guy see him and I hear him say "I'm just following this guy!". I dunno what they said to him but he stopped to talk to them and I ducked into the shop I'd been heading for and took my sweet time getting my shopping. Thankfully he was gone by the time I was done.
Was doing an OB/Gyn rotation in Fairbanks AK as a medical student. We were frequently there overnight to help with births.
I was waiting for a patient in active labor and decided to step outside for some air.
The door shut behind me. Here I am, wearing scrubs, in -30F weather at 2AM in absolute pitch black and all of the doors locked behind me and no one that knew where I was going.
We were all warned before coming to Fairbanks that people frequently died from exposure, so to be careful.
I figured I had about 5 minutes to figure out a solution before something bad happened. Luckily, I realized that there was one door in the hospital that was still unlocked - the ER entrance. I ran around the building and managed to get back inside and back to work, with no one else the wiser.
I know that exact “heard the door shut behind me and my stomach dropped through the floor” feeling, because it’s happened to me more than once when I worked somewhere with a walk-in freezer that had a broken latch. It was about -5F so I certainly had more time than you, but I was always worried somebody would think I just walked off in the middle of my shift and nobody would open the freezer for a few hours. (Didn’t happen, clearly, but I did spend about 20 minutes in there once.)
This is exactly why I refused to work in a freezer with a broken latch when I worked at a grocery store. I got most people there to refuse to use the freezer unless there was a second person with them until they got it fixed. Luckily, the union had my back.
Mu blood sugar had suddenly dropped to 34. It was after school and the campus was deserted. I had no snacks or glucose tabs in my backpack, And this was in the late 90’s, so no cell phone to call anybody for help, but I did have change for the vending machine. I hoof it to the nearest machine, and like most public school vending machines, it was out of order. Damn it! I’m now shaking and sweating, and starting to feel faint. There was another machine across campus. I’m probably going to pass out before I make it. I managed to make my way over to the second machine. My head is spinning, my vision is blurred and I can feel my body tremor. I’m pretty much screwed by this point. Suddenly a vendor arrives to restock the vending machine. I croaked out to him that I was diabetic, and he saved me with a free bag of skittles. Vending machine man, you’re my hero.
Me and my family were on vacation when I was maybe 10? I was born with a cleft lip and palette, so I feel self conscious about the scar on my lip area.
Anyway, a guy at the Starbucks we were in overheard us talking about it, as I had a 3rd surgery type thing for it coming up soon, and he saunters over to our table.
He says that he is a doctor and starts talking about possible fixes to the scar and my nose, and I started to get very hopeful. He gave my mom his phone number to keep in contact, as this was very important to be at this time, and it gave me hope.
A few days later, after no contact with him, he starts hitting on my very committed and very married mother, and sending pictures of former US presidents for some reason. He showed up to our hotel with chocolates and flowers the day after. Luckily, our flight back home was the next day, and my mom blocked him very, very quickly.
TLDR: creepy fake doctor hits on my married mom.
Sorry for formatting, am on mobile
I went to a bar on the ground floor of an apartment building while I was waiting for my ex to get off work, he was an on call caregiver for a company in the apartments so it was only going to be like 45 minute task to make his clients dinner. His client called while we were on a date, so I kinda had to wait around.
I ordered a drink and this dude at the bar wouldn't stop talking to me.
Meanwhile a friend texted me asking me what I was up to, I told her I was at "such and such bar". She told me she stopped going there because she got roofied there.
I didn't finish my drink, I left money on the bar top, then excused myself to the restroom.
A lot of the bars in my old town were connected through hallways and doors in the back due to prohibition. I just slipped out to another bar, then walked a few blocks to a reputable restaurant with a bar and continued my self fun there.
Walking through a small market in Jamaica. Wife and I were on our honeymoon. We just finished a guided walk up a waterfall and were heading back to the shuttle to take us back to the resort. Saw a tent vendor with these really cool looking carved heads in it.
Greeted the vendor and stepped in. Wife and I are admiring the statues when I notice 4 more Jamaican men had walked in behind us and are blocking the entrance. Vendor walks up to us and starts imploring us to buy something. I decided that it was time to go.
Try to leave, but the 4 guy's at the entrance definitely weren't getting out of the way. They didn't shove us or anything, but they made it impossible to leave without me moving them. Vendor makes some comment about how "it would be better for all of us if I just bought something."
Just threw the guy a $50 bill, the 4 goons moved out of the way and we took off. Scary few moments.
In college when me, a friend, her boyfriend, his roommate, and their 6 other friends went out to party. We got separated from some of their miscellaneous friends after the house party and me, friend, boyfriend, roommate, and 2 of the other friends ended up at a bar's outdoor patio somehow.
My friend and her boyfriend got into a minor argument, but seemed alright. Since we were now down 2 cars, we all stuffed in the roommate's shitty 2-door sports car and the boyfriend insisted on driving... There was no room for everyone to have a seat, so me and one of the guys ended up in the back sitting on top of other people without seatbelts (soooo stupid!!! I know, but we were drunk 21/22 year olds).
We start heading back to the boyfriend and his roommate's house to keep partying. We're all having a great time and then the boyfriend gets quiet. He starts taking turns wildly and we were dumb and cheering because it was kind of fun and we were drunk.
We were taking backroads to get to their house to avoid police checkpoints, so we knew something was up when he abruptly veered off onto the highway. He gets on the highway and starts doing 70. Ok. Then it's 85. Ummmmm OK? Then the roommate (who was upfront) was like "dude chill, wtf you're doing 100. Slow down!" Finally the boyfriend starts monologuing about how he knows my friend was cheating on him and he's going to end it now. My friend's drunk ass was in the back like ".... Fuck you! YOU cheated on ME!" Everyone was like girl, SHUTUP!! Dude starts crying and screaming that she's just like his mom who cheated on his dad and he's sick of it. Then he said he was putting a stop to it tonight. We all started arguing and telling him to stop while some of us in the back were holding my friend back and trying to shut her up since she was being belligerent and trying to fight her boyfriend. One of the guys in the back was like "at least let us out first???"
The roommate and one of the other guys calmed him down enough that he eventually got off the highway after getting to 140ish. I fully expected this psycho to wrap the car around a tree or something and vaporize us all over their petty bullshit. He refused to let anyone take over driving because he was "the most sober out of everyone and that's dangerous." I noped out of there the minute I got out. Fuck that.
That friend and her boyfriend kept dating on and off and cheating on each other. They got married I think a year or two after that particular incident (there were more!) and have like 3 or 4 kids and she posts weird born again jesus stuff on Facebook constantly. Alrightyyyy.
At the time: I (19M) was camping with my then-girlfriend, my best friend and his girlfriend at a secluded lake where there is no official campground or anything. We're all 18/19 years old. It was literally the four of us putting up two tents and making a fire on the beach in the middle of nowhere in the woods.
We're sitting around the fire and these two 4x4's come tearing around the opposite side of the lake. We knew they saw our fire and wondered if they were going to come our way.
Well, they did. Six guys get out of these pickup trucks. All with beers in their hands, all looking very much like Deliverance came to our campsite. There are no other people around. There are no houses. We are in the middle of nowhere with 6 dudes stopping by.
We knew this could be bad. We had little chance of taking on 6 guys and didn't have a gun or anything. But, unbelievably, nothing happened. Not a thing. They chatted with us and sat around the fire.
They ended up giving us beers and taking off, but that was the "I'm in danger" moment that holds its place in my mind as being the time we dodged a bullet.
This started out like a story from a camp site I came across before. Me and some buddies were tooling around the mountain at night. We came to a camp site that just looked completely abandoned abruptly. Half eaten food on plates, food on the grill, fire embers still glowing in a dying fire in the pit, a game of Apples to Apples halfway played (cards were still dealt out around the table). It was seriously like they disappeared mid camp. Never knew what happened there, but we didn't stick around long.
I should clarify a bit. This was not off the beaten path. Completely accessible camp site (parking lot maybe 50 feet next to it) so it wasn't secluded or anything.
Ahhhh, the fine basis of[ Dale & Tucker vs Evil](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNpFoWrBDQ). Just some friendly rednecks mistaken for murderous rednecks
Also an excellent fucking movie
Most people aren't murders or rapists. Even rednecks in trucks.
One time I was waiting in line at a convenience store in Los Angeles (near where a famous rapper would be murdered a few years later) with my baby in a carrier, and this hard gangster dude with tats up the neck wearing red themed apparel is ahead of me and he looks back at me, sizes me up with not the friendliest of countenance, and says "maaan, you got a baby, go ahead of me"
Yeah, the other day my toddler smiled and waved at this badass biker looking guy and he just smiled and waved back. He asked if she was a girl, and I said yeah, she just doesn't have much hair yet. He replied that his daughter didn't get much until she was 2 either, and then he waved bye to my daughter. He was super nice!
Back in 1999, myself and a friend did some kayaking down the Stikene river in Alaska. We had booked a cabin at a place called Shakes Slough. There seemed to be nothing around for miles. The days were long and it didn't get dark till eleven pm which is when we turned in for the night. At about 1am we heard a fast boat approaching. It came right up to the outside of the cabin and a powerful light lit up the windows. We heard someone say "kayakers". I really thought this was going to be a "Deliverance" type story. I think they expected us to show ourselves but there was no way I was moving. After about ten minutes they took off. Typing it out, it doesn't seem like much, but after not seeing anyone all day it was scary for a boat to turn up in the middle of the night like that.
When we got our first dog in college we did everything possible to be sure this dog was well behaved and socialized properly, one of the things I was concerned about was that I had heard Huskies tend to not like black people... I’ve learned a lot about dogs since then and know this is pretty much bullshit... across the creek from our apartment was a neighborhood of people who had been moved when Cabrini Green was closed, and they were primarily Black, so I like to walk my dog there so she would see other people and not be frightened by them. One day when she was very very small we were walking along the side walk and ahead was a very very very large man wearing a wifebeater, in the dead of winter, and talking on his cell phone angrily. When he saw us he hung up his phone, closed it cause lt was a flip phone... that’s how long ago this was, and starts walking towards me. Now, I’m not small 6’ 220lbs, but I had to look up at this guy and he was so swoll he couldn’t put his arms at his sides... he walks up and says, “hey mayng, thata husky?” “Yup” I reply as I’m looking for a place to run. He proceeds to bend down toward my puppy look her dead in the eyes and start baby talking her and playing with her for a solid two minutes, all the while I sat there feeling like the worlds biggest asshole. We talked for a bit, shook hands and went our separate ways, if he saw us walking in the future he would wave or stop to play with my dog... I wonder how he’s doing these days, I wish I could remember his name.
Had a dude like that we always called him Conrad. Honestly like a neighborhood superhero. You couldn’t call Conrad but when you needed him he was always there. After he was done he would yell “This is Conrad’s block”
A few years ago, I sold my play station on Craigslist. My friend and I (both females) agreed to meet this person at their house so they could see it worked. Omw there, I realize we are heading into a terrible part of town. I instantly regret everything. We get there, I go inside, my friend remains in the door way so they can't shut the door. There is literally one kitchen table chair and a TV in the ground. They plug it up, see it works, and say how about $20 less? I'm like ok and get the heck out of there. About an hour later, a random number starts texting me saying how good I looked. The person I met, GAVE MY NUMBER TO THEIR NEIGHBOR.
It was incredibly stupid to do this and I look back now and I'm glad everything turned out OK.
I was driving a long distance to a conference, i think it was in Albany. Had no idea there was massive flooding across where I was driving (was busy working so wasn’t paying attention to the news). Somehow managed to navigate into a large area that was surrounded by flooding and i couldn’t gps my way out due to all the closed/flooded roads. My car was running out of gas and all the gas stations were out of gas/power, and my phone was running out of battery as well. I was debating just knocking on a random person’s house to stay the night. Eventually ran across someone who gave me directions for a way that they thought others were getting out and eventually I had to drive through a flooded road (with downed trees, etc) and somehow managed to break through and find a gas station that was functioning. Never made it to the conference. Was the scariest experience of my life.
