Call it what you want—luck, fate, serendipity, pure coincidence, or your intuition—but you’ve probably had moments in your life when your inner alarm bells go off and you instinctively know that you should leave. Immediately!
Today, we’re looking at some of the most heart-pounding moments when people got lucky or trusted their instincts, and it actually saved their lives, as shared on AskReddit and Quora. Keep scrolling to read these internet users’ captivating stories. And remember, when in doubt, trust your gut!
#1
In 2013 I was with some friends at the Boston marathon. The marathon is a long circuit but many like to congregate at the end. I was a teenager at the time and my friends and I decided we wanted to go to the finish line. I told my Mom that’s what we were doing and she stayed closer to our home and let us head that way. On our way there we decided we wanted to go to our favorite arcade/gaming spot instead (they had like Xbox360’s setup everywhere it was a cool spot). We arrived at our gaming center and my friend shows us his phone that the finish line had just gotten bombed. My Mom called me freaking out wondering if I was there. She was beyond relieved to hear we had made the detour. Not sure who was looking out for me that day but man I’m glad I left when I did.
Image source: VIP3445, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#2
There was a drive by shooting downtown Toronto where I live. Two gangs just started shooting at each other.
Broad daylight, thousands of people around again like I said it’s downtown Toronto. I walked past this dessert restaurant and to the bus stop then seconds later I said nah I want that Nutella crepe. I turned around and went and got it. 2 mins later I heard gun shot and then everyone took cover as gangs shooting was just going off. Anywho finally cops came, took care of the scene etc. later on I realized it was the exact same bus spot where I was standing at the bus stop and contemplated if I should get the Nutella crepe.
A by stander young girl got a stray bullet and died of her injuries. That same spot was where I was standing waiting for the bus.
The Nutella crepe saved my life. Was on the news and everything. I did go to the girls media event at the scene. Still shook.
Image source: sausagesfestivity, Huy Phan/pexels (not the actual photo)
#3
Working new construction in Killeen TX, been eating lunch at Luby’s all week.
The last day, decided to forgo lunch and just finish out the job.
On the way out of town, Luby’s is roped off, cops everywhere a pickup truck sitting thru the wall at the booth we used all week.
4 hrs later, found out we had missed being in Luby’s when someone crashed into the building and went on a rampage shooting everyone he saw.
If we had lunched that day, we would have been the 1st to die as he crashed thru the wall.
Image source: MastiffOnyx, Erik Mclean/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#4
Left my a*****e ex only to have him shoot his gf, 7 years afterwards. She survived but omfg what a nightmare of a situation. He’s incarcerated for the next 9 to 30 years.
Image source: JOEYMAMI2015, Curated Lifestyle/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#5
Worked as an associate for a small 4-partner, 5 associate law firm that was the go-to divorce firm for very wealthy clients. Really shady billing practices (like seeing my actual billable time doubled and tripled on client invoices) and cut-throat office atmosphere led me to look elsewhere. The week after I left, the firm and each attorney billing on a particular file (including me) was sued for malpractice and fraud with a demand of $50MM. After I turned over my accurate time pre-bill records to the plaintiff firm in discovery, the plaintiffs dismissed me from the case. The firm did not survive the $15MM settlement.
Image source: aging-rhino, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#6
I was a little kid in South Florida. I was in the swimming pool by myself since the weather was getting kind of dark. Eventually, I got out and walked about 10 ft and then.. BOOOOM… Water everywhere. Lightning had struck the pool.
Image source: LumpyWelds, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#7
The week after we moved house, we heared from our former neighbour that shots were fired on the playground next to our former home, cause of a drugdeal gone wrong. No not in the USA, but in the Netherlands!
Image source: Yacacaw, Kelly Sikkema/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#8
In fourth grade I went to aftercare after school every day, while my parents were at work. One day, while I was at aftercare, there was a report of bad weather coming and a chance of tornados. My mom called my next door neighbor and asked if she would be willing to go pick me up from the school, as it would take my mom too long to get there. My neighbor said of course and came and picked me up. As soon as we got back to their house a few minutes later, the wind started picking up, the front door blew open, the dogs started panicking, and I hid in the closet with my neighbor’s kids. Within a few minutes it was all over. The tornado went right through my school and completely levelled it. Luckily there were some painters who were also at the school at the time, and they helped the rest of the afterschool kids. I had friends who were airborne but were saved by the painters hanging onto them. That tornado k**led 21 people. Thankfully, the kids at the school survived.
Image source: pkbab5, Greg Johnson/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#9
I once left a party early because I wasn’t feeling it, just tired and off. Found out the next day that cops showed up an hour later, someone got arrested, and a bunch of people got citations. Total chaos. I was home in pajamas eating chips. No regrets.
Image source: Highjay710, Jack/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#10
I was at this bar, left 10 minutes before a guy decided to stab three people on the balcony. My buddy told me about it the next day.
Image source: IDontThereforeIAmNot, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#11
Not me, but a friend was at a paint store. The checkout was up front by the entrance and parking lot. About 30 seconds after he left, a car plowed through the main foyer and traveled through where he was standing. Crazy to think how a few moments different could have changed everything for him and his family.
Image source: zdrads, Gustavo Fring/pexels (not the actual photo)
#12
In a coal mine in WV having lunch one day dust kept falling on me where I was sitting. Then a little water started hitting me. It’s not really that uncommon in a mine obviously. Finally some dust got on my sandwich and I stood up and walked about 30 feet to a more favorable spot and like 30 seconds later the area I was in completely collapsed. Basically right in front of me. Dropped the dang sandwich in my retreat (which sucked, but it was dirty anyways). I’m not for certain that I would have been k **led, but it’s likely, and it definitely would have sucked regardless. Not wanting to give up on lunch probably saved my life. That was the only cave-in event I ever saw underground in 4 years of mining and it was almost on my head.
Image source: Abiding_Dude_WV, nakleyka/freepik (not the actual photo)
#13
I was walking down from the parking lot down to square lake in Stillwater Minnesota when my wife yelled for me to stop because I forgot to grab the swim bag I start walking back and right where I would have been walking a huge 100+ foot tree uprooted and fell right where I was walking. It would have certainly k**led me instantly.
Image source: Lowkeythatsme, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#14
I avoided a terror attack because I ditched class.
I go to Stuyvesant High School and have my last period free, meaning class ends at around 2:50 for me. By the time I go to my locker downstairs and see my friends it’s around 3. I leave at the first exit from the bridge that connects to the entrance of the school, sit down on a slab of concrete and wait for a text from my friend to see if she got on the bus before walking towards the bus stop (the seats are usually taken, which is why I sit on the concrete).
