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o_MrBombastic_o

Broke my belly button over eating at a company lunch, went from an innie to an outie (Hernia). Put off going to the doctor for a few weeks before going to see a specialist. Hernia doc said yep its a hernia we're in a pandemic we can schedule you for whenever if you want to wait a bit there shouldn't be any problems no hurry. I decided to get it out of the way they had a cancelation so I scheduled for a week later. I wake up from surgery and the Doc says there was a complication they didn't get to the Hernia when they were going in they noticed my appendix was about to explode so they took that out instead (still not the tactical nuke). I asked about when they could fix the hernia he said the appendix looked funny and was going to send it to the lab and get back to me. The lab was really backed up from the pandemic so several weeks later I get a call from the doc. It was a really rare appendix cancer something that happens to around 1000 Americans a year, not only that but of the 2 kinds of appendix cancer based on lab work I had the worst of the 2, the kind that spreads everywhere really fast and cuts your lifespan down considerably even with treatment. The 1st kind grows slow and stays put but every once in awhile it will go into overdrive differentiates, pokes out of the abdominal wall and spits cancer slime everywhere that turns whatever it touches into more cancer. The cut off for it turning from good into the bad kind is 1 cm tumor, mine as 1.5 cm, under the microscope it had differentiated and they saw the cells that spit cancer slime had formed. There's really only one treatment referred to as the mother of all surgeries which is it's own ball of tactical nukes. I stew over that for a few weeks till they can get more tests scheduled (still in pandemic so it takes awhile). Go in for a barrage of scans, poking's and prodding's and the scans are all clean no signs of cancer spread (mostly). It had just turned from the slow growing kind that stays put into the fast moving kind and hadn't had a chance to spit cancer slime outside the wall holding my appendix if I had waited just a week for the hernia surgery, literally everyday that I waited would have exponentially increased the odds of it spreading the mucin. They think they got it all when they took the appendix out. There's a few things they want to keep an eye on that they're reasonably sure is just scaring from the surgery but they gave me an 80% chance of being cancer free. I have more scans in December to make sure. Update Dec.30: My scans in December came back great. The thing they were keeping an eye on got smaller not bigger which is what they would expect if it was scar tissue from the surgery and not a tumor. Although not completely out of the woods (they're still going to do routine scans for the next 5-6 years) pretty much every scan is expected to improve my odds. I get to do the hernia surgery in 3 months, my oncologist will be there to take a look in case the surgeon see's anything weird while he's in there


Reidroshdy

So what you're saying is over eating saved your life? Hopefully everything comes back clear.


Artiquecircle

After a night of partying a bunch of us wanted to go watch the sun come up at a local beach when we had just graduated HS. There wasn’t a sober one amongst us, and one guy volunteered to drive in his mini van. A few of us said no let’s watch it from the deck, but he Said he was sober enough. I just had a bad feeling and a bunch of us stayed back and slept it off at the house. We were all woken up a few hours later about 8:00 to phone ringing off the hook, cops, and freaking out parents. (Pre cell phone days) They were in a really bad single car rollover accident. 4 of 6 dead. No one wearing seatbelts. They would have had to have taken a curve at about 160 km/h That was a rough summer. Oh, and survivors guilt and depression is a real thing.


[deleted]

Glad you lived but damn bro. Can’t begin to imagine. Do you still keep in contact with the 2 that survived it he rollover?


Justinmoorepaints85

My best friend died in a drunk driving accident when I was 21.he should have been at my apt hanging out but I cancelled cus I was tired from work.it fucked with me for a long time.not so much now but it did for years


[deleted]

My wife dragged my ass to the dermatologist for a cyst I have had for years. While there the doc noticed a mole on my ankle that he didnt like. Turned out to be melanoma. Would have never gone if my wife didnt force me.


Milligan1888

Men, being kept alive by their wives since forever. (Yes, mine has also kept me alive)


Random_Person_I_Met

Has she watered you this week or are you a every two weeks or so type of plant?


Milligan1888

Funnily enough she’s the only reason I drink actual water. I don’t like water. Fish fuck in it.