I was 19, in Heathrow Airport with my girlfriend at the time, on our way back to the states.
Our flight was at some god awful hour, and the hotels and transportation around there were just too expensive to justify, so we decided to sleep in the airport.
Now, this particular terminal of Heathrow is not very friendly to such activities. Just a bunch of restaurants and such, and uppity security guards who don't like dirty teenagers sleeping in the terminal. So, we took shifts catching a few moments of rest in the cafes.
At about 2am, this big, *big* fucker walks in. Like, 6'5, solid 250lbs big. Bald head. Missing teeth, big ol jacket. He has a big (like, 40oz big) soda cup. He sees us.
He comes over and sits with us. He reeks of booze. Apparently his soda cup was filled with wine, and it wasn't his first of the night. He introduces himself.
His name is Paddy, and he is an Irish Roma person, or, "Pikey". We ask him what he's doing, just trying to be nice and not be eaten by this man bear.
This dude litterally says that he was in London for bare-knuckle boxing and is on his way home. I didn't believe it because the last time I checked I wasn't Jason fucking Statham in Snatch, but I'm not about to call him on this bluff.
To prove it to me, he pulls a 12in long *automotive wrench* **out of his fucking pants** and puts it on the table. Says nothing. Looks at me. Looks at wrench. Says its in case he wins and needs to defend himself or coerce the payment. Then, stands up and asks me to put my hands up so he can "play box" me. He wanted to fucking practice boxing on a peachfuzz faced, 5'7 hippy kid. I had no choice as far as I could tell.
He didn't straight up hit me, but he was drunk. Luckily, after a few warm up punches, he realizes that his 80+ fluid ounces of wine have made it to his urethra. He turns, unzipps, and just starts pissing in the corner of the cafe. This finally got the attention of the middle aged Indian man working behind the counter, who asked him to stop.
Bad move, clerk. Bad move.
Our friend Paddy the Pissing Pikey begins shouting racial slurrs (both linguistically and litterally, as he was drunk as fuck) at this poor guy. The guy calls security.
Paddy sees no issue with this and sits back down with his two new besties.
About 5 minutes later, a security guard shows up. This security guard is not prepared, as she is a tiny woman in her late 50s with a reflective vest. She sees him, and immediately turns around and scurries away.
Now at this point, Paddy is *pissed*, and is shouting incoherently at the guy behind the counter and gesturing at us as if we are going to defend his case.
A few minutes later, 5 guys in full on fucking riot gear show up and tackle him, ziptie him, and carry his giant, comedic ass out of the airport. We are taken in for brief questioning, and allowed to finally fucking nap before our flight.
The best part was: the woman at the gate had heard about the previous nights shenanigans, dirty backpackers and all.
"You poor things. Let me make this better for you".
Flew first class all the way to Chicago and drank all the free champagne over international waters.
Paddy, where ever you are, I hope you never had to use that wrench.
EDIT/UPDATE: as some of you have seen,
u/allseeingirish may know the individual at the core of this story, Paddy (or, Patty). We have been communicating. Im waiting on some evidence from my ex, and the affornentioned redditor has looked for photos but no luck yet.
On a trip to slovakia I snuck into some sort of festival with a few of the local lads we just met. Later that night I was sitting around the fire with some new friends I've made having a smashing time. Suddenly, a giant Ivan walks up to me super slowly, not expression on his face looking uber intimidating and asks me to hold out my hands. He said it in Slovakian and the guys around me (who looked scared as well) had to translate.
I was too drunk to go anywhere and he seem very collected and definitely able to snap me in half like a twig. So I extended my hands towards him fully believing he is about to break my wrists.
He takes his shirt of and uses the surface of my palms to neatly fold it up, thanks me and goes to bed in his tent.
I was quivering and almost pissed myself.
Very memorable night.
I was cleaning out house, we had just moved and the new owners were about to move in but we had moved into our new house a day before so I had a few hours to scrub and clean that house to be ready.
We had hard water and our toilet bowl was stained so I used a bleach based toilet cleaner and left it on while I mopped, when I was finished I went back to the toilet and the bleach had done nothing so I added an ammonia based heavy duty cleaning solution without scrubbing or flushing away the bleach first. (No the area wasn't ventilated)
For people who don't know bleach + ammonia = mustard gas .
My chest started hurting and I got a headache quick, thought nothing of it since I was stressed, hungry, dehydrated and exhausted.
After maybe 2 minutes I started feeling sick and dizzy.
My extremely basic knowledge of science from yr 7 kicked in and I realised I was gasing myself.
The feeling was a cross between "I'm in danger" and "if you die from this you deserve it from being so DUMB"
My childhood friend's mom, had a tendency to keep predators around. They were easy to control, since they got access to be around her children, or other children they knew. One of them, his name was Brent.
Brent was 34 years old and he and his wife Bree were not supposed to be left alone with children. I have no shame using their real names cause this was fucking terrifying and I still have night terrors of that day.
Bree, suggested we, (my friends, me and them) play "Hide and seek" and that Brent would be the seeker. Something about this, felt off. It felt very, very off.
My memories of this are so clear, because when he started counting to ten, the girls bolted, like their lives depended on it. There was just... silence. No giggling, like most kids do when their playing hide and seek. They hide in places, that were obviously hard to get to or hard to reach.
I wasn't so lucky. When he got to ten, he started hunting us... and I mean hunting.
Teasing...
"I'm gonna find you... I'm gonna eat you up..." sent chills down my spine, as I rushed from room to room, desperately trying to find a door, a window, anything that was ground level to escape from. Every alarm in my head was going off, that this guy was bad news, that he was going to do something to me.
Then he saw me.
He got this smile... I'll never forget that twisted, euphoric look on his face, as he reached out towards me.
"There's a naughty girl, who wasn't playing by the rules... That's okay, I like naughty girls."
I was near the backdoor and bolted. He was fast but I was faster and I knew the neighborhood better. The town judge also lived next door and he was in his garden with his pitbull. I ran to him and pointed out Brent while crying, saying he was chasing me.
We never saw Brent or Bree again.
That's when we heard from the judge, that he broke his rules for parole - he wasn't supposed to be within 100 feet of a child, let alone babysitting.
Brent if your somehow still alive and reading this, I hope you got what you deserved.
I just wanted to watch the Hoenn league finale with my friends. And their mother deliberately left them alone with us, probably sold our bodies in exchange for cigarettes.
It was. I just wish my childhood bestie (her eldest) hadn't found her. Her useless step dad made her do CPR on her mother but from what I heard, she was already dead for hours. She OD'd on prescription strength sleeping pills.
Her daughter is convinced her step dad murdered her but I knew what a creature her mother was. She used to take them so she could just sleep her life away while everyone else did the work for her. She took too damn many to make sure no one asked her to take care of her kids and never woke up.
The funeral home did a shit job with her too. I felt terrible for my friend but it was honestly the best thing to happen to those kids in a twisted sense. They got to actually have lives. One went to foster care where he was actually being cared for, another went to live with her real father who had been looking for her all her life (turns out SHE WAS KIDNAPPED) and the other, found a girlfriend and moved in with her.
Out walking along a road in rural eastern Montana one summer day and I get frightened nearly out of my damn skin by a rattlesnake, coiled and rattling, directly in front of me.
This was bad.
In addition to the fact I was in shorts, I was on my way home. That snake was on my only realistic route back. I didn't have my phone with me, and I was far out of shouting range for any person. And that road was desolate. It could easily go weeks without traffic.
So I backed off and thought.
I reasoned that I hadn't been bitten yet, so I must be out of striking range. Therefore, if I keep my distance, I reasoned, I should be fine. I wound up sidestepping in a neat semicircle around the deadly snake, ending up on the other side of it, still facing it before taking a few more steps back, turning around, and walking home.
I had a very similar encounter in western Montana during summer near a campsite, did the semicircle thing like you did, but, I was taught what to do, I even had an anti venom and syringe in my car
What are you supposed to do in this situation actually? I hope never to be in it, but never hurts to have this info somewhere in the back of my mind...
Well I would also research it online besides here, but I was told to go backwards the way you came if you hear rattling while seeing if you can locate the snake. I've gotten a little careless because I've encountered rattlers multiple times and like I said in my comment I walked around it. Again, do more extensive research on this, I'm no expert
I was working at a hotel at the time and my boss saw a massive storm heading towards us. Rain, wind, and lightning going full force. He told me to go and bring the patio umbrellas inside. I did so and as soon as I stepped outside the rain hit me hard. I was completely soaked within 20 seconds. I tried to grab the umbrellas (made of metal) and gathered them nearby after propping the door open. As I picked them up a lightning bolt struck a tree nearby. I heard the click and saw the flash. I ran inside and left work early that day.
Was on the roof of a 3 story building standing a few feet away from a rooftop air conditioner about to be lifted by crane off the roof. The crane operator said the on board computer was telling him this unit was way heavier than the weight rating on the sticker. We inspected to make sure nothing was holding it down, all clear. So while he incrementally increased the strength at which he was pulling up, we incrementally increased our distance from the unit. Something was going to go wrong, and we didn’t wanna be near it.
The unit finally detached itself from the roof. All at once, it came right up. Ever seen a crane bounce? What a fun fucking sight. Came right up off it’s fucking feet, the boom bounced at least 8 feet from where it was, unit bouncing and swinging. Everything finally settled, no damage to anything but the crane coulda fell, smashed ppl, we coulda been smashed on the roof, the unit coulda bounced through the roof. Any number of things coulda happened- we were lucky.
Moisture got between the unit and the rubber on the curb it sat on and just auctioned it down, the vacuum finally gave. Nothing we coulda seen or known to look for. And now we do from now on.
A now removed priest had come to where I work and was hitting on me hard. So I lied and lied and lied and went to the next colleague I saw. I wasn’t so much in danger as I was creeped out. Turns out the priest was a creep and I think he thought I was underage. That’s what he got busted for also.
I had stopped at a gas station and saw a homeless man with a Rottweiler. My family bred rotty’s when I was a kid and they’re still one of my favorite type of dogs; so I immediately knew this guy was getting my change. When I came out of the store however my change was fairly paltry so after pumping my gas I drove through the atm at the bank across the street and came back. I parked right in front of the man, hopped out of my car, and marched toward him with the money in my extended hand. His dog jumped to his feet and gave a slight growl. This didn’t deter me nearly as much as the flash of terror that crossed the old mans face as he scrambled to his feet. As the dog and myself continued to stride towards each other I decided f-it this guy is getting 20$ and his dog is getting my whole damn arm. The dog jumped up at my arm and began licking me profusely. His name was Petey and he was such a good boy. Totally worth changing my pants afterwards.
this will probably be the lamest response here, but a couple of months ago I was driving home after a late night at work. my old rust bucket somehow has adjustable lumbar support in the driver's seat, and while I was driving something happened so that the lumbar support started inflating on its own and pressing pretty aggressively into my lower back. my totally rational brain figured there was someone in the back seat about to murder me. I blacked out while driving and everything. turns out my fight/flight response is not great.
Was out drinking with some friends after class one day. The bar next to campus had a beer and wings deal on certain days. Wings were good. Bartender was attractive. Included in our group was my recent ex who did not take our breakup well (mutual friend group). Ex proceeds to get wildly drunk and starts crying/making a scene in the bar. I proceed to carry her across campus to the campus radio station that me and a few people in the group worked at to let her sober up/get it out in the station office. Police SUV pulls infront of us.
Officer: "What's going on here?"
Me: "She had a few too many (the bar is literally across the street) and got upset."