It’s Halloween 2017 and I’m decked out in my handmade Cosmo and Wanda outfit, which came out absolutely awesome fyi. It was the last day for AMC’s $5 movie ticket deal, and my friend and I planned on making the most of the deal so we decided to miss our last two classes so we could go movie hopping. We left school at around 2:10 and walked to the train station, our bookbags filled to the brim with candy and snacks.
We’re on the train when my phone starts ringing, and it’s from a friend who always texts me rather than call. I answer and am bombarded with questions asking if I’m okay, if I got hurt, if I’m still at school. Confused, I told her that yeah, I’m okay, but what are you on about?
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“There was a shooting near Stuy…”
My heart dropped into my stomach but I still thought she was kidding. She explained to me how she heard about it and I realized by the tone of her voice that she was serious. I hung up and texted all of my friends that I knew were at school, asking them if they were safe.
I looked up what happened and saw that a truck struck several people, and the driver got out with a gun and started shooting. I looked at a picture of where the incident happened and I went numb.
The exact corner I stand at every day at 3:00, waiting for my friend’s text. And that’s exactly where I would’ve been at the time the shooting happened only if I didn’t ditch class to go to the movies.
Edit: Thank you guys for all the upvotes! For anyone wondering, my friends are all okay and safe, nobody from our school was harmed that day!
Image source: O Saha, pazemin/freepik (not the actual photo)
#15
One time I was looking for a job and saw an ad for an interpreter. It was in the Middle East and a person had to speak English, Russian, and Uzbek. It sounded dangerous, but there were assurances that there would be full protection by US military and local security forces, it was on base, and it was basically very safe. The most interesting thing was the salary. It was in excess of $150,000 plus all expenses paid. At that time I was barely making probably $30,000 a year. So, it was very tempting. I seriously considered it and may have even started the application process, but stopped at the last minute.
A few months later I was watching the news and they were showing the report about a t**rorist act at the same location which I considered. And two interpreters died. The news footage just showed the ground and a bunch of magazines strewn around, covered in blood. The eerie thing is, those were the exact type of magazines that I read – it’s one of my very few guilty pleasures. It was a very unsettling feeling.
Image source: Elena Ledoux, pch.vector/freepik (not the actual photo)
#16
When I was in high school, my friend and I were at this party being held by another friend, Tracy, whose parents were out of town. A lot of people were drinking and it was starting to get kind of loud. A typical high school drinking party.
Tracy said she was running low on snacks and asked if my friend and I minded running to the convenience store to pick up some chips and stuff. We said, “Sure,” and headed out.
We were only gone for about 10 minutes but when we were heading back, we saw blue lights flashing all around the house. The cops busted the party almost immediately after we left.
We laughed our a**es off in the car and kept driving past the house. I couldn’t believe the luck we had in our timing. We drove down to the beach and ate the snacks by ourselves.
Image source: Robert R. Gray, cottonbro studio/pexels (not the actual photo)
#17
In the summer of 1974 I was 19 years old. I ran with a group of friends that loved the outdoors . Especially anything’s to do with boats or water. We would spend weekends camping at various lakes , fishing, water skiing and partying. Good times.
A few of us had taken up tubing Down different irrigation canals for fun.
One weekend my Friend Randy and his girlfriend Rose invited myself and several friends to tube down a canal next to interstate 15 in Draper Utah . Just as I was leaving to meet them on Saturday morning my friend Brad called and invited me to come with him to Los Angeles for a few days, he was leaving in an hour or so. I was torn but at the last minute I chose L. A. . I had a crush on brads cousin an she would be there.
when we got back to Salt Lake city four days later I found out that everyone in the canal group had Drowned except for one.
Apparently construction had been done on the Canal, and they had diverted the water to a pipe that flowed under interstate 15 into the Jordan River. The walls of the canal for the last 50 yards had been solid concrete and no one could get out .they were sucked into the pipe and their bodies were found on the other side of I 15 along with two dogs. One person managed to get out by grabbing A cable that was hanging down the concrete wall.
The funerals were so horribly sad, these were my friends. And it’s haunted me forever That had Brad not called me, or called 10 minutes later ,I would have been with them .
Image source: Don Wallace, Kevin Andre/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#18
About 10 or so years ago, I had this friend who was nothing but bad news. We had some mutual friends from school and was one day invited home to the guy. Let’s call him Bob.
Bob had a firework tube. I don’t quite know the English word for them, but hopefully the picture is enough.
Bob also had a little twist with it. He had hammered nails through it everywhere. It had 8 bombs and each of them was pierced by several nails in all directions.
He wanted to fire it at a nearby field. And we were all game.
So off to the field we went, not far from the city. Right next to the field was a small forest. Really small, no more than a big handful of trees really.
We were about 5 or 6 boys, me, Bob, and some other guys from our class. At the field the other guys would find a place to stay safe while Bob and I went to place the firework and light it. We would then run down a slope and watch the mayhem unfold.
So there’s the scenario. On the left some trees, the slope up to the field and then the field. The multicolored line is the firework and the single, badly drawn stick man is a representation of me and Bob. If I drew two, things would look a little awkward.
After a few seconds of the firework starting to explode, I told Bob to move as I didn’t feel quite safe where we were.
Just as we got up and turned around, one of the shells landed where we were.
We managed to take a few quick steps away before it exploded. No harm done to either of us except the scare of it.
Image source: Jonas Forsberg
#19
When I worked in Manhattan, I’d walk the same way to the train every night. I crossed 41st street between Lexington and 3rd at the same spot on the street. I always crossed about 3/4 of the block ( not on the corner) because cars turning right towards 3rd were unlikely to see or stop for pedestrians crossing the street.
When I arrived home from work, I saw that there was a huge gas explosion by my work. It was so big that it created a sinkhole that swallowed up a truck. That sink hole was the exact path I crossed every night and the explosion happened about 15 minutes after I crossed. In addition, people in the area were hit with shrapnel. Phew! that was a close one.
Image source: Michele Palmer, Hardik Pandya/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#20
I was near Boise City, Oklahoma.
My sister left her phone at a rest stop.
We went back to get it.
We again drove to where we were going, to find the road with fallen trees and houses destroyed.
A tornado had happened, in the 20 minutes it took us to go get her phone.
I’m lucky my sister is so unorganized.