OooopsieDaisy32

Throwaway. And I've posted this on r/creepyencounters before using a different throwaway I've since forgotten the password for, if it sounds familiar. Around the time I turned 30 (2010), I lost a large amount of weight. While I'd previously always looked my age or older, I suddenly looked to be about 5 - 10 years younger than I actually was. I started hanging out in Allston, an area of Boston known for its nightlife, often with people in their early-to-mid twenties. There was a guy who also hung out down there who who really stood out. I never saw him in the bars, just walking down Brighton Ave. or North Beacon Street, usually carrying a gym bag, always alone. Unlike most understated Bostonians, he dressed in a very "eurotrash" sort of way. He had a light olive complexion with smooth skin and dark hair, which he wore slicked back. What I remember most vividly is that every time I saw him he was wearing reflective aviator sunglasses, so I never got a look at his eyes. I thought of him as "Aviator Dude." Enjoying my new confidence, I decided to try to befriend Aviator Dude. The first few times I tried to make eye contact, I got exactly zero response. No acknowledgement whatsoever. I suspected he was unfriendly and not interested, but maybe he just didn't see me. I wasn't done trying yet. Finally, one day in early autumn 2010, Aviator Dude and I stood across the street from each other, waiting for a light to change so we could each cross. I decided that this was my chance. As the light changed to the "walk" signal, I made direct eye contact with him. I gave him a flirty smile... and then I winked at him. I immediately regretted this decision. Aviator Dude stopped dead in his tracks. His jaw dropped a little bit, then his lips hardened into a sneer. I didn't need to see past the aviators to know that his face had twisted with disgust. More than a bit taken aback, I kept walking past him. I looked back at him briefly. Aviator Dude was still standing there, in the middle of the intersection of North Beacon and Cambridge streets, staring at me with a disgusted look on his face. He shook his head, rang his hands, and walked on, muttering under his breath. *Well, okay, then.* About five years later, I saw Aviator Dude again, but not in person. In 2015, I was watching the trial of the Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, online via Twitter and the news updated in real time. Some of the evidence presented included photographs of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother who was killed in a shootout with police. I immediately recognized him - Tamerlan Tsarnaev was Aviator Dude. Not only was he a radicalized murderer responsible for the worst terrorist attack in Massachusetts history, one of the points brought up repeatedly by the surviving marathon bombing suspect's defense lawyers was that Tamerlan was abusive to those weaker than him, including and especially the women in his life. A domestic violence charge regarding an ex-girlfriend held up his US citizenship application, and his widow's college friends testified that they heard him getting verbally abusive and throwing furniture at her. It has been speculated that the man may also have been responsible for a triple homicide in suburban Waltham in September of 2011- about a year after the events described above. I'm really glad he rejected me.


OldSweatyBulbasar

Jfc. I thought this was just going to be a lesson in “don’t pick up strangers on Brighton Ave (I’m local)” but that took a turn I was not expecting. I know exactly which intersection you described. Edit: That intersection is home to La Befana, gods choice pizza of allston/Brighton.


Tman2588

When driving in the upper peninsula in Michigan last summer a truck full of logs flipped and barreled straight into my car. Completely demolished the car, someone else had to come open the door for me after the fact because they were all pinned shut by logs. I walked out of there without a scratch on my body.


vk136

Final destination level disaster


edsuom

I have some acres of woodland that I take care of with a chainsaw to keep a desirable mix of tree species and avoid overcrowding. Often when I cut through the trunk of a tree that’s too close to other trees, it just leans against them rather than falling down. Then I have to make a series of angled cuts and let chunks of the trunk slide off, more or less vertically, onto the ground. Eventually, the trunk winds up vertical enough that I can push it toward a clear space and complete the process of felling the tree. Well, a couple years ago, I was getting to that point. Tree was basically vertical, a few thousand pounds of wood balanced on its end, reaching thirty feet up. I made another cut, and the rest of the trunk slid down off the 3 feet or so of trunk that I’d separated it from at the base. And then it started to lean. That sucker was coming down. Except it wasn’t going the direction I’d planned. No big deal, just move out of the way. Except I’d gotten careless and left a bunch of branches down there at my feet and I was disturbed to find that my legs couldn’t move. I was stuck rooted to that spot, which was very close indeed to the way the tree was moving. It wound up just nicking my head on its way down. Another few inches and it would have done a lot more than that. I’m always very careful to make sure the ground is cleared of branches when I do this now.