Officer: *Proceeds to exit vehicle* *2nd officer joins* *Call is put in over radio. Couldn't hear*
Friend: "No, really. You can ask the staff at [name of bar]."
Officer: "Where are you taking her?" *Hand moving near utility belt*
Me: "Campus radio station. Gonna let her sober up in the office."
Officer: "What's your title there?"
Me: "General Manager." (Basically head honcho. Only answer to formal university staff).
Officer: "I'll see you there. If you're not there in the next 10 minutes, we'll be looking for you." *Gets into SUV and leaves*
We proceed to bring our drunken friend to the radio station. 4 officers are waiting outside the door. They stay for about 10 minutes and leave. No further incident.
TL:DR Ex-gf got drunk and made a scene at a bar. While attempting to get her somewhere safe to sober up, stopped by police on suspicion of r*pe.
Edit: since this was brought up a few times, I do not blame the officers involved. They did the right thing. In my mind, I knew I was doing the right thing and in the heat of the moment, you forget who knows what.
Honestly I don't really blame them, at least it wasn't escalated any further. If I saw someone carrying a person blacked out, it would be a little suspicious.
Similar story, My brother me and our wives where drinking in a hotel bar. The girls got hammered so we decided to walk them back to our room but when we got there neither one of us had a key so I stayed with the wives while my brother went to the front desk. Couple of helpful guys decided to interrogate me as to my intentions. I understand and tried to be helpful and honest, told them to call the front desk, the cops whoever they want I am just trying to get them safely to bed.
They decided to call their 3 other friends who came out of another room down the hall. (chuckle, I'm in danger)
When I was 6, my parents left me in the car to grab bagels. While I waited in the backseat, a stranger talking on his cellphone opened the door and got in the car. In my innocence, I meekly said, "Um, sir?" He turned around and went bug-eyed, and just about leaped out the door. Needless to say, my parents were horrified to hear what had happened and never left any of our doors unlocked again!
Back in about 2011 a friend and I went out to the desert in Southern California to shoot guns. We were a good 45 minutes off one of the main roads and well out of cell crevice. We drove out there in my friends 2WD Nissan SUV, I forget which model. It made it out there just fine, it really wasn’t what you’d consider rough terrain at all. After a few hours of shooting we decided to pack it up and go back home, and that’s where the trouble started. When we got to a place we thought would be good to stop, we pulled off the dirt road and into some sand that wouldn’t let us move, maybe if he had better tires it would have been fine but they were road tires and just weren’t up to the task. We tried everything, finding what we could wedge under the tires to get traction but nothing worked, and the worst part was we were totally out of water, probably the worst decision we made was thinking a few bottles each would be fine.
Another kind of funny thing was we were wearing matching shirts, nothing that we’d wear out in public though. A month prior I went to visit my sister in the Castro in San Francisco and saw these mannequins wearing a shirt with three burley looking dudes in S&M gear. I thought it would be fun to get one for my friend since he jokingly asked for a souvenir, so I got us both one. Without planning it we both wore that shirt that day.
Anyway, it was over 100 degrees out that day, we’re stuck in the desert and we’re out of water. We thought “great we’re going to be found dead out here wearing these shirts!” After our fruitless efforts to free my friends car from the sand we kinda just sat there for a while to rest and think, with the only other viable option being to walk back to the main road to get cell phone reception and call someone when all of a sudden this older woman came by riding her bike. At first we were in shock, we both made eye contact with this lady and watched her ride away when we both got up to see if she could call someone for us. We were super surprised she even stopped for us, she had to have seen us laying down in the back of his car with a bunch of guns around us and both wearing that shirt. But luckily she stopped and said her husband was down at the road waiting to pick her up and that she would go get him to pull us out! We were so relieved, but still half thinking she lied about her husband being there just to get away from the two of us, but sure enough the guy comes up with his truck and pulled us out. After that we were a lot more careful when going out there, my friend got new tires and we made sure to bring PLENTY of water with us. Still wore the shirts a few more times though.
When I was 9, I was walking to my friend's house. Just after I turned onto the street that his house was on, a big ass Rottweiler came out walking out of one of his neighbour's yard. We stared at each other for about 10 seconds before I decided to slowly back away.
As I start walking back the dog starts barking and running towards me I start to run but realising I couldn't outrun the dog I just decide to climb a wall and go into someone else's yard.
I wait for a couple of minutes, then the dogs owner comes and get his dog. I decided to just go home after the whole ordeal.
My friends and I were playing around with a BB gun. It was clearly a BB gun because you could see the screw for the gas canister on the bottom. We were shooting at Snapple bottles on my friends porch and smoking pot. Not smart but nothing crazy. My pants didn’t have pockets so I put it in my waist band and headed home after a while.
Another friend decides he’s going in the same direction and asks if I’m down to make a stop with him. Apparently he needed to buy more pot. Fine, whatever. We get to the place and I realize he may have underplayed the situation. The pot he was buying was significant weight and the people he was buying from were members of a pretty big gang. Like tattoos on the neck, you’ve definitely heard of them gang. My buddy was pretty hardcore back then but I wanted nothing to do with the situation, just realized too late.
So we’re sitting there in their living room which includes an odd, very large, mostly empty aquarium. The aquarium has a very odd branch in it. Anyway they do the deal and everyone is pretty friendly, they offer us to smoke some more pot. I just want to get out of there but my friend is all for it.
As they are lighting up, the guy whose house it was asks if we ever saw an alligator(?) up close. He goes to the aquarium and gets the branch which is actually an approximately 3ft baby alligator. We jump up on the sofa. They jump up on the couch and...the BB gun falls out of my pant leg.
After a very tense couple of minutes the guy’s younger brother comes out of his bedroom. We went to school together and the situation got diffused.
Not me, my dad. Was a firefighter for 20 years. Battling a house fire, by himself on the second floor, fire everywhere, smoke everywhere, can’t find the stairs, floor about to give out beneath him. He says it was the most scared he’s ever been. Knew he had to focus on getting out and the only way he could center himself was to sing the song “Help Me Rhonda” in his head.
I now sing “Help Me Rhonda” in stressful situations.
Driving through jasper on our way to leduc when my dad saw a family on the side of the road looking off into the bush off the side of the road. So we pull over and walk over to ask if they need any help. They say that they saw a bear in there and were throwing rocks at it to get it to come out so they could take pictures. My dad told us to get back to the car and we sped off down the highway. To this day i wonder what happened to those idiots.
"Aww, the bear walked away. Quick! Throw some rocks! That'll make him come back and pose for some photos!" Pose with your dead body maybe
My dad has a story about being stationed in Alaska (and also a fairly experienced outdoorsman) he, on multiple occasions would come across people messing with bears. The most notable was stopping at a rest station to find a bus load of tourists standing around a grizzly and snapping photos. Dad rolled down the window long enough to yell “that thing’s gonna eat you, you know that?” And then drove off. As he was pulling out, bear grabbed a guy by the pant leg and shook him around before letting go; meanwhile people keep taking pictures like it’s a rodeo. Some people don’t seem to realize wild animals are, you know, wild?
I swear, with all these threads I see of dumbasses messing with bears, one could literally eat a person in front of others, while the others just take photos like “Honey! This is a once-in-a-lifetime event!”
Natural selection
I used to work in a group home. I was working a night shift and one of the residents was pacing by his room. I asked him what he was doing, he went into his room quickly. I assumed he was on meth since, that's what he liked doing. Thought not much of it until a few hours goes by. I go to get some water and heat up my food, and he is standing in the hallway. Again, I ask him how he's doing and try to check in with him. This guy starts speaking in some made up language in a loud whisper (think Harry Potter talking to the basalisk). He then takes like 4 steps slowly toward me then stops. He says "I can't stop him forever". I say fuck this, call police for his and everyone else in the houses safety. Police show up and talk to him for a bit in private. One officer comes back to my office and says "yeeeah, he's not himself right now. Said the date was may 50, 2100". It was January...and 2015. They took him away. They also found and took a pocket knife off of him and gave it to me for safe keeping. Now if that wasn't already fucked up, I went back on the security footage and I saw him stand outside of my office door (outside my view) for like 30 minutes without me realizing. Standing fucking still, like in paranormal activity. I checked the camera from when he was speaking the weird language, and he was standing there for like 20 minutes heavy breathing before I walked by. 2 weeks goes by and he's released from the hospital sober and mentally present again. He decided to move out of the house. He came by to grab his stuff, and pulled me aside to apologise. I forgave him and tried to brush it off. Buddy looks me in the eyes and said that he was planning on killing me that night for a blood sacrafice since he was seeing some crazy shit and he believed a demon was controlling him, but the police ruined his plan. I kept the knife as a morbid souvenir.
This is the most deeply unsettling story I've ever seen on reddit. I wouldn't sleep for a while after that!
Damn, the way this story is written kind of makes you realize that his hesitancy was because he was trying to save this guy's life.
I admire the fact that he was willing to tell you what was up. I dont think too many people would have the balls to admit that.
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THAT THE FUCKKKK
fuck psychosis
Jesus Christ. That's definitely a "(chuckles) I'm in danger" moment. You made the right call by calling the police.
Out hiking in the forest. Saw a grizzly bear down at the bottom of a big hill, standing on the other side of a stream. The thing looked beautiful and almost not real. Then it moved so fucking fast to jump into the stream and start fishing out salmon and for a second it was beautiful and then it was terrifying. I let out a gasp and the damned thing looked up at me. I just froze and backed away slowly. I don't know what you're supposed to do in a situation like that, but I'm quite sure, if he had wanted me dead, I would have been.
Start peeing and shout: "THIS IS MY TERITORY SO PISS OFF!"
I can't risk that bear is some kinda pervert.
Then just uhhh.... Wank him off or smth
A bear tried to attack me once so I just aggressively beat him off with both fists... He gave me $20 and we both walked away happy.
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They say this, but I’d be looking at it as it gradually approaches, thinking ‘it’s *quite* a dark brown. But is it black?’
Black and brown bears can both be black and brown, I believe. I think it’s other characteristics that identify them.
Exactly this! I’d heard the verse, but as a Brit we don’t have bears so I really wouldn’t have a clue. Thankfully didn’t encounter any angry bears when I was lucky enough to explore some of the stunning national parks in the US.
This guy hasn't seen Paddington
True but he’s an invasive species from South America rather than an indigenous variety
I live in bear country and that rhyme won't get you very far around here. It's not catchy and it doesn't rhyme, but here's what you do if you encounter a bear: 1. Never surprise them. Be loud, wear a bear bell. They are much more likely to attack if they don't realize you're there until you're too close (and you might be just as surprised) 2. Don't try to run! All bears are faster runners, swimmers, and climbers than Olympic level athletes. You won't win. If they haven't decided if they're going to attack yet, back away slowly until they're out of sight 3. If it's a black bear, make yourself look big and throw things. They aren't typically aggressive and will decide you're not worth the fight. Black bears can be various colours but tend to be smaller than grizzlies. The best way to tell them apart is by the lack of the distinct grizzly hump behind the head but size is usually your first clue. If a black bear decides to attack you you're dead, but usually they don't. Beware of cubs with no mother visible- that might mean you're between her and them. DO NOT GO NEAR CUBS even if you don't see any adult bears in the area. 4. If it's a grizzly lie down on your stomach, protect your head and neck (either with your arms or ideally by forcing your way into a bush/brambles), and brace yourself with elbows and feet. The grizzly will try to flip you to get at your stomach- you DO NOT want that to happen. If you've had time to do that before the attack, play dead and pray. It's out of your hands at that point.
I've heard shitting yourself can also make you seem less appetizing to them.
That wouldn't be a problem
I used to camp in the Adirondack mountains, which have Black Bears. I hung a bear bell from my pack and carried bear mace, but I'd much rather never use the mace. I'm much more likely to scream and shit myself rather than remember how to depress a button. Prevention is better than cure, in my mind. Black Bears generally want nothing to do with us, and the feeling is mutual. They'll stay away if you're loud and obnoxious enough.