Image source: Medindie Victoria, Mick Haupt/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#21
I was in my apartment. It was 10PM. For some reason, I was tired and went to bed. Twenty minutes later, a huge BOOM! woke me up. I turned on the light and saw the air was full of something like smoke, but it wasn’t smoke. It was drywall dust. A drunk driver had driven straight into my kitchen. Normally, I would have been raiding the fridge.
Image source: Debbie Cain, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#22
I went to church camp when i was in 9th grade… i was not religious… i just wanted the camp experience. This church camp was psychotic…. and not what i was used to, being that I wasn’t really raised in church. My friend and I realized that this place just wasn’t really for us and that we wanted to go home about 3 days in.
We proceeded to talk to our camp counselors about wanting to use the phone to call our parents. It was a simple request… and even hinted that we were really homesick, and wanted to go home. They said okay… but in reality skirted around the issue over and over and over again… and just ignored our request… it felt like we were being held hostage. We could not for the life of us use the phone to call our parents, no matter how many times we asked. Finally we found a random camp lady we didnt know and asked her. She said yes and took us to a pay phone. while the phone was ringing… our psycho cabin leader saw and ran across the camp screaming bloody m**der and yelling at my friend to get off the phone… as if she was doing something COMPLETELY illegal. She was yelling, flailing her arms, causing a scene, and SPRINTING to my friend who was on the phone.
My friends mom finally answered and she said as fast as she could “Mom!!! please come and get us please… we want to go home i have to go bye.” and hung up. after the call and our cabin leader made it to us… she pulled us aside to convince us to stay with love bombing. I felt SO uncomfortable and knew this situation was weird. LUCKILLY her mom came to get us that day, and forced them to release me to her as well…. and they did.
Her cousins were still at this camp. and they had to finish it out. They said on the last day… they brought each camper INDIVIDUALLY up into this tree house and told them that if they didn’t believe everything they were telling them, that they would go to hell etc.
This was only a quick synopsis of what happened at this weird a*s camp…. but I am soooo glad we left when we did… it was one of the worst experiences ever and i am so glad i had my friend with me.
Image source: jackietea123, Kyle Smith/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#23
Having to leave my high school friend group because of one “friend” who would always leave me out, went through months of depression not having friends, I went out by myself one day, it was nice, and I started to spend time with myself for the first time ever and I made the best memories of my life, that one friend who was the reason I left is in a downward spiral and confusion what his life is now and I’m glad I wasn’t around for that.
Image source: suprunkn0wn, Curated Lifestyle/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#24
Tried,begged,did everything to try n keep marriage with 1st wife. She wldnt cuz she didn’t want to hurt her affair partner ‘s feeling! I ended up finding n married the most wonderful person I ever met. Been happy for 40yrs. My ex became a very bitter woman who made his new husband miserable their whole life. The guy was my best friend at time of affair by the way. Talk about dodging a bullet.
Image source: TopAd1052, cottonbro studio/pexels (not the actual photo)
#25
I used to sell garlic themed specialty food items before Covid. I skipped the Gilroy Garlic Festival the year of the shooting that ki**ed several people. My booth would have been right there where it happened.
Image source: Visible_Bumblebee_47, Eugene Kim/flickr (not the actual photo)
#26
We finished up at a restaurant and left just 4 minutes before a tornado came through without warning. We got lucky that day!
Image source: BeingReallyReal, EyeEm/freepik (not the actual photo)
#27
I had a long distance unofficial “relationship” for 4 years. He was my first love. He wouldn’t commit to us/me because his ex (who lived in another country) got engaged behind his back. He treated me so well but also didn’t. He abandoned me for someone in his proximity (NYC). He literally committed the same thing he feared I’d do to him but promised I never would. Mind you we never met, we were always long distance. I was 16-20 for all of this & he was 3 years older, so he’d promise me he’d visit, but never did. Come to find out that girl he left me for? He a**sed her. I found her IG and DM’d her bc I was heartbroken & wanted to know what happened since I stalked her IG & saw they broke up. She sent me photos of bruises, told me everything she’d do for him, & what he did to hurt her. I believe I dodged a major bullet by never meeting him.
After all that he virtually stalked me for 5 years and in our very last phone call before that (when I was 20) he cried and said he always loved me and for the first time I didn’t feel a thing.
Image source: symphony64, Valeriia Miller/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#28
On my 21st birthday. Was at a club with a group of friends. Bumped into an old friend. Went outside to smoke a cig with him. Had a weird urge that it’s time to leave and ordered an Uber. Within 1 or 2 minutes of our friend group hopping into the uber & leaving. My old friend got swung at with a knife across the chest & stabbed in the neck, he fought back aggressively and eventually stabbed the attacker to death. Turns out my old friend got into some shady business surrounding illegal grows/d**g trading in the mountains. He survived, attacker did not.
And I miraculously got away without witnessing that horror. Saw it all over the news the next day. Spoke with my old friend’s family & best friend later on.
Image source: smokeyfartcannon, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#29
I used to work at Guitar Center in Clackamas(Portland), almost had lunch in the Clackamas Town Center food court, went somewhere else instead and avoided the mass shooting event in the food court. Coincidentally I sold the shooter a bass a month or two prior to the shooting.
Image source: Regalzack, Barnaby/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#30
Mine is way less dramatic than a lot of things here, but I was in an emotionally a*****e relationship for a lot of my teen years. After he pushed me too far sexually and then used my reluctance as justification for cheating, I finally got the good sense to call it.
A few months later, I was working for a local family doctor. My ex’s new girlfriend came in (I knew this thanks to small town social media), s******l because he had gotten her pregnant and then manipulated her into an abortion she didn’t actually want. I obviously couldn’t say anything to her, but I have never wanted to reach out and try to comfort someone I didn’t know so badly.
It could have so easily been me in her situation, and knowing myself I think it would have k**led or at least permanently traumatized me.
Image source: Weak-Historian-9619, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo)
#31
On October 17, 1989, I left work early about 4:45 to go from Alameda to San Francisco to get home for the World Series game of the A’s at Giants.
After going under the estuary in the tunnel and looping onto the Freeway, I drove on the bottom deck of an unusually uncrowded Cypress structure, through the equally uncrowded Bay Bridge toll plaza, and up the cantilever section. While on the trestle section, the announcer on the radio said, “We’re having a really big earthquake”.
It was 5:04 pm.
I was about 30 seconds past the section of the bridge that collapsed into the Bay
[Edit: I am corrected — it didn’t collapse into the Bay, if fell on the lower deck. What can I say, it was behind me! One car went down with one k**led, but nobody got wet. ]
And if I had left at the usual time, or there had been traffic, there was a good chance I’d have been on the lower deck of the Cypress structure when it pancaked
So, yeah, I’m glad I left when I did.