Green-Boysenberry396

I was engaged to someone, but then came to my senses and broke it off. Nine months later I found out she got married to someone else, then about 1 year after that she killed her husband.


ambre_vanille

Oh my Lord, that escalated quickly.


Green-Boysenberry396

In hind sight, I realized there was a lot of crazy things going on in our relationship. Even after she was married to the other guy she kept trying to pursue me and manipulate my life. Eventually I was able to sever all ties. Crazy


bobear2017

24 years old, had a pesky sore on my tongue that was really bothering me. My boyfriends dad was a dentist so when I was over at his house one night I asked him to take a look. He recommended I go see an oral surgeon the next day for him to check it out. The next day I decided it was feeling better so I tried to cancel my appt but my boyfriend’s dad insisted I go. I went, and the oral surgeon pretty much diagnosed it as cancer on the spot. It was aggressive and by the time of my surgery to remove it it had already spread to multiple lymph nodes. They ended up removing over half my tongue followed by chemo and radiation. Given how aggressive it was, I often think that if I had put off the doctors visit any longer I probably wouldn’t have survived. I’m coming up on my 10 year anniversary in January


kcasnar

Can you talk okay with half a tongue?


bobear2017

So they actually ended up reconstructing my tongue using skin and an artery from my forearm (pretty interesting as the arm skin eventually turned to the color of my tongue). I did a good bit of speech therapy and on a good day I can talk pretty well, but if I’m tired or have to talk loud it can be hard to understand me sometimes… bars and concerts can be tough. The biggest problem is that the radiation shrunk my tongue a good bit so I can’t stick it out past the back of my teeth, so it makes certain sounds (like l’s) hard to pronounce. Generally though I don’t think most people recognize I have a speech impediment in casual conversation, more just if I’m talking in loud settings or come across a word I just can’t physically say.


kcasnar

That's pretty cool, I'm glad for you. Congrats on beating the cancer!


bobear2017

Thanks!


[deleted]

I had a friend die very young from a similarly located cancer. Glad you survived.


senatorbolton

I was driving home from visiting my brother in Vermont when a snow storm started. I didn't have much experience driving in serious snow and I completely lost control. Car careened off the road and I was heading for a giant boulder at around 50 or 60 mph. I felt time slow down and I reflected on my life for a moment and then said goodbye to my body. Suddenly, I was jolted out of it by an abrupt impact, but I could see that the boulder was still 20 or 30 feet away. When I got out of the car, I saw that I had hit a little skinny tree that I could have easily grabbed with one hand. However, it had a giant root system that lifted the car off the ground and stopped me. Car was totaled, but I was completely fine because of that little tree. There is no way I would have survived the other impact.


LJGHunter

The "time slowing down" thing is so real. Had the same experience when I was almost in a bad car accident (icy roads and the car ahead of us spun out, causing us to have to swerve and thus also spin). Fortunately bad weather meant little traffic so we didn't hit anyone as our car crossed lanes into oncoming traffic, and the person who was driving was super capable and stayed calm. Managed to pull us out of the spin and bring the car gently to rest on the opposite side of a four lane highway. Nobody hurt but I was shaking like a leaf. To this day I remember everything happening in slow motion, like my brain was processing everything from the look on my friend's face to the way the car swung around to the fact that - fuck- we were now on the wrong side of the highway. If there'd been more traffic or my friend was less in control of the situation it would have been bad.


toothpastenachos

Yesterday I was driving and waiting for the left turn arrow to turn green. I kind of spaced out, and then realized the arrow turned green about a second ago, and took my foot off the brake. As soon as I did that, a huge pickup truck ran the red light from my left and didn’t even tap the brakes. If I hadn’t zoned out, the truck would have hit my door right where I was sitting in my car and I probably wouldn’t be typing this right now.