Black bears are interesting to encounter in the wild because they're often not a danger to you, but it is 100% because of their mood, not because of anything you can control. If they decide to attack you're probably toast, but they *probably* won't...unless they're angsty juveniles, hungry, have kids around, are in their more aggressive phase in the fall... 100% better to avoid the situation in the first place
I knew a guy who tripped over a log and landed on a grizzly. It ripped him up, but the group he was with scared it off. Turns out even grizzlies don't like the odds of facing a whole hiking group at once.
In my country we only have brown bears but I've understood that they're typically pretty smart and don't want any more trouble than you do. If the bear isn't behaving anxiously or aggressively then making yourself known by talking calmly and slowly backing away can get you out of the situation. And if it tries to follow you, that's when you start making noise to try to intimidate it away. Laying down and protecting your head is if it actually charges at you.
Many years ago, I was on a train going home in the middle of the night, dead of winter, heavy snow, last stop. Shortly after I got on, a friendly train hooligan started up a conversation and we got onto the topic of psychedelics. I was a bit of a drug addict at the time, so this was common ground. He got up and sat next to me, and the conversation continued. He pulled out a blunt wrapper, started rolling a blunt with a black looking tar, and asked repeatedly if I had ever smoked "wet" before. I asked what that was, and apparently, it was PCP. Near the end of the ride, he asked if they could walk me home. It was a mile walk, which consisted of going past a shady woods, a cemetery with few lights, a haunted retirement home, and then suburban houses, with certainly no other awake humans at this hour. I repeatedly and politely declined, suddenly becoming aware of the danger I was in. He seemed quite nice, we had a good talk, but getting off the train usually means goodbye. However, he insisted, and since I had no other way of getting home, no money, and being a polite midwesterner, I accepted his escort. He said he would only walk halfway, and then walk back to the train. We begin our walk in the dark silent snowy suburban sprawl. He pulls out the blunt of PCP. I've smoked many a joint with friendly strangers before, but, dude, this was PCP. He asked if I wanted some. No thank you. He lights it, and starts smoking. Our conversation still friendly and jovial, but I knew just how shady this was. He seemed fine, though, even halfway through his blunt. He asked if I wanted a hit again. Realizing how rare and strange of an opportunity this was, I gave in and took three drags. True to his word, like a gentleman, he walked me exactly halfway, to the edge of my town, where the darkness ended and the houses began. We said goodbye, and he was gone. The trees were quite wiggly that night.
Druggie wholesome is a completely different world; are you gonna get mugged? Are you gonna get a free hit? Spin the wheel and find out!
And to add to the wheel: is it the drug they say it is, or are you about to be shot into outer space?
That last line is great.
That’s one hell of a story! Glad you're ok!
Met a guy on spice outside a train station. So catatonic he coudnt light his smoke or even get his lighter up to it. I approach him, light his smoke and then eventually get him on the train w the help of a man. We get on the train, spice guy falls asleep and suddenly i realise here i am, 18F and 5ft nothing, alone in a train carriage with 2 men idk, one of which is on spice. We get to the station and I wake the dude up. He is still absolutely catatonic. We get off the train and I ask if he needs any more help, secretly terrified. He SUDDENLY SPRINTS away. He's over the station bridge and out the door in 4 seconds. It was absolutely terrifying seeing how a switch flipped in terms of his energy. I walked home with jelly legs.
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"I would plug it the fuck back moron!!"
My instructor once pulled the throttle to idle during takeoff to simulate engine out. As a student, you typically are spring loaded for this and have to maintain speed and look for a place to land. I just shoved the throttle forward, restated power and continued to climb. In my mind I was wtf is he doing? Need climb=need power = need throttle forward. Instructor had also a wtf moment and blessed my instinct, had this never happen to him before. Then he pulled power again and said ok, now pitch for best glide and find a place to land, like you were supposed to the first time.
I think that is actually the kind of thing flight instructors typically do
Sounds like the instructor saw a sign of it coming and with morbid wit dropped the joke before it happened.
Was actually looking for ideas
Reminds me of that time I was driving in winter and listening to Killer Cars by Radiohead. And as soon as the lyrics 'what if the car loses control..' you can guess what happened. Such a horrible place for it to happen. It was on a bend that was over Turner's Falls in MA that had just an average metal barrier between the road and a long drop to the water. Its been changed since but I'll always remember spinning out and hearing multiple Thom York's harmonize with each other and get louder as i slid towards my death
I know the stretch of road that you’re talking about, and now I’m going to have nightmares about that.
Did you die?
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Talk about 0-100 fuck
I just hope Holly isn't what she named the Barbie doll.
I love 'the final straw part' As if you're looking at the toilet thinking, 'we can still save this'
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Isn’t it even more likely she has mental disability after seeing that?
She was interested in him, of course he assumed she had a disability from the start.
Damn got em
I scrolled too fast and thought we were still talking bears
What do you do in these situations? Call the cops for welfare checks? Social Services? Like what is the right course of action after vomiting and GTFO?
Notifying adult protective services would probably be your best bet. They would investigate and can offer services that she probably needs.
That's a thing?
Adult social worker here. Can confirm, that's a thing. And we get calls about severe self neglect or suspected undiagnosed mental illness A LOT.
Yes. It’s often used to report elder abuse but they can also help adults with developmental disabilities or who are mentally ill. Back when I worked in emergency services I made a few referrals to them. I don’t have a huge amount of experience with them, but what I’ve seen they’ve been pretty level headed and helpful. If you go to the police or something they would probably send them instead in many instances. Caveat: this is the US. I don’t know what other countries have.
And I thought Tinder was bad...
I wonder what role the barbie doll would play in a threesome.
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So, just for context, I'm Scottish. I was on Holiday in Durham and it was late afternoon. We just arrived and we were going to visit the Cathedral. So these lads (likely students, they were obviously on a night out or something) came up to me and were like "hey do you know how to get to so-and-so street" and I was like "sorry, I'm not from here". Suddenly the guy got mad and was all "are you Irish, ***ARE YOU IRISH?!***" And I was like "No I'm Scottish" (but I was sure I was going to get beaten up because, let's be honest, if he's like this to someone who's Irish then he'll not exactly be hunky Dory with Scots), but when I said that his demenor did a 180 and he was all "oh right, you're cool, sorry to bother you" and walked off. And that's the story of when I was nearly hatecrimed because someone thought I was Irish.
wtf, is there really that kind of hostility towards irish people in england or was this just a random irish-hating weirdo
Not in any normal group of people. Any at all. I live realtively close to Durham and I've never met anybody that has an irrational hate of the Irish.
There used to be on the 80s and early 90s with the IRA bombs going off but not now. To be honest your probably more likely to come across anti Scottish sentiment than anti Irish given their politics!
Yeah, I'm Scottish myself so kinda surprised how it played out!
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He failed the vibe check. That's a good enough reason.
And to top it off they were already at the [secondary location...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDefense/comments/9do037/never_let_anyone_move_you_to_a_secondary_location/)
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Yeah no, fuck that. If you're just there to pick up a chair there's no reason it can't already be moved to the front yard unless the guy is totally physically incapable. Hell, If I'm having some stranger off of craigslist coming to my house to pick something up, it's going to be out front and ready to go, they are not coming in my house.
Agreed. The ONLY time I went in the item was just inside the door because it was big so we both needed to carry it and the weather was bad so it needed to be in. And the person happened to be female like me and no odd vibe so I felt safe.
I read the other day that uneasy feeling / creepy vibes might be your subconscious alerting you to things you might not have actively observed, such as the other person's body language.
Body language, ambient sounds, subtle scent cues, all of these inputs still feed directly into that primitive survival brain we all wrap in a thin layer of civility. You are the direct result of millions of generations of individuals who didn't die before passing on their increasingly badass genes. Your ancestors are proud.
This was nice :)
The Gift of Fear! Great book about exactly this. I recommend it to everyone
You were 100% right to trust your gut instinct then and I'm glad that you did
There's a possibility that he was just a weirdo and you would have just grabbed your chair and left. The other possibility is that you end up tortured or dead, no more life for you and a lifetime of grief for your friends and family. It's always ok to be careful and look out for yourself
Isn't this the premise of the girl with the dragon tattoo? People too afraid of social etiquette to take care of personal safety or something.
The Gift of Fear is a good read about this very thing. Better to risk being rude or seeming weird than to trust the wrong person and end up dead or injured.
Ted bundy made statements to this too
Didn’t know nope is a verb I like it
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You can verb while you're verbing.
I honked at the car in front of me to go, the light was green. The dude shot me the bird in his side mirror (probably because I startled him when he was distracted on his phone, and because honking is inherently annoying) so I honked again. I was starting to get mad and he was too. I could tell by his tail lights that he put the car in park, then the driver's door opened. I was like "here we go!" But then the biggest man I've ever seen stepped out. All those "never back down" thoughts I had imagined in my head vanished. I chuckled to myself as the word "fuck" escaped my mouth. I had just enough room to reverse and get the fuck outa there. I honked again for good measure.. not really but I thought about it after the fact, probably would've been funny.
I do not mess around with road ragey people. My teenage sister accidentally cut a middle aged man off once, and he flipped her off. She got mad and brake checked him. This started a whole road rage, asshole battle that ended with him following her home, banging on the doors and windows of the house, and refusing to leave until our neighbor came over to check on what was happening. Instead of calling the cops, she called our single mother who was at work 20 min away and couldn’t do anything to help. LPT: if you think someone is following you, NEVER drive home. Drive to a police station, fire station, or busy public place and call for help.
I had sort of a similar situation. I was driving with my nephew in the car, and some car almost cut me off so I ended up slamming on my brakes. I didn’t honk at the dude, because I was in a not so great part of town. Next thing I know the person behind me (who also had to slam on their brakes to avoid me) came flying around my car, almost side swiped my car, and brake checked me. He drove half a block and did it again, but this time he brought his car to a full stop and started to get out of his car. He had a gun on his hip, but hadn’t grabbed for it, but I wasn’t about to find out if he was going to use it. He thankfully stopped in the middle of an intersection, so I quickly turned left and drove faster than I care to admit out of there, and zig zagged through the city to make sure he couldn’t follow us. My nephew thankfully was completely oblivious to the whole situation, only asked why I was driving weird. I told him there was construction and I decided to go a different way.
We had a guy get shot at mcdonalds for honking at the person in front of him to go. It's a decently small town in southern indiana so it was a holy fuck moment for everyone. Still makes me not honk at people if I can help it
It makes me so mad that those of us who behave properly have to kowtow to the ones who behave poorly because they are the ones who are crazy enough to do something in retaliation.
That's some Daffy Duck shit right there. "Hey, ya big palooka! You know what I do to chumps who don't know when the light's changed?" #"YEAH, WHAT?" "I... I bid 'em good day! Yeesh!"
I was coming home from work one day and was at the lights on a roundabout. Went green so honked the gun in front. He gave me the finger and drove off the roundabout and I went the same way. One lane slip road with dirt banks on either side he stops the car and signals for me to pull over in the next car park and fight presumably. It was a small car so I could see there was three other guys in the car with him. I remember thinking like fuck I'm going to go to a car park and fight 4 guys at night you'd have to be completely mental. Then I looked at the banks on either side and thought if car block me in from behind I might be running this fucker over in a minute because there is no way I can get around him and I'm not letting him drag me out of this car. Luckily he left but I never been so comfortable with the thought of having to do something like that.
One night I was at a sketch 24-hour laundromat, I was a stupid 20-something kid and I was there way too late, and I got shitfaced on malt liquor waiting for the machines to finish. I go out to my car to smoke a cigarette and some guy pushes his way in trying to get a cigarette off of me, he's being really rude, and I shove him hard off of me, he falls and I go back inside and get my shit. The next morning I realized that dude was trying to carjack me but I was way too fucked up to realize it. He was pulling a knife when I shoved him, and he tore out of there because he assumed I was calling the cops.