I can also say authoritatively that after an earthquake, the vertical cables on a suspension bridge vibrate like those on a very large stringed instrument — with visible 5–6 foot waves.
Image source: David Brower
#32
A stampede.
I’ve lived in Shanghai for 7 years now, and there is one golden rule: do not go on the Bund to watch the fireworks for Chinese New Year’s. Do NOT.
Well, one year a friend REALLY wanted to go, and don’t ask me how, but I found myself dragged along. We made it to the start of the street and were immediately pressed into bits by people on all sides. It was intensely packed, and we hadn’t even made it ten meters. And I mean ‘sausages in airtight wrapping’ packed – it made the subway feel like a walk in an empty forest.
Needless to say, yours truly made a firm point of leaving – now, immediately – and his friend hung his head sadly and followed.
A few hours later, we heard the news. There had been a stampede on the Bund. 36 people died, 49 were injured. Over 300,000 people showed up for the fireworks (which is basically the size of the population of my hometown, Nice), on ONE SINGLE STREET. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
Why was there a stampede though? Well, reports vary. But…
…there was that one restaurant on the rooftops that had the fun idea of throwing down 100 dollar bills to the crowd. Needless to say, people went absolutely crazy, and in such a tight environment, push came to shove and then turned to outright panic.
The worst part? They weren’t even real bills.
Damn was I happy we didn’t go see that show.
Image source: Kevin D. Aslan
#33
Ooh, I got a good one.
I was born in 2004, and in that exact year, you guys know about the destruction of the 2004 Tsunami?
Yeah, so I was there, that same day the tsunami hit.
I was only like a year old, since it was near the end of the year. So the story goes, as my parents tell me, that we were at the airport, an hour before it started.
I very vaguely remember the airport being crowded, and one thing that had stuck in my mind: just as before we got on the plane, the big clock on the walls of airports began to tremble.
Of course, we didn’t think much of it. Then the floor tremored slightly, and I remember people began to worry.
A few minutes later I was in the plane with my parents, and when we touched down back in Singapore, my parents were horrified by the news.
Yeah, we were very lucky that day.
That’s my most insane moment of being glad we left when we did, cause if not, well… I’m sure you can imagine.
Image source: Klara Williams
#34
My marriage.
Less than two months after my divorce was finalized, the ex-husband was arrested for s*x crimes (two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and two counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile).
He knowingly committed s*x acts with a 15-year-old. He was 36.
For the last year of the marriage I was miserable but stayed because I thought it was better for my children (they were 2 and 4 at the time). I shudder when I imagine some of the potential scenarios that my kids could have endured had I stayed. Sometimes a “broken home” is the healthier option.
When his photo was being splashed across the news I was sooooo glad I had already switched back to my maiden name!!
Image source: Stacey Thibodeaux
#35
In October 2016, an excavator in Portland, Oregon, dug on the wrong side of the street, causing a natural gas explosion. Several people were injured, including three firefighters.
There was a cafe/bagel shop in the building, and often I’d go in there and grab something before work. Even if I didn’t, I would walk right by there to get to my bus. I lived a block away from the explosion.
That day, I was in a training at work and got there not long before the explosion. Shortly after I arrived, my coworker who was also in the training had to take an emergency phone call. It was his wife; she worked in the building and, thankfully, they’d been evacuated due to a suspected gas leak. Moments later, the building exploded, causing the destruction you see above.
Apparently the blast shook my apartment building and shattered windows in the building and others nearby. I’m glad I left for work earlier than usual that morning. I’m glad everyone left the building when they did.
Image source: Julia Marinozzi
#36
I went to a small 3 aisle grocery store 10–15 minutes before closing to grab a couple things quick one night.
The place was empty except for a couple other people milling around. I took note of them since we were alone together in the silent store and they were moving slowly.
It felt eery, but whatever – right? Get in – get out – nothing to overthink.
The place was closing soon and I didn’t want to be there as employees tried to lock up.
In fact, one employee locked the entry door behind me as I walked in the place.
Get this – I woke up the next morning to news the place had been robbed at gunpoint at closing time by people in the store.
Yep. I was apparently there with the perpetrators and after leaving…it happened.
Money was taken, but no one was shot in the store.
…shook me up for a while.
Image source: Maria H
#37
My wife and I went to a wedding in the Adirondacks one weekend years ago. We used to live in NYC but we had moved to California, so we were flying in and out of Albany, arriving Saturday and taking the Monday off work to make it a long weekend. On the way to the airport to go home, we decided to see if we could stay the night, go to our favourite restaurant, and fly out of NY in the morning. We tried to book by calling United, but they wanted to charge us a change fee, so we gave up and flew home out of Albany. The flight we would have got was United 93, that crashed on 9/11, the next morning.
Image source: James Windsor
#38
Hunching, I wrapped my arms around myself as the feeling of sharp teeth being stabbed around my lower abdomen intensified, while a throbbing and dull pain spread through my back. At times, each and every step felt like an activation button demanding more winds of pain while other times, walking was the only way to minimally distract me.
I was experiencing severe menstrual cramps as I’d never felt before, and you’d imagine that my fate would’ve been a little kinder towards me because this embarrassing experience could only possibly be happening at home, right? No, I was awkwardly trembling in pain at school in the middle of Algebra class as an eight grader. I excused myself to a corner in the room because no one was allowed to spend too long in the bathroom, and even though I was already waiting for my father to pick me up, the nurse wouldn’t let me suffer in her office as if I could concentrate with the pain. My friends were shielding me by consoling my emotions now and then, as well as eyeing off my other classmate’s questions about why I looked like I was going to die. This was my first time dealing with such pain and I didn’t even get any warnings beforehand! But, I’d rather take this than what could’ve happened later that day.
Anyways, my father picked me up, and my parents brought me food, blankets, a hot bottle, and closed the door behind me so I could go to sleep. I believe when I woke up (thank goodness, with no more pain), I started checking my phone and noticed a headline about an incident that happened at the second bus stop I’d wait to get my bus to take me home, after school. My heart nearly stopped in its tracks and all the air around me seemed to have paused as I read the short but what could’ve potentially been an article about my death. There were gunshots raging around my second bus stop for which the bus would take me home in only 5–7 minutes. Had something happened to me, it would’ve been especially saddening for others to realize I could’ve made it home so soon. I always situated myself in front of the bus pole, about a feet away, to turn my neck at an angle where I would always see if the bus was arriving around the corner; that was the exact spot where a bullet hit the pavement. Police even marked the spot, restricting the area from the public for a day or two, and figured out it was due to some disputes between criminal groups.