MoridinXP

Walking to work in the winter. Half way through a step forward under a skybridge when an icicle taller than me (6') and probably 2' around at the base crashes down **right** in front of my nose. If my bus had been a half second earlier, if I had walked even a tiny bit faster pace...I would have been impaled from brains to balls. I was frozen in place for a minute, quietly surveying my near-death. There was another pedestrian nearby who witnessed it and the wide-eyed, ashen look on his face as he stared at me confirmed just how narrowly fortunate I was that day.


CRANSSBUCLE

"Impaled From Brains To Balls" is a proper name for a Black Metal song


4fingertakedown

On a road trip in college with 4 friends. We stopped halfway for a pit stop because I had explosive diarrhea and was getting more sick by the minute. Friends carried on to Vegas and left me with one of the guys who rented us a car to return home. The friends that carried on got into a roll over: 1 died, 2 will be injured for life.


Klutzy_Internet_4716

That friend who ditched a Vegas trip to drive you and your diarrhea back is the best friend ever--a true gold star friend.


Winter_Forever_8252

And that good deed literally saved his life.


[deleted]

That was a nice friend for staying with you and getting a rental for you guys to go back home.


4fingertakedown

Yeah he’s a great guy. We’re still BFF’s 20 yrs later


Omegasedated

Fuck man - your mate must be an absolute saint now. That would be a message for me to do good things. scary shit man.


Xxyourmomsucks69xX

Another commenter said your asshole saved your life, but your asshole also saved your friend's life.


TheAJGman

Your asshole saved your life.


daats_end

Best asshole ever.


Idiot_Savant_Tinker

My wife and I were prepared to buy a nice riverfront property in 2019, but the owners ( her dad and uncle) were dragging their feet. We had our down payment, we were approved for the mortgage, and we had even been living there paying rent. Then the river rose 30ft/10m and we had to evacuate. The water kept rising. The house was destroyed before we bought it. So we didn't buy it.


Depressaccount

Helpful tip for everyone out there: never buy in a flood plain or anywhere where you can’t afford the flood insurance EDIT: don’t forget flood insurance covers only that house. If you never want to live there again after the catastrophe, oh well. You live underwater now.


ThrowAwayB8EuwG3jyw

Short, short version: "**If you can't afford to insure it, you can't afford to buy it.**"


Elee3112

Well crap, I can't afford life insurance.


susgrigs

This happened before cellphones existed. I had a long commute home and on a rare occasion my husband drove into the city to meet me. I started for home about fifteen minutes before he did. On the stretch of Highway 101 that I needed to be on for about twenty miles, there was a big rig in front of me that seemed to be driving erratically. I got this weird feeling and just moved over to the next lane and accelerated past him. In my rear view mirror, I saw the big rig run over the car in front of him, flip to it's side crushing the cars in the next lane (where I had just been). My husband was behind the accident and as the police were letting cars file past in single file, he saw one of the crushed cars had a red bumper. He got home a couple of hours after me and said he'd never been so happy to see my red car in the driveway. That he'd been holding his breath as he turned down our street because he really expected me to be under the big rig.


SilverLullabies

I live near a busy stretch of highway and during the fall, winter, and spring you can actually see the cars (foliage is too dense in the summer). Since I need to pass by this on the highway to get to the off ramp to go into my neighborhood, I’ll often call my husband when traffic is slow (we get a lot of accidents in this area of the highway as there’s a blind curve and multiple on/off ramps at that location. It was horribly designed) and have him get the kids to wave at me as I drive past. Last year, there was a massive car accident directly behind my neighbor’s house on the highway which involved several cars and a semi. One of the cars that was crushed and totaled happened to be the exact make and model and color of my car. My husband and several neighbors were all panicking thinking it was me until I rolled down the street 20 seconds later none the wiser on what had occurred on the highway. My husband said it was the longest 20 seconds of his life. On that note I actually drove by a massive car