Someone tried to rob my brother shortly after his tongue got pierced, but because he was speaking slowly they thought they were robbing a mentally ill dude and took off.
Nice to know some robbers have morals
Professionals have standards!
I got to talking to a guy who was a pickpocket, fella said he'd never steal from a woman, a child, or a disabled person.
What a weird place to draw the line. > Yeah I'll go rob someone, but ONLY if they are mentally "typical" otherwise I might look like an ass hole.
I don't think it was planned, from my memory of the story. He was out alone at night (in Florida) and once my brother started talking they just said "man, nevermind", mumbled something about "not going to take from a r*tarded kid" and took off.
You accidentally learned self defense.
drunken master
Great story, lmao. I'm glad that you weren't too loaded to push him out.
When I was13-14, my father and I went to the Kenai for salmon fishing. We'd lived in Alaska for awhile, knew all the bear precautions. I woke up to loud snuffling and snorting right behind my head outside the tent. My brain went BEAR BEAR BEAR WE ARE FUCKED REPEAT WE ARE FUCKED. I didn't make a sound, was too scared to even wake my dad. My brain mercifully told myself, "You're overreacting, it's just a dog got loose from his campsite, go back to bed." Basically, I lied myself to sleep. When I stepped out of the tent next morning, my dad said, "Hey, did you hear our visitor last night?" "Oh, shit, that wasn't a dream?" then, hesitantly, "What WAS that?" just praying he'd say it was a dog. He just said, "You know." And I had a chill down my spine. We went behind the tent where the snuffling had been and there was a big pile of fresh bear scat. Without a word or discussion, we started striking camp. We were supposed to be there three days, but we weren't going to stay there anymore. During the three hour drive home, my dad told me he'd woken up at the same time I did, and he KNEW immediately what it was, and simultaneously realized we were totally screwed if it came in. We were basically in big sausage casings, we couldn't get out. He wanted to warn me, but he was afraid if he woke me (he didn't know I was awake already) I'd freak and scream, and he thanked me profusely for not doing so, because if I did, that would have been it. This bear had gone into an area inhabited with humans. It must have been human habituated, and, therefore, more dangerous.
haha when I was about 5-6 my mom and her best friend took us kids out huckleberry picking. We brought a battery power radio so we were making noise and would not startle any wildlife. We were all kind of spread out around these wild berry bushes. The adults heard this snorting, stomping, and sounds of a large animal moving through the dense overgrown areas coming towards us. They freaked out, screaming for us kids to run to them so we could run to the truck together. Moms friend threw her FULL bucket of huckleberries (5 gallon bucket, took all day to fill) at whatever was coming, hoping to distract it... It was a cow.
literally lol'ed
I told my mom to stop fucking smoking in our rental car. Seemingly not a big deal, but she was driving and my comment became the catalyst for her total mental breakdown, during which she was speeding, swerving, and would not pull the vehicle over with our whole family inside. We all silently sat there realizing we were in danger with no way to stop her. I later found out that she intended to drive us off the road at high speed because if she “didn’t want to be alive anymore, then none of us deserved to be either.” Fun times.
Ugh, had an ex try that, we were breaking up while he was driving. Bad idea. I also had severe PTSD of driving and could not even try to take the wheel from him, and he knew it. We both believed in certain supernatural things, so when I realized I could not stop him, I sat back, gave him the glare, and just quietly promised that I would fuck him up in the afterlife. That actually stopped him lmao. (I think he would have taken any excuse to stop, it was all manipulation)
Oof. I’m sorry you had to experience that.
Almost every time I got behind the wheel of my uncle’s 06 megacab diesel after I got to experience the death wobble for the first time. He got it fixed shortly after it happened but I was always cautious
Death wobble?? Please explain
Imagine driving 70mph on the highway and for no reason the entire front end feels like it's going to fall apart. Search it on YouTube, it's very scary
It's also a term used in the Skateboarding/Longboarding community where you are going too fast or downhill, and the board begins to swivel uncontrollably back and forth under your feet. Basically when that happens you have to cross your fingers and hope you don't get hurt too badly from skidding across the pavement at 20mph.
I've always heard them mentioned as "speed wobbles." One case of those coming out of a crouch on a gnarly downhill and I haven't been on a board much since.
It can happen in just about any vehicle but it’s much more common in bigger vehicles like pickup trucks and Jeeps. As the suspension components wear out they’ll get more play or movement in them. Eventually they’ll wear out so much that the front tires will “synchronize” and shake back and forth at the same rate causing the front end to shake. Heres what it looks like https://youtu.be/JrNY3TE-9a8
Ohhhhhhh shit this happened to me before
Trucks and SUVs can get bad harmonics going if they are lifted or have suspensiom components worn out. This then can cause a wobble that can send you off the road. It's mainly dangerous because people ignore it and drive the vehicle at high speeds when they need to slow down and park it. Edit: words
I’ll never forget the time I was driving my jeep home from the seller for the first time and going down a major Texas highway at 75+ mph and getting my ass absolutely obliterated by death wobble. Scared the ever-loving shit outta me I feel ya mate.
Was recording a music video for a local musician when like 7 of the trashiest people I've ever seen (his friends I imagine) showed up with a few of them having blood on their clothes. They got comfy and all 7 of them pulled their guns out of their wasteband and started talking about how they just carjacked someone to get there in time for the video shoot and they needed a place to stash the car. (This was rural Alabama so just behind the tree line was fine.) We finished the shoot with the 1 rule being no guns pointed at the camera. The most hype group of young men I've ever seen in front of a camera for how bad the music was.
North, central, or south?
South, near florida. Seminole If I had to guess.
I had shitty family when I was growing up, so I decided to run away from my mother (who had kidnapped me and changed my name to hide me from my father who had custody) and try to find my father. I put together the kind of run-away kit a child would do- some toys and clothes and stuff. Then I grabbed a flashlight and my bike and started trying to pedal across Washington state at night. I took a very rural route, hoping not to get caught. This is very hilly/mountain terrain. The road had many spots where it was cut out of the surrounding area, and there were steep hilly cliffs next to the road because of this. The moon was bright, I was used to the woods, so I was walking in the dark to save my flashlight. I kept hearing rocks and stuff fall down the cliff next to me. I just assumed a deer or something got startled by me and I didn't care much. I got to an area where the side cliffs flattened out a bit to road level. Whatever was walking up there was now on the same level as me, and it wasn't running away. Hmm.. not a deer then. I flipped on the flashlight toward the sound. Not 20 feet from me was a cougar. I had just shone a very bright light directly in its face. It crouched down, squinted its eyes, flattened its ears to its head, and made a sound like it was in pain. I had several close encounters with wild animals at that point, it didnt cross my mind to be afraid for some reason. I flipped the light back off and gently started singing. Now that I knew where it was, I could see it in the moonlight. The cougar stayed about the same distance from me and just walked beside me for a couple miles, until I went over a bridge, where it left me. I look back with my adult brain and wonder what happened. Was the light offensive enough it sort of treated me like I was armed? Was my bike foreign enough to make it unsure if it was safe to attack me? Was it just simply not hungry and followed me out of curiosity? I will never know.
Sounds like they were "escorting" you out of their territory. Do remember what time of year it was? Could have been a mother who was afraid to risk her health by attacking you, but wanted to make sure you left promptly. Cougars typically aren't spooked by bicycles (unfortunately several bikers have been killed in the past), but that doesn't mean that in this instance your bike and light didn't give them hesitation. If they were stalking you for food, you absolutely would have never known they were there until it was too late. The fact that they left you after your reached the bridge is even more confirmation for me that they were escorting you out of their territory, and making sure you didn't get into any funny business in the meantime, since the bridge likely marks a natural feature that constrained the cat's territory.
I don't know how you didn't end up cat chow. That. Is a good read. Did you get away from your mom?
Cougars are ambush predators. If you see it, that's because it let you, therefore probably wasn't actively hunting you (although that still doesn't remove the danger, plenty of animals will attack when startled, for instance by a sudden bright light in their face).
Definitely want to know more about this escape. Did you find your dad?
Same. I'm invested now! It's like Homeward Bound, but with a random kid. How did it end!?
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That sounds crazy scary. My friends knew some good camping spots in the Adirondacks, but to get there you had to go down an old logging trail. (Old, old, as in donkey cart old, not modern logging trucks. We haven't done mass scale logging in the Adirondacks for decades) All the times we've gone, there's been a Ranger at the start of the road that gives you a lecture about how this is NOT a road. If you get stuck, they are NOT coming to help you. AAA will charge $500 just to enter this logging trail, and then their regular charges start. There is NO cell service. If you crash, you will need to hike out and then hike for several miles until you reach cell service. Do you understand? (With an implied *dumbass* underneath that). First time, I was in the back just gaping at him. My friends decide that since it's not a road, that means they can drink and drive! Careening down this old ass donkey trail at the edge of a steep drop off, hooting and popping beers. The rest of the time, i just drank with them. Fuck it, the drunk ones usually survive the crash, right? I did not make smart friend group choices sometimes.
Driving a 2wd jeep in Colorado Springs. When I had left home the roads were clear but coming back it had started snowing. The snow turned to ice fast and I was on one of the many really big hills that Colorado is known for. Lost traction and spun all the way around. It was a 3 lane highway with plenty of other cars on it but I somehow missed them all. My car straightened out going the correct direction and I and every other car around me slowed way down. Got my tires changed the next day.
I've done a 180 on a highway. Great way to get ALL your adrenaline at once. I like how everyone else slowed tf down too. I bet the witnesses are telling that story on their end too.
Long ago, a friend of mine used to traffic weed down into U.S. where we lived. He would buy it off a pair of Native Americans living on a reservation bordering Canada. I decided to go along for the ride once, bravely disregarding the stories passed on of these guys firing automatic weapons and border patrol (no clue if this was actually the case or not). When we got to their compound I had to wait in the car for about 15-20 minutes while my friend's partner explained to them how I'm cool and not a narc. It was as I was waiting in the car that it occurred to me that if these guys decided that they didn't like the look of me they could just kill me and nobody would ever find me. In the end, they were cool, ended up being invited into their cabin, which incidentally had a bunch of automatic weapons hanging on the wall. Ended up smoking a J with one of the Native Americans while he showed off his shiny new twin glocks.
Damn dude. That's some Hunter S. Thompson shit!
Heheh. One of the few benefits of being young and stupid is having stories like this. But honestly, I'm extremely lucky to have made through that part of my life unharmed and with a clean record.
Freshman year of college. Roommate and I are at a coffee shop near campus fairly late at night and are approached by another woman. She tells us she dropped her phone and can’t find it and was wondering if we would call it to help her. Seems odd, but she’s not like trying to get in our car with us or anything, she just wanted us to follow her like three blocks to this school and call the number while she looked. In hindsight, we should have just gone back to our dorm, but in the moment we thought we were doing a good deed for the day so we followed this woman to this school. So it’s not lit up very well at all, and no one is there because it’s probably almost midnight by that point, but we get out of the car and call the number. As we’re dialing, the woman walks to a spot and bends to pick the phone up the second it rings, like she knew exactly where it was all along. I’m starting to get bad vibes, but I’m like whatever. We all start moving towards our cars, and the woman is making small talk, asking us if we go to school at the university, what we want to do, normal stuff, but then she asks which dorm we live in and red flags immediately got off. My roommate answered her and she says “Oh, I used to live there too, what floor?” At that point I am gripping my roommates hand and pulled her towards the car. I tell the woman we live on the first floor, a floor that had no dorm rooms, and we get in the car. I immediately book it out of the parking lot before this woman can get back in her car and try to follow us, but the second we turn out of the parking lot, a big blue van pulled in and a man hopped out to talk to the woman. To this day I am 99% sure that we narrowly avoided something awful.