Such an incident was very unheard of near my neighborhood. I’ll never forget the moment shivers crawled through my body as I realized I could’ve been injured or shot to death. I was absolutely speechless and did not know how to respond other than to turn to my parents, God, and my cramps in gratefulness that I left when I could. I regretted asking for death, in anger and frustration, when I felt my menstrual pain that day because had I not left when I could, how else could I continue my life with my beautiful family?
Image source: Sinigdha Ra
#39
2007 Glorietta explosion
On October 19, 2007, around early afternoon, an explosion happened in a restaurant in Glorietta mall.
Reports say that it was an LPG tank explosion. There were 11 casualties and almost a hundred injured.
It was around past lunch time but I was still busy browsing shops with my aunt and cousins. They wanted to go eat lunch now, but aunt told us that most stores will still be full around that time, and it would be hard to find a seat. (hence we usually liked to eat early or later)
Finally we thought it was late enough and most people were done eating so we headed off to find a place to eat.
This was a layout of the mall, and pretty much our route. We were in that 2nd “O” when the explosion happened.
Image source: Red Subijano
#40
Back in the mid-90’s in Tampa there were a few women k**led (I don’t remember all of the details) while out late and the only description was a dark-haired man in a red jeep. I worked 3rd shift and enjoyed (I had 3 young children at home) going shopping in the middle of the night. It was very peaceful and this was before cell phones but I would always call my husband from the payphone outside the front of the store to let him know I would be an hour late.
While making the phone call, you guessed it, a dark-haired man in a red jeep pulled up next to me and asked if I could help him. I replied, “hold on” while I continued speaking to my husband who, of course, asked, “who is that?” I told him what was going on (the interruption) and he said, “oh my god, Lisa. Get out of there right now!”
He said he was watching the news and that is exactly what was described by witnesses…a man approached lone women and asked for help. I immediately left and have no idea if that was the “k**ler” or not. I tried looking for information by Googling but was unsuccessful. I would really like to know what happened afterwards.
Image source: Lisa Frangipani
#41
When I was 17, got in a car with a drunk and s****d friend. I told him to drop me off first, cause he shouldn’t have been driving. They dropped me off and the other 3 got k**led in a crash. Brutal.
Image source: wski772005
#42
A guy committed s*****e via cop at my job just a day after I quit. Crashed his car into the building and then got into a gunfight right in the check in center.
Image source: goonbasealpha
#43
I was at an apartment party in the 80’s, booze and d***s were free flowing, apparently there were several dealers present, at midnight a friend of mine and I got a bad feeling and left out the back through the alley as cops were surrounding the complex, everybody got hauled in. We got out JIT.
Image source: SaintCholo
#44
More like telling my now hubby to walk out of this “meeting” instead of signing anything for a *timeshare*… extremely glad I trusted my gut and voiced my concern years ago.
Image source: L0tus5tate
#45
When my ex bff of 8 years slammed me on FB for finally growing a backbone when I refused to be her slave and clean her attic. I realized all she did was use me and I was tried of it.
Image source: GuiltyKangaroo8631
#46
My husband and I separated one week before I found out that his brother was arrested for m**der but first the police picked up and arrested my husband because his brother was using his ID. Glad I had nothing to do with them.
Image source: semproniusptarmigan
#47
My dad’s.
Two years after I moved away from him for good, I found out from a family member that he was running away from the law.
I can’t imagine being supported by someone who has an arrest warrant for them.
Image source: Miserable_Mail_5741
#48
I’ve been lucky with a couple moves.
I was renting a duplex at the bottom of a hill. At the top of the hill a fire hydrant broke and flooded the house. It was condemned 3 months later.
Another home we owned. We sold it. And 3 months later the roof caved in. We never had a sign of a leak.
Nothing compared to some of the stories I’ve read here. But feel lucky none the less.
Image source: Oppositeofhairy
#49
Left a party in the sticks early with my friends back in high school. As we were about to turn off the county road onto the highway we see 5 or 6 cop cars and a K9 van coming down the highway and turn onto the county road we were leaving.
Found out the next day everyone got a charge for w**d or underage drinking.
Image source: BudgetThat2096
#50
I was at a party at a frat house. Large 3 floor house that had an oversized fire escape/porch on the back.
My friend stepped out onto the second floor porch to get some air. We were just shooting the breeze when the third floor door open and about 40 people spilled out above us.
Suddenly a board or strut c*****d behind us.
We just got up and kinda let gravity do the work as we went down the stairs as fast as we could.
We went around the side and found my friend Tony and told him that the back porch was overloaded.
We grabbed our beers and started walking home.
Found out the next day that the porch had collapsed after detaching from the side of the house.
Nobody died (Thank God!) but a lot of people got injured.
Image source: Tyrigoth
#51
I was in a super toxic work environment. After a few months of searching, I found a new position that was an advancement in pay, title, and a healthier work environment. About 6 months later my former workplace held a massive layoff. My boss at this place panicked when I told her I was leaving, they wouldn’t have been able to justify firing me since I did the work of multiple people. But she had it out for me and the layoff would have been the perfect excuse.
Image source: PricePuzzleheaded835
#52
Seeing my ex bf with painted-on brownface the Halloween after we split.
Image source: Medium_Marge
#53
I was on the exact flight home from London of the one that blew up over Lockerbie Scotland the next day.
Image source: CharacterPlane9983
#54
2019, Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. My a levels were a month from then. And my parents wanted to go to church with me for Easter for blessings + the Easter ceremony. Mind you we rarely go to church except for special occasions. When we came to the church and the church was crowded and we decided not to stay and instead left and when we came home and turned on the tv. The church we were at was attacked by a s*****e bomber and around 115 people were k**led.
Image source: Alternative-Club3783
#55
After high school started running the wrong crowd, doing stupid things, smoking pot (a felony at the time), getting chased by police, etc. Working but was sort of aimless, that’s when a new guy sort of entered our group of around 8 friends, he was older with long hair sort looked like a biker type. He had befriended one of the guys and before you know it, he was always hanging out with us, didn’t really have a job but was fun, nonetheless. We’re all hanging out doing delinquent things for about 6 months when my uncle called my folks and asked if I would help him do construction during the summer. I said sure, why not and literally within 4 days he drove up to my parents’ house and said he was driving through to his home 3 states away and I could join him. Packed a small duffle bag and rode with him up to Seattle where I ended up staying for 10 years and earning my engineering degree. Forward 10 years later, I’m sitting at a housewarming party back in my hometown while I was visiting the folks over the holidays and the husband came up to me and said that he was a sheriff and let me know that the biker dude was an undercover cop and they were going to arrest me within the week. Pretty much the whole group of friends had either went to jail or prison, and it was just dumb luck that my life wasn’t ruined. Not a day goes by that I’m so thankful how my life has turned out compared to what could have happened.