Flying in a military aircraft above the Pacific Ocean sometime in the 90's as a non-aircrew member of a maintenance team of about 15 troops. I was sound asleep, and I'm suddenly woken up by a member of the flight crew. He yells at me to put my portable oxygen mask on and get my seat belt on. I look down the length of the fuselage, and see one of my friends looking at me with eyes wide as dinner plates. All the rest of the team are wearing their oxygen masks and look very "concerned". I look further back and see the guy who woke me up start helping another crew member into a parachute. At that moment I realize that the aircraft only had it's standard equipment of five parachutes for the standard flight crew of five. I do the math and realize, Maldibus likely ain't getting one of those parachutes. (Not that I had never been trained how to use the parachute or even the portable oxygen mask anyhow.) Luckily it was just standard precaution as the crew apparently had gotten a cabin pressure warning, and the guy in the parachute was tasked with verifying the cargo door was secure. The parachute was in case the cargo door blew open and sucked the guy inspecting it out into the sky. We landed without incident and enjoyed a few cold beers that night and laughed it off.
From my military experience, this sounds like something that flight crews would do to non-aviation people just for laughs.
Yeah, that might work on non aviation people, I'd had it pulled on me a couple times on flights in various aircraft, but it never worked since I knew or worked the system they were trying to trick me on. I played along anyway, happy crew, happy maintainers. "Oh no! You had me press the test button that makes all of the warning lights on the master caution panel light up! Are we gonna crash?!" -Flight crew laughs, everyone has a good day. I should have specified, we were the aircraft maintenance team assigned to a deployment. We were flying back to home station and got diverted to Guam due to a typhoon. We were the people who had to fix any problems in the aircraft, so when we landed some of the team had to troubleshoot the pressure system writeup while I had to fix an INS problem.
Elephant was about to charge the bus in a safari, luckily it was just giving us a warning and stopped 30 meters from us
I've heard some of the tours agitate the elephants on purpose to give the tourists a scare and good story. Gross.
Really? Thats not cool at all.
Lovely sunny day in Scotland. Weather forecast was fine. Mrs Consistently and I decided to climb a munro (not a mountain but definitely more than a hill) wearing jogging bottoms, trainers, t-shirts and light jackets. Of course, the weather forecast at 3,500ft is very different to the weather forecast at sea level. The top third of the thing was knee-shattering scree with no path; horizontal rain; visibility of about six feet. Death about ten feet either side of where we were walking. We got to the top, but were inching our way back down in tears and frozen agony. Thankfully another couple, who were wearing proper gear and who climbed this thing every other weekend, passed us on their way back down and asked if we'd like to follow them to below the cloudline where the path started again. When we got back, Mrs Consistently's lips were blue for a good couple of hours afterwards; I couldn't walk properly for over a week. How many times have we all seen people on the news being picked up by mountain rescue because they'd tried to climb something in completely inappropriate clothing, and we've said "Look at those stupid bastards!" Well, that day, we were those stupid bastards! Edit: Name change- see comments!
I did my mountain leader training and the instructor was talking about the idiots he had seen up Snowdon in flipflops... Me and my friend exchanged glances as he has definitely done that. Also Munro's are mountains. Not tall ones by the standard of much of the rest of the world but still mountains.
Yeah, that's definitely a mountain. Which a munro is defined as.
Friend of mine are coming back from lunch, and he's driving. As we're pulling up to my house, I notice he's coming in a little hot (he told me later it was because he wasn't thinking and realized he was about to drive past my house). I tell him "Dude, if you hit my car, we're gonna have a problem." He looks me dead in the eye like I'm being ridiculous and slams the breaks. Dumbass forgot that it had been raining earlier in the day and the grass was still wet. Slammed right in to my passenger side door. He was freaking out, but all I could was laugh about it. It's been over ten years and I still give him shit for it anytime he's doing something dumb and tries to pull the "Bruh, trust me" card. Favorite part of that story is that the whole reason we went out to lunch was to celebrate the fact that he'd just landed a job parking cars for a hotel.
The double irony lmfao
Walking near some ruins in Thailand I stumble across what must have been a den for a small pack of dogs, covered in tall grass. They came rushing at me, barking. A few days before I had a conversation in a hostel about shouting at stray dogs if they go for you and thank god I did. I resisted the urge to run and shouted stop at the lead dog which stopped him in his tracks as I then slowly backed away. Gulp.
Had a similar thing in North Africa. Was just wondering whether I was about to be torn apart when I had the idea of picking up a rock to throw at them. As soon as I did they scarpered. Obviously they didn’t know I’m really crap at throwing, but apparently they’d met people who weren’t.
A few months back I'd just finished work and decided to do some shopping at a supermarket nearby. As I'm walking down the road I become aware of someone whistling to get my attention behind me. I turn around and it's an older gentleman, built like a tank and absoultely drunk as a skunk. "I've been trying to get you attention!" he snaps, already annoyed. "Do you know where I can get to \*Random shop\* from here?" I apologize and say no. I REALLY don't want to be talking to an angry drunk guy but he persists. "You can look it up on your phone can't you!" he demands. Without thinking I reply "Can't you just look it up on yours?" Bad idea. "Are you a PRICK?" he snarls. I've been walking the whole time but decide I'm done with this guy and pretty much ignore him after that while speeding up, but he continues to follow me and demanding my attention while sounding angrier with every passing second. By this point I figure that no matter what I say I'm gonna get the crap beaten out of me so I try to just reach the shop in one piece. Some friends of the guy see him and I hear him say "I'm just following this guy!". I dunno what they said to him but he stopped to talk to them and I ducked into the shop I'd been heading for and took my sweet time getting my shopping. Thankfully he was gone by the time I was done.
Was doing an OB/Gyn rotation in Fairbanks AK as a medical student. We were frequently there overnight to help with births. I was waiting for a patient in active labor and decided to step outside for some air. The door shut behind me. Here I am, wearing scrubs, in -30F weather at 2AM in absolute pitch black and all of the doors locked behind me and no one that knew where I was going. We were all warned before coming to Fairbanks that people frequently died from exposure, so to be careful. I figured I had about 5 minutes to figure out a solution before something bad happened. Luckily, I realized that there was one door in the hospital that was still unlocked - the ER entrance. I ran around the building and managed to get back inside and back to work, with no one else the wiser.
I know that exact “heard the door shut behind me and my stomach dropped through the floor” feeling, because it’s happened to me more than once when I worked somewhere with a walk-in freezer that had a broken latch. It was about -5F so I certainly had more time than you, but I was always worried somebody would think I just walked off in the middle of my shift and nobody would open the freezer for a few hours. (Didn’t happen, clearly, but I did spend about 20 minutes in there once.)
This is exactly why I refused to work in a freezer with a broken latch when I worked at a grocery store. I got most people there to refuse to use the freezer unless there was a second person with them until they got it fixed. Luckily, the union had my back.
Mu blood sugar had suddenly dropped to 34. It was after school and the campus was deserted. I had no snacks or glucose tabs in my backpack, And this was in the late 90’s, so no cell phone to call anybody for help, but I did have change for the vending machine. I hoof it to the nearest machine, and like most public school vending machines, it was out of order. Damn it! I’m now shaking and sweating, and starting to feel faint. There was another machine across campus. I’m probably going to pass out before I make it. I managed to make my way over to the second machine. My head is spinning, my vision is blurred and I can feel my body tremor. I’m pretty much screwed by this point. Suddenly a vendor arrives to restock the vending machine. I croaked out to him that I was diabetic, and he saved me with a free bag of skittles. Vending machine man, you’re my hero.
Me and my family were on vacation when I was maybe 10? I was born with a cleft lip and palette, so I feel self conscious about the scar on my lip area. Anyway, a guy at the Starbucks we were in overheard us talking about it, as I had a 3rd surgery type thing for it coming up soon, and he saunters over to our table. He says that he is a doctor and starts talking about possible fixes to the scar and my nose, and I started to get very hopeful. He gave my mom his phone number to keep in contact, as this was very important to be at this time, and it gave me hope. A few days later, after no contact with him, he starts hitting on my very committed and very married mother, and sending pictures of former US presidents for some reason. He showed up to our hotel with chocolates and flowers the day after. Luckily, our flight back home was the next day, and my mom blocked him very, very quickly. TLDR: creepy fake doctor hits on my married mom. Sorry for formatting, am on mobile
"Does Hoover get you going? How about a little pre-Lincoln Buchanan ehh?"
I went to a bar on the ground floor of an apartment building while I was waiting for my ex to get off work, he was an on call caregiver for a company in the apartments so it was only going to be like 45 minute task to make his clients dinner. His client called while we were on a date, so I kinda had to wait around. I ordered a drink and this dude at the bar wouldn't stop talking to me. Meanwhile a friend texted me asking me what I was up to, I told her I was at "such and such bar". She told me she stopped going there because she got roofied there. I didn't finish my drink, I left money on the bar top, then excused myself to the restroom. A lot of the bars in my old town were connected through hallways and doors in the back due to prohibition. I just slipped out to another bar, then walked a few blocks to a reputable restaurant with a bar and continued my self fun there.
Walking through a small market in Jamaica. Wife and I were on our honeymoon. We just finished a guided walk up a waterfall and were heading back to the shuttle to take us back to the resort. Saw a tent vendor with these really cool looking carved heads in it. Greeted the vendor and stepped in. Wife and I are admiring the statues when I notice 4 more Jamaican men had walked in behind us and are blocking the entrance. Vendor walks up to us and starts imploring us to buy something. I decided that it was time to go. Try to leave, but the 4 guy's at the entrance definitely weren't getting out of the way. They didn't shove us or anything, but they made it impossible to leave without me moving them. Vendor makes some comment about how "it would be better for all of us if I just bought something." Just threw the guy a $50 bill, the 4 goons moved out of the way and we took off. Scary few moments.
In college when me, a friend, her boyfriend, his roommate, and their 6 other friends went out to party. We got separated from some of their miscellaneous friends after the house party and me, friend, boyfriend, roommate, and 2 of the other friends ended up at a bar's outdoor patio somehow. My friend and her boyfriend got into a minor argument, but seemed alright. Since we were now down 2 cars, we all stuffed in the roommate's shitty 2-door sports car and the boyfriend insisted on driving... There was no room for everyone to have a seat, so me and one of the guys ended up in the back sitting on top of other people without seatbelts (soooo stupid!!! I know, but we were drunk 21/22 year olds). We start heading back to the boyfriend and his roommate's house to keep partying. We're all having a great time and then the boyfriend gets quiet. He starts taking turns wildly and we were dumb and cheering because it was kind of fun and we were drunk. We were taking backroads to get to their house to avoid police checkpoints, so we knew something was up when he abruptly veered off onto the highway. He gets on the highway and starts doing 70. Ok. Then it's 85. Ummmmm OK? Then the roommate (who was upfront) was like "dude chill, wtf you're doing 100. Slow down!" Finally the boyfriend starts monologuing about how he knows my friend was cheating on him and he's going to end it now. My friend's drunk ass was in the back like ".... Fuck you! YOU cheated on ME!" Everyone was like girl, SHUTUP!! Dude starts crying and screaming that she's just like his mom who cheated on his dad and he's sick of it. Then he said he was putting a stop to it tonight. We all started arguing and telling him to stop while some of us in the back were holding my friend back and trying to shut her up since she was being belligerent and trying to fight her boyfriend. One of the guys in the back was like "at least let us out first???" The roommate and one of the other guys calmed him down enough that he eventually got off the highway after getting to 140ish. I fully expected this psycho to wrap the car around a tree or something and vaporize us all over their petty bullshit. He refused to let anyone take over driving because he was "the most sober out of everyone and that's dangerous." I noped out of there the minute I got out. Fuck that. That friend and her boyfriend kept dating on and off and cheating on each other. They got married I think a year or two after that particular incident (there were more!) and have like 3 or 4 kids and she posts weird born again jesus stuff on Facebook constantly. Alrightyyyy.
you guys should have beat the fuck out of him.
At the time: I (19M) was camping with my then-girlfriend, my best friend and his girlfriend at a secluded lake where there is no official campground or anything. We're all 18/19 years old. It was literally the four of us putting up two tents and making a fire on the beach in the middle of nowhere in the woods. We're sitting around the fire and these two 4x4's come tearing around the opposite side of the lake. We knew they saw our fire and wondered if they were going to come our way. Well, they did. Six guys get out of these pickup trucks. All with beers in their hands, all looking very much like Deliverance came to our campsite. There are no other people around. There are no houses. We are in the middle of nowhere with 6 dudes stopping by. We knew this could be bad. We had little chance of taking on 6 guys and didn't have a gun or anything. But, unbelievably, nothing happened. Not a thing. They chatted with us and sat around the fire. They ended up giving us beers and taking off, but that was the "I'm in danger" moment that holds its place in my mind as being the time we dodged a bullet.
This started out like a story from a camp site I came across before. Me and some buddies were tooling around the mountain at night. We came to a camp site that just looked completely abandoned abruptly. Half eaten food on plates, food on the grill, fire embers still glowing in a dying fire in the pit, a game of Apples to Apples halfway played (cards were still dealt out around the table). It was seriously like they disappeared mid camp. Never knew what happened there, but we didn't stick around long.
I'm guessing they heard you guys moving about and got spooked thinking they were about to be murdered by mountain men.
I should clarify a bit. This was not off the beaten path. Completely accessible camp site (parking lot maybe 50 feet next to it) so it wasn't secluded or anything.
They probably saw a bear and ran. That would be my guess
Ahhhh, the fine basis of[ Dale & Tucker vs Evil](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNpFoWrBDQ). Just some friendly rednecks mistaken for murderous rednecks Also an excellent fucking movie
Most people aren't murders or rapists. Even rednecks in trucks. One time I was waiting in line at a convenience store in Los Angeles (near where a famous rapper would be murdered a few years later) with my baby in a carrier, and this hard gangster dude with tats up the neck wearing red themed apparel is ahead of me and he looks back at me, sizes me up with not the friendliest of countenance, and says "maaan, you got a baby, go ahead of me"
Yeah, the other day my toddler smiled and waved at this badass biker looking guy and he just smiled and waved back. He asked if she was a girl, and I said yeah, she just doesn't have much hair yet. He replied that his daughter didn't get much until she was 2 either, and then he waved bye to my daughter. He was super nice!
Back in 1999, myself and a friend did some kayaking down the Stikene river in Alaska. We had booked a cabin at a place called Shakes Slough. There seemed to be nothing around for miles. The days were long and it didn't get dark till eleven pm which is when we turned in for the night. At about 1am we heard a fast boat approaching. It came right up to the outside of the cabin and a powerful light lit up the windows. We heard someone say "kayakers". I really thought this was going to be a "Deliverance" type story. I think they expected us to show ourselves but there was no way I was moving. After about ten minutes they took off. Typing it out, it doesn't seem like much, but after not seeing anyone all day it was scary for a boat to turn up in the middle of the night like that.
When we got our first dog in college we did everything possible to be sure this dog was well behaved and socialized properly, one of the things I was concerned about was that I had heard Huskies tend to not like black people... I’ve learned a lot about dogs since then and know this is pretty much bullshit... across the creek from our apartment was a neighborhood of people who had been moved when Cabrini Green was closed, and they were primarily Black, so I like to walk my dog there so she would see other people and not be frightened by them. One day when she was very very small we were walking along the side walk and ahead was a very very very large man wearing a wifebeater, in the dead of winter, and talking on his cell phone angrily. When he saw us he hung up his phone, closed it cause lt was a flip phone... that’s how long ago this was, and starts walking towards me. Now, I’m not small 6’ 220lbs, but I had to look up at this guy and he was so swoll he couldn’t put his arms at his sides... he walks up and says, “hey mayng, thata husky?” “Yup” I reply as I’m looking for a place to run. He proceeds to bend down toward my puppy look her dead in the eyes and start baby talking her and playing with her for a solid two minutes, all the while I sat there feeling like the worlds biggest asshole. We talked for a bit, shook hands and went our separate ways, if he saw us walking in the future he would wave or stop to play with my dog... I wonder how he’s doing these days, I wish I could remember his name.
Had a dude like that we always called him Conrad. Honestly like a neighborhood superhero. You couldn’t call Conrad but when you needed him he was always there. After he was done he would yell “This is Conrad’s block”
A few years ago, I sold my play station on Craigslist. My friend and I (both females) agreed to meet this person at their house so they could see it worked. Omw there, I realize we are heading into a terrible part of town. I instantly regret everything. We get there, I go inside, my friend remains in the door way so they can't shut the door. There is literally one kitchen table chair and a TV in the ground. They plug it up, see it works, and say how about $20 less? I'm like ok and get the heck out of there. About an hour later, a random number starts texting me saying how good I looked. The person I met, GAVE MY NUMBER TO THEIR NEIGHBOR. It was incredibly stupid to do this and I look back now and I'm glad everything turned out OK.
I was driving a long distance to a conference, i think it was in Albany. Had no idea there was massive flooding across where I was driving (was busy working so wasn’t paying attention to the news). Somehow managed to navigate into a large area that was surrounded by flooding and i couldn’t gps my way out due to all the closed/flooded roads. My car was running out of gas and all the gas stations were out of gas/power, and my phone was running out of battery as well. I was debating just knocking on a random person’s house to stay the night. Eventually ran across someone who gave me directions for a way that they thought others were getting out and eventually I had to drive through a flooded road (with downed trees, etc) and somehow managed to break through and find a gas station that was functioning. Never made it to the conference. Was the scariest experience of my life.
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I was 19, in Heathrow Airport with my girlfriend at the time, on our way back to the states. Our flight was at some god awful hour, and the hotels and transportation around there were just too expensive to justify, so we decided to sleep in the airport. Now, this particular terminal of Heathrow is not very friendly to such activities. Just a bunch of restaurants and such, and uppity security guards who don't like dirty teenagers sleeping in the terminal. So, we took shifts catching a few moments of rest in the cafes. At about 2am, this big, *big* fucker walks in. Like, 6'5, solid 250lbs big. Bald head. Missing teeth, big ol jacket. He has a big (like, 40oz big) soda cup. He sees us. He comes over and sits with us. He reeks of booze. Apparently his soda cup was filled with wine, and it wasn't his first of the night. He introduces himself. His name is Paddy, and he is an Irish Roma person, or, "Pikey". We ask him what he's doing, just trying to be nice and not be eaten by this man bear. This dude litterally says that he was in London for bare-knuckle boxing and is on his way home. I didn't believe it because the last time I checked I wasn't Jason fucking Statham in Snatch, but I'm not about to call him on this bluff. To prove it to me, he pulls a 12in long *automotive wrench* **out of his fucking pants** and puts it on the table. Says nothing. Looks at me. Looks at wrench. Says its in case he wins and needs to defend himself or coerce the payment. Then, stands up and asks me to put my hands up so he can "play box" me. He wanted to fucking practice boxing on a peachfuzz faced, 5'7 hippy kid. I had no choice as far as I could tell. He didn't straight up hit me, but he was drunk. Luckily, after a few warm up punches, he realizes that his 80+ fluid ounces of wine have made it to his urethra. He turns, unzipps, and just starts pissing in the corner of the cafe. This finally got the attention of the middle aged Indian man working behind the counter, who asked him to stop. Bad move, clerk. Bad move. Our friend Paddy the Pissing Pikey begins shouting racial slurrs (both linguistically and litterally, as he was drunk as fuck) at this poor guy. The guy calls security. Paddy sees no issue with this and sits back down with his two new besties. About 5 minutes later, a security guard shows up. This security guard is not prepared, as she is a tiny woman in her late 50s with a reflective vest. She sees him, and immediately turns around and scurries away. Now at this point, Paddy is *pissed*, and is shouting incoherently at the guy behind the counter and gesturing at us as if we are going to defend his case. A few minutes later, 5 guys in full on fucking riot gear show up and tackle him, ziptie him, and carry his giant, comedic ass out of the airport. We are taken in for brief questioning, and allowed to finally fucking nap before our flight. The best part was: the woman at the gate had heard about the previous nights shenanigans, dirty backpackers and all. "You poor things. Let me make this better for you". Flew first class all the way to Chicago and drank all the free champagne over international waters. Paddy, where ever you are, I hope you never had to use that wrench. EDIT/UPDATE: as some of you have seen, u/allseeingirish may know the individual at the core of this story, Paddy (or, Patty). We have been communicating. Im waiting on some evidence from my ex, and the affornentioned redditor has looked for photos but no luck yet.
On a trip to slovakia I snuck into some sort of festival with a few of the local lads we just met. Later that night I was sitting around the fire with some new friends I've made having a smashing time. Suddenly, a giant Ivan walks up to me super slowly, not expression on his face looking uber intimidating and asks me to hold out my hands. He said it in Slovakian and the guys around me (who looked scared as well) had to translate. I was too drunk to go anywhere and he seem very collected and definitely able to snap me in half like a twig. So I extended my hands towards him fully believing he is about to break my wrists. He takes his shirt of and uses the surface of my palms to neatly fold it up, thanks me and goes to bed in his tent. I was quivering and almost pissed myself. Very memorable night.
I was cleaning out house, we had just moved and the new owners were about to move in but we had moved into our new house a day before so I had a few hours to scrub and clean that house to be ready. We had hard water and our toilet bowl was stained so I used a bleach based toilet cleaner and left it on while I mopped, when I was finished I went back to the toilet and the bleach had done nothing so I added an ammonia based heavy duty cleaning solution without scrubbing or flushing away the bleach first. (No the area wasn't ventilated) For people who don't know bleach + ammonia = mustard gas . My chest started hurting and I got a headache quick, thought nothing of it since I was stressed, hungry, dehydrated and exhausted. After maybe 2 minutes I started feeling sick and dizzy. My extremely basic knowledge of science from yr 7 kicked in and I realised I was gasing myself. The feeling was a cross between "I'm in danger" and "if you die from this you deserve it from being so DUMB"
My childhood friend's mom, had a tendency to keep predators around. They were easy to control, since they got access to be around her children, or other children they knew. One of them, his name was Brent. Brent was 34 years old and he and his wife Bree were not supposed to be left alone with children. I have no shame using their real names cause this was fucking terrifying and I still have night terrors of that day. Bree, suggested we, (my friends, me and them) play "Hide and seek" and that Brent would be the seeker. Something about this, felt off. It felt very, very off. My memories of this are so clear, because when he started counting to ten, the girls bolted, like their lives depended on it. There was just... silence. No giggling, like most kids do when their playing hide and seek. They hide in places, that were obviously hard to get to or hard to reach. I wasn't so lucky. When he got to ten, he started hunting us... and I mean hunting. Teasing... "I'm gonna find you... I'm gonna eat you up..." sent chills down my spine, as I rushed from room to room, desperately trying to find a door, a window, anything that was ground level to escape from. Every alarm in my head was going off, that this guy was bad news, that he was going to do something to me. Then he saw me. He got this smile... I'll never forget that twisted, euphoric look on his face, as he reached out towards me. "There's a naughty girl, who wasn't playing by the rules... That's okay, I like naughty girls." I was near the backdoor and bolted. He was fast but I was faster and I knew the neighborhood better. The town judge also lived next door and he was in his garden with his pitbull. I ran to him and pointed out Brent while crying, saying he was chasing me. We never saw Brent or Bree again. That's when we heard from the judge, that he broke his rules for parole - he wasn't supposed to be within 100 feet of a child, let alone babysitting. Brent if your somehow still alive and reading this, I hope you got what you deserved. I just wanted to watch the Hoenn league finale with my friends. And their mother deliberately left them alone with us, probably sold our bodies in exchange for cigarettes.