Image source: Apprehensive-Bend478
#56
I was heading to Tijuana for a pleasure trip back in 1984. I stopped into a McDonalds to grab a bite to eat and a couple bottles of water. The place seemed creepy to me, a rather run-down McDonalds; I didn’t think much of it, I took my purchase with me, having no interest in staying any longer than necessary then heading for the border.
Upon my return home, I found out that shortly after, there was a terrible massacre there, 21 people were k**led and another 19 injured. Had I stayed to eat or arrived a little later, I might have been among the dead and injured. I’m glad I left when I did.
Image source: Anonymous
#57
It’s not my “I’m glad I left when I did moment.” It’s my friend, Stan’s.
Stan lives in Florida. He and his girlfriend had just made camp on the bank of a river in Florida. But Stan said that there was something—something—about that spot that did not feel right to him. So they picked up camp and made a new camp a couple of hundred yards down the bank.
A little later, Stan’s hunch was proven right.
A cattle stampede went right through the spot that they vacated.
(For those who don’t know, Florida is a major cattle-producing state.)
Image source: Thomas Cormen
#58
When I was about 13 or younger, I was in the boy scouts. One day, we went on a long hike near Vicksburg, Mississippi. There were a lot of us boys and but very few adults to guide us.
The adults got tired, and stopped to rest. Many of us boys weren’t tired. Where we stopped, was a really steep hill. At first, I watched the other boys run down the hill and laugh all the way down, only to climb up and go again.
After seeing other boys run down the hill, I decided to give it a try. I ran down and as I got to the bottom, I tripped and slid on my side ruining my shirt and having a huge sore on my side. I was also at the bottom of a steep hill.
Fortunately, my father was there. Everyone else left and my father waited for me to climb back up the hill. It took about another 20 minutes and then we continued the hike.
About 30 minutes later, we got to a bridge and just past the bridge was the boy scout troop freaking out completely scared.
Apparently, some boys had been throwing rocks off of the bridge into a creek below when one of those rocks missed and hit a passing truck. The owner of the truck stopped the truck and got out. While the scout leader and the other boys tried to apologize to the truck owner, he pulled out a gun.
Everyone got to safety and no one was hurt, but I’m glad I left when I did.
Image source: Nathan Wilson
#59
I was working for a great company, I was its 13th employee, and when I quit 7 years later there were 200 employees.
Nobody quit in the first 5 years that I was there.
It was so successful that the owner sold it for millions. The next owner had bought it, because he needed a cash cow, and unfortunately overextended themselves, and went bankrupt, which means that it was sold again.
At this point, several key people left. The people were the reason the company expanded so fast. One of the people that we hired over the years was a friend of mine, who told me that he was embarrassed, he had been a group leader at his old company, but even the lowest person on the payroll, had more technical knowledge than my friend.
I looked at where the company was going, and quit and took a better job, in a similar industry.
The next year the company was bought by a multinational, and merged in. 6 months later, a bigger multinational bought it, and it wasn’t interested in that division. It transferred a few people and laid off the rest, right in an industry downturn. This was followed by covid. Most of the people I worked with never found jobs in that industry again. One became an accountant, one a photographer, one a manager at a home improvement store, one a used car salesman, one a realtor.
Some just retired early. It was brutal.
I was no longer in the same industry, and sailed through, until covid.
When my old company was bought by the second multinational, and they let almost all of them go, during a downturn, was the moment I realized that I would have been insane to stay, when I left.
Image source: Bob Wilson
#60
In December 1983, my brother and his partner had invited me to come and visit them for a few days, and to bring my little girl, who was then about two and a half. I was expecting another baby in the spring, so this was a good opportunity.
We travelled to London by train, and spent a happy couple of days with them at their home in Richmond. On our last morning, my brother took the two of us into central London, where we had a happy time watching the flocks of pigeons that were then to be found in Trafalgar Square, before getting a bus down to Knightsbridge and enjoying the spectacular window displays at Harrods. Then, as it was nearly lunchtime, we set off for Euston station and the train back home.
When we got back to Shropshire, we found my husband glued to the television: for the first time, the IRA had succcessfully detonated a bomb in London. At Harrods, just before 1:30 that afternoon.
Image source: Gill B
#61
When I was 18, my friends and I started hanging out with these guys who were pretty cool. They were obsessed with skating and beer, and we partied with them a couple times a week.
I started dating one guy, and things were pretty good for a couple weeks. Then one night some of our other friends came to town and we all got together. The night was pretty good for awhile, until my bf at the time got jealous of another guy talking to me, and ended up pushing him into his Harley. I was just like, ‘woah’.
I talked it out with him when he sobered up, and said I had noticed he could get pretty nasty/aggressive when he was drinking, and that was a lot.
We split up.
But my friends still went to their place to party a few days later (which was fine with me, I just lost interest), but then one of my friends called me the next day and proceeded to tell me of some crazy s**t that went down.
My ex had flown into a rage, and it became an all out brawl where someone got pushed down the stairs, split open the skin, and had a minor concussion.
People were punching and biting each other, someone drove off drunk and flipped their freaking vehicle. It was madness.
As he told me the story my jaw literally dropped. I finally just shook my head in disbelief, voicing how grateful I was that I got out when I did.
Image source: Lindsay Noelle
#62
I was travelling in India in 1993. I was in Hyderabad in September. Took an overnight train to Madras, which left at 11 pm or so. When I arrived in Madras, went to get a chai in the rail station restaurant, all the waiters were glued to the television. I asked what was going on.
There had been a huge earthquake, epicentre just NW of Hyderabad, which struck at 4 am, measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, deaths reported to be between 10,000 and 12,000, whole villages levelled in the area.
Had I not been on a train, I might have felt the quake, but an Indian train being what it is, not exactly a smooth ride, I had no inkling until arrival in Madras. Had I not been on a train heading east and away from the epicentre, I might have been one of the unlucky crushed in a poorly built building somewhere.
Image source: Elise Moore
#63
Law School.
I completed 1L and my first-choice internship that summer in August 2005, but ended up dropping out for financial hardship reasons.
I enjoyed law school and knew why I was there and what I wanted to do afterwards, but I wasn’t a rock star (i.e., I wasn’t in the top third of my class).
While at the time I felt like a failure, this unwittingly turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
You see, I would have graduated in spring 2007, and likely would have landed a decent position.
But that position likely would have evaporated a year or so later, with the 2008 economic crash.
I knew _many_ lawyers who lost their jobs in late 2008-early 2009, and who were still unemployed a full year later.
The legal market shifted that year, and took a full 8 years (or more) to recover.
And me? I saved myself two years of my life and $100,000 in student loans, which put me that much closer to discovering my true passion — writing and marketing.
It’s now more than a decade later and I have no regrets that I never finished law school, much less passed the bar.
That academic year taught me how to quickly analyze, synthesize, and translate complex information into simple language that anyone can understand.
And I am not in the least intimidated by lawyers when I meet them, which is an asset in my chosen profession.
Image source: Peter Morscheck
#64
This happened to my sister.
Each morning my sister caught the same train to work, sitting in the same carriage. Our cousin also caught the same train getting on at a station further down the line. He sat in the same carriage as my sister, they sometimes met up but it was a full train every day so meetings were sporadic. This particular morning he was running late the train was very crowded he jumped into a different carriage than his usual one.
It was the Mt Victoria express running to Central Station in Sydney from the Blue Mountains, it was a long commute each day. Many fellow travellers knew each other as nodding acquaintances or chatted on their journey as they tended to gravitate to the same carriage. My sister on this particular morning hopped off the train at Penrith to call our mother to ask if she still wanted to go to the ballet as she was buying the tickets at lunchtime. Mum as usual kept her on the phone for too long, the train guard blew his whistle and my sister only had time to get into the carriage opposite the public phone box on the station.
The train derailed running into the supports of a road bridge that collapsed onto two of the train’s passenger carriages. 84 people died, 210 injured. A disaster.
I was on a camping holiday with my husband and children up in Northern NSW. When we heard the news on our portable radio, I said to my husband.
“My sister catches that train to work every day.”
I called home but no one knew anything at that stage, I called back that evening from the public telephone at the campsite and heard the story that she was in one of the back carriages as was my cousin and they were alive and well but in total shock.
When my parents told me the circumstances of how they both were in different carriages and why it was beyond belief. I’ve never felt so relieved that through different circumstances that particular morning. I could have lost both my sister and cousin.
Image source: Margaret Mitchell
#65
Escaping the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Back in 2008 I worked for an ad agency called Pickle Lintas whose offices were in Nirmal building in Nariman Point (downtown Mumbai), just across the road from the Oberoi hotel. On 26 November, a Wednesday, my friend and I reached the office and got on with our day. So far a regular Wednesday. We decided to leave an hour earlier than our usual 8 pm because my friend’s husband was going to meet us in Nariman Point for dinner.
After dinner we decided we’d take a train home since it was still early-ish, around 9 -9.30 pm. Both CST (where the attacks occurred) and Churchgate Station were equidistant from where we were, but we decided to go to Churchgate since it had more trains headed to our destinations.
Got home and at 11 pm a friend calls asking if I’m alright. On asking her why, she told me to turn on the news. CST was under attack! From the same time we had been at Churchgate waiting for our train home. I watched in horror as the terrorists moved on to the Oberoi.
The whole area was in lock down for the next four days as the attacks went on. We had security guards stuck in our office for four days as no one was allowed to leave the area while the terrorists were on the loose.
To this day I thank God, my lucky stars, fate, you name it, that we did not go to CST or the terrorists did not come to Churchgate while we were there. And that it wasn’t one of those busy campaign times that we usually stayed back in the office well past midnight for.
Those four days were surreal for me. I know I’m probably not alone in this experience given the number of Mumbaikars that work in Nariman point or travel by train. But it’s scary to know just how close we were to getting caught in the attack.
Image source: Sandra French
#66
In college I attended a party in the dorms, all manner of drugs were being used. Something just didn’t seem right, I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I left; it wasn’t my cup of tea anyway.
One minute after, literally, the campus police and local cops raided the place. Everyone was arrested regardless of whether they were using or not, and many were expelled.
I’m glad I left when I did.
Image source: Jack Sullivan
#67
Left before the actual date.
When I was 30, my friend Amy wanted to fix me up with a friend of hers. The three of us had drinks and omg she was fascinating as well as one of the hottest women I had ever met, just natural beauty. But she was interested and gave me her #.
We talked on the phone one day, nice convo going on. Then she said, “I guess I should tell you — I like to cut people.”
In shock, I just said, “I wouldn’t enjoy that.” (understatement of my life).
She said, “you could control the pain.”
I noped RIGHT off the call.
I called Amy, with a “WTF SHE SAID SHE LIKES TO CUT PEOPLE!!!”
Amy said, “oh! I thought she had gotten over that!”.
Image source: arkaycee
#68
As f****d up as it was. I was hoping to at least sort things out with a group of people I was in last year. Tried talking to one of them and I thought it was a reassuring conversation. I think I dodged a bullet due to an autoimmune response I got last year. As I was in the hospital twice, I learned that the ringleader of this group was doing some downright illegal s**t. And I found out that they all mistreated my boyfriend. When I recovered, my bf fled and now we are moving him to my city as well as figuring out legal stuff. You know people are toxic af when you’d much rather be in a hospital dealing with full body blisters than having to deal with them.
Image source: ChrisCrunchie
#69
Not as crazy as these others ones I’m reading…but when I was 20 I joined the army and I was friends with this group of people, it was like 7 of us maybe, and I was in college they weren’t doing anything as far as I know? But I needed to join the army as my mom didn’t have the money for my college, anyways! No one said goodbye to me, no one texted me, I was ready to leave and happy to leave,
It was just crazy because they were supposed to be the closest people to me.
Image source: Which_Risk_2146
#70
Well, I am having the last few days at my old job. The company is dying. I just found out, that a whole bunch of employees are going to quit. Im glad that I will be gone from that s****y job, for good.
Image source: Cloth_the_General
#71
My bf of 10 years had s*x with his brothers girlfriend in the backyard while I was sitting inside 🙃 they claimed to be having a smoke outside together (I don’t smoke) and came back in with their clothed unbuttoned/unzipped. I’ve never felt so stupid in the sense that they actually thought I wouldn’t know. His brother had left to get more smokes. I accused them right then and there and they denied. I also ran outside because I knew something was off and she booked it inside through a different door because, I’m assuming, she was half naked. If I didn’t leave then, I wouldve had a lifetime of being cheated on and then constantly lied to and gaslighted. I’m so happy I left and never looked back.