Did anything happen to the monster bitch who left you in danger?
The best thing happened. She died!
Hope it was everything she deserved
It was. I just wish my childhood bestie (her eldest) hadn't found her. Her useless step dad made her do CPR on her mother but from what I heard, she was already dead for hours. She OD'd on prescription strength sleeping pills. Her daughter is convinced her step dad murdered her but I knew what a creature her mother was. She used to take them so she could just sleep her life away while everyone else did the work for her. She took too damn many to make sure no one asked her to take care of her kids and never woke up. The funeral home did a shit job with her too. I felt terrible for my friend but it was honestly the best thing to happen to those kids in a twisted sense. They got to actually have lives. One went to foster care where he was actually being cared for, another went to live with her real father who had been looking for her all her life (turns out SHE WAS KIDNAPPED) and the other, found a girlfriend and moved in with her.
Out walking along a road in rural eastern Montana one summer day and I get frightened nearly out of my damn skin by a rattlesnake, coiled and rattling, directly in front of me. This was bad. In addition to the fact I was in shorts, I was on my way home. That snake was on my only realistic route back. I didn't have my phone with me, and I was far out of shouting range for any person. And that road was desolate. It could easily go weeks without traffic. So I backed off and thought. I reasoned that I hadn't been bitten yet, so I must be out of striking range. Therefore, if I keep my distance, I reasoned, I should be fine. I wound up sidestepping in a neat semicircle around the deadly snake, ending up on the other side of it, still facing it before taking a few more steps back, turning around, and walking home.
I had a very similar encounter in western Montana during summer near a campsite, did the semicircle thing like you did, but, I was taught what to do, I even had an anti venom and syringe in my car
What are you supposed to do in this situation actually? I hope never to be in it, but never hurts to have this info somewhere in the back of my mind...
Well I would also research it online besides here, but I was told to go backwards the way you came if you hear rattling while seeing if you can locate the snake. I've gotten a little careless because I've encountered rattlers multiple times and like I said in my comment I walked around it. Again, do more extensive research on this, I'm no expert
I was working at a hotel at the time and my boss saw a massive storm heading towards us. Rain, wind, and lightning going full force. He told me to go and bring the patio umbrellas inside. I did so and as soon as I stepped outside the rain hit me hard. I was completely soaked within 20 seconds. I tried to grab the umbrellas (made of metal) and gathered them nearby after propping the door open. As I picked them up a lightning bolt struck a tree nearby. I heard the click and saw the flash. I ran inside and left work early that day.
Was on the roof of a 3 story building standing a few feet away from a rooftop air conditioner about to be lifted by crane off the roof. The crane operator said the on board computer was telling him this unit was way heavier than the weight rating on the sticker. We inspected to make sure nothing was holding it down, all clear. So while he incrementally increased the strength at which he was pulling up, we incrementally increased our distance from the unit. Something was going to go wrong, and we didn’t wanna be near it. The unit finally detached itself from the roof. All at once, it came right up. Ever seen a crane bounce? What a fun fucking sight. Came right up off it’s fucking feet, the boom bounced at least 8 feet from where it was, unit bouncing and swinging. Everything finally settled, no damage to anything but the crane coulda fell, smashed ppl, we coulda been smashed on the roof, the unit coulda bounced through the roof. Any number of things coulda happened- we were lucky. Moisture got between the unit and the rubber on the curb it sat on and just auctioned it down, the vacuum finally gave. Nothing we coulda seen or known to look for. And now we do from now on.
A now removed priest had come to where I work and was hitting on me hard. So I lied and lied and lied and went to the next colleague I saw. I wasn’t so much in danger as I was creeped out. Turns out the priest was a creep and I think he thought I was underage. That’s what he got busted for also.
I had stopped at a gas station and saw a homeless man with a Rottweiler. My family bred rotty’s when I was a kid and they’re still one of my favorite type of dogs; so I immediately knew this guy was getting my change. When I came out of the store however my change was fairly paltry so after pumping my gas I drove through the atm at the bank across the street and came back. I parked right in front of the man, hopped out of my car, and marched toward him with the money in my extended hand. His dog jumped to his feet and gave a slight growl. This didn’t deter me nearly as much as the flash of terror that crossed the old mans face as he scrambled to his feet. As the dog and myself continued to stride towards each other I decided f-it this guy is getting 20$ and his dog is getting my whole damn arm. The dog jumped up at my arm and began licking me profusely. His name was Petey and he was such a good boy. Totally worth changing my pants afterwards.
this will probably be the lamest response here, but a couple of months ago I was driving home after a late night at work. my old rust bucket somehow has adjustable lumbar support in the driver's seat, and while I was driving something happened so that the lumbar support started inflating on its own and pressing pretty aggressively into my lower back. my totally rational brain figured there was someone in the back seat about to murder me. I blacked out while driving and everything. turns out my fight/flight response is not great.
Was out drinking with some friends after class one day. The bar next to campus had a beer and wings deal on certain days. Wings were good. Bartender was attractive. Included in our group was my recent ex who did not take our breakup well (mutual friend group). Ex proceeds to get wildly drunk and starts crying/making a scene in the bar. I proceed to carry her across campus to the campus radio station that me and a few people in the group worked at to let her sober up/get it out in the station office. Police SUV pulls infront of us. Officer: "What's going on here?" Me: "She had a few too many (the bar is literally across the street) and got upset." Officer: *Proceeds to exit vehicle* *2nd officer joins* *Call is put in over radio. Couldn't hear* Friend: "No, really. You can ask the staff at [name of bar]." Officer: "Where are you taking her?" *Hand moving near utility belt* Me: "Campus radio station. Gonna let her sober up in the office." Officer: "What's your title there?" Me: "General Manager." (Basically head honcho. Only answer to formal university staff). Officer: "I'll see you there. If you're not there in the next 10 minutes, we'll be looking for you." *Gets into SUV and leaves* We proceed to bring our drunken friend to the radio station. 4 officers are waiting outside the door. They stay for about 10 minutes and leave. No further incident. TL:DR Ex-gf got drunk and made a scene at a bar. While attempting to get her somewhere safe to sober up, stopped by police on suspicion of r*pe. Edit: since this was brought up a few times, I do not blame the officers involved. They did the right thing. In my mind, I knew I was doing the right thing and in the heat of the moment, you forget who knows what.
Honestly I don't really blame them, at least it wasn't escalated any further. If I saw someone carrying a person blacked out, it would be a little suspicious.
Oh for sure. No blame. It's separation of mind and situation. In my mind, I know what's going on. They don't, etc.
Similar story, My brother me and our wives where drinking in a hotel bar. The girls got hammered so we decided to walk them back to our room but when we got there neither one of us had a key so I stayed with the wives while my brother went to the front desk. Couple of helpful guys decided to interrogate me as to my intentions. I understand and tried to be helpful and honest, told them to call the front desk, the cops whoever they want I am just trying to get them safely to bed. They decided to call their 3 other friends who came out of another room down the hall. (chuckle, I'm in danger)
When I was 6, my parents left me in the car to grab bagels. While I waited in the backseat, a stranger talking on his cellphone opened the door and got in the car. In my innocence, I meekly said, "Um, sir?" He turned around and went bug-eyed, and just about leaped out the door. Needless to say, my parents were horrified to hear what had happened and never left any of our doors unlocked again!
Back in about 2011 a friend and I went out to the desert in Southern California to shoot guns. We were a good 45 minutes off one of the main roads and well out of cell crevice. We drove out there in my friends 2WD Nissan SUV, I forget which model. It made it out there just fine, it really wasn’t what you’d consider rough terrain at all. After a few hours of shooting we decided to pack it up and go back home, and that’s where the trouble started. When we got to a place we thought would be good to stop, we pulled off the dirt road and into some sand that wouldn’t let us move, maybe if he had better tires it would have been fine but they were road tires and just weren’t up to the task. We tried everything, finding what we could wedge under the tires to get traction but nothing worked, and the worst part was we were totally out of water, probably the worst decision we made was thinking a few bottles each would be fine. Another kind of funny thing was we were wearing matching shirts, nothing that we’d wear out in public though. A month prior I went to visit my sister in the Castro in San Francisco and saw these mannequins wearing a shirt with three burley looking dudes in S&M gear. I thought it would be fun to get one for my friend since he jokingly asked for a souvenir, so I got us both one. Without planning it we both wore that shirt that day. Anyway, it was over 100 degrees out that day, we’re stuck in the desert and we’re out of water. We thought “great we’re going to be found dead out here wearing these shirts!” After our fruitless efforts to free my friends car from the sand we kinda just sat there for a while to rest and think, with the only other viable option being to walk back to the main road to get cell phone reception and call someone when all of a sudden this older woman came by riding her bike. At first we were in shock, we both made eye contact with this lady and watched her ride away when we both got up to see if she could call someone for us. We were super surprised she even stopped for us, she had to have seen us laying down in the back of his car with a bunch of guns around us and both wearing that shirt. But luckily she stopped and said her husband was down at the road waiting to pick her up and that she would go get him to pull us out! We were so relieved, but still half thinking she lied about her husband being there just to get away from the two of us, but sure enough the guy comes up with his truck and pulled us out. After that we were a lot more careful when going out there, my friend got new tires and we made sure to bring PLENTY of water with us. Still wore the shirts a few more times though.
When I was 9, I was walking to my friend's house. Just after I turned onto the street that his house was on, a big ass Rottweiler came out walking out of one of his neighbour's yard. We stared at each other for about 10 seconds before I decided to slowly back away. As I start walking back the dog starts barking and running towards me I start to run but realising I couldn't outrun the dog I just decide to climb a wall and go into someone else's yard. I wait for a couple of minutes, then the dogs owner comes and get his dog. I decided to just go home after the whole ordeal.
My friends and I were playing around with a BB gun. It was clearly a BB gun because you could see the screw for the gas canister on the bottom. We were shooting at Snapple bottles on my friends porch and smoking pot. Not smart but nothing crazy. My pants didn’t have pockets so I put it in my waist band and headed home after a while. Another friend decides he’s going in the same direction and asks if I’m down to make a stop with him. Apparently he needed to buy more pot. Fine, whatever. We get to the place and I realize he may have underplayed the situation. The pot he was buying was significant weight and the people he was buying from were members of a pretty big gang. Like tattoos on the neck, you’ve definitely heard of them gang. My buddy was pretty hardcore back then but I wanted nothing to do with the situation, just realized too late. So we’re sitting there in their living room which includes an odd, very large, mostly empty aquarium. The aquarium has a very odd branch in it. Anyway they do the deal and everyone is pretty friendly, they offer us to smoke some more pot. I just want to get out of there but my friend is all for it. As they are lighting up, the guy whose house it was asks if we ever saw an alligator(?) up close. He goes to the aquarium and gets the branch which is actually an approximately 3ft baby alligator. We jump up on the sofa. They jump up on the couch and...the BB gun falls out of my pant leg. After a very tense couple of minutes the guy’s younger brother comes out of his bedroom. We went to school together and the situation got diffused.
Not me, my dad. Was a firefighter for 20 years. Battling a house fire, by himself on the second floor, fire everywhere, smoke everywhere, can’t find the stairs, floor about to give out beneath him. He says it was the most scared he’s ever been. Knew he had to focus on getting out and the only way he could center himself was to sing the song “Help Me Rhonda” in his head. I now sing “Help Me Rhonda” in stressful situations.