Image source: b3ck92
#72
I was a government contractor until October of last year. All the contracting companies saw the writing on the wall and started cleaning house before the new year. Once I started seeing so many federal government employees get fired and so much funding get cut, I realized maybe it was a blessing in disguise to get out of there before things really got bad. Every agency I worked with had their budgets slashed so my being let go looks like it would have been inevitable.
Image source: The_Cars93
#73
I sold my ASML Stocks just in time…..
Image source: Erpelstolz
#74
When I joined Morgan Stanley, the securitisation group in Europe was around 15 strong.
By the time I left 6 years later we had around 130 on our team. Soon after I left the Global Financial Crisis happened, and I heard the team went down to 2.
If I hadn’t left myself I would almost certainly have been pushed.
It’s actually one of the amazing things about investment banks. When the shit hits the fan, they know how to downsize fast.
During my graduate training programme at Barclays Capital, the Russian Crisis hit us.
Within 2 weeks we went from bottles of mineral water and exquisite refreshments to tap water and some cheap coffee and tea…
Image source: Asim Qureshi
#75
I was a student at a large U.S. university in the early early 1980’s. My university had a reputation for being relatively conservative, but it had its moments. Word spread about a big 16-keg party. My roommates and I decided we needed to be there. The party was at a house on the main drag that sloped downhill toward a river just off campus. It also sat across a side street from a popular diner.
Well, this party got out of control fast. People were throwing beer bottles at cars on the main drag and at the diner. It wasn’t even dark outside yet. Pretty soon the cops showed up. They were outnumbered about 100 to 1 so they just stood watching on the sidewalk downhill from the house.
Then we saw it happen. A kid walked up to a cop, glared at him, and broke a beer bottle on the sidewalk right at the cop’s feet. We looked at each other and knew we better get the heck out of there before all hell broke loose.
We went somewhere else for a couple hours and when we were driving back to our apartment we stopped at a red light. Someone in another car told us not to go down the hill because there was a full-blown riot. The mob had migrated a quarter mile or so down the the hill smashing shop windows and generally wreaking havoc, and the cops were kicking asses and taking names.
This situation got so bad that it made the national news on the major networks the next evening. I knew a guy who got arrested just because he was there. I’m glad I wasn’t.
Image source: Tumbleweeds
#76
This question appeared on my feed at the perfect time. I don’t know if this counts as my most “insane” moment where I’m glad I left, but I’ll definitely remember this one.
Two days ago, I went to a party where the theme was to be as destructive as possible.
The kid throwing the party goes to my high school. He’s a pretty nice lowkey kid- I’ve never even seen him at a party before. He lives in a pretty wealthy part of town and has a really nice two-story house, a decent backyard, expensive interior decorating. He was letting a friend throw a party at his house. His friend told people “what happens to the house doesn’t matter.” Yikes.
It started off as all parties do. I came pretty early (around 7), so beer pong was just being set up, there was still a fair amount of hard liquor, and only about 30 people had arrived. I took a couple shots, smoked a little outside- normal party stuff. Then people started arriving and it started getting dark out.
That’s when s**t really hit the fan.
It started with a mosh pit (as usual for Bay Area parties), with people jumping and dancing and yelling. Then somebody found a watermelon and threw it at the floor. People started throwing around the shattered chunks of the poor watermelon.
Then somebody picked up a water jug, went into the mosh pit, hoisted it above their head, and just swung it around. This sprayed everything with water: the people, the floors, the ceiling, the light hanging from the ceiling…
I quickly left the dancing area and decided to explore the house. Earlier, people were people dispersed throughout the backyard patio, the yard, the kitchen, and the living room. Now it seemed every single area was crammed – there had to have been at least 120 people. A friend and I went down into the basement to escape the commotion and have a moment of peace, where we found a gaming room full of technology and other items.
I went back upstairs to find a beer. At this point, it was around 10:00. After grabbing one from the refrigerator, I noticed that things seemed to be escalating. There was crushed watermelon, apples, and garlic on the floor (Did I miss some sort of food fight?). Somebody grabbed a painting off the wall and was carrying it around the house. This encouraged other partygoers to strip the walls and take pictures while holding the paintings and decor.
I found the kid throwing the party, and he appeared pretty troubled. I reminded him that he had the full right to kick everybody out of his house and end the party (I would’ve done that after just the watermelon incident). Shortly after, disturbed by the destructive activities of my friends, I left around 10:40.
Some could say that I missed the best part. I believe I avoided being part of a catastrophe.
One of my close friends is known for being a wild drunk. In the backyard, the house had a large ping-pong table. The backyard patio was right next to it, about three feet above. My friend decided to climb onto the side railing of the patio, which I would estimate to be about ten feet above the ground. Of course people were egging him on to jump. Of course he jumped. And of course the table split in two.
But that’s not what finally brought an end to the party.
People had finally made their way into the basement, where they had discovered a fire extinguisher. They brought it back upstairs and let it loose, flooding the whole house with the gas from the extinguisher.
Apparently, after this, people started heading outside.
Then some kid set off a firecracker.
Fearing the cops, everybody finally started leaving (and moved on to several other destructive activities that night, which aren’t important).
I didn’t know how destructive and disrespectful teenagers could be when given the chance. Now I know why my mom has never let me throw a party. Past a certain point, it’s uncontrollable.
I did learn two things that day: 1) Never underestimate what people can do when there are no consequences and 2) People are more inconsiderate and disrespectful than I previously believed.
Update: I’ve just learned that they also put the kid’s school supplies in the oven. The firecracker was an m1000 (the same as in the video below). Also they poured milk on his plants?
Image source: Em Onaga
#77
I suppose that this is a bit of an artistic interpretation of the question, but I jumped off the motorcycle.
It was September 7, 2015; Labor Day. I was on 696 headed west to a Red Lobster because it was my brother’s last day in town and we were going out to dinner. I was wearing a full-face mask and an armored jacket. Regular jeans, though. Boots.
My front axel broke; the bike started to oscillate wildly. I was in the right lane. After a few times of the bike going back and forth, I realized I would not be able to drive it onto the shoulder. I jumped.
Hit the ground. Didn’t hurt. I ended up fracturing my left hand.
Not sure what would have happened if I didn’t jump.
I don’t want to think about it.
Image source: Jo Miller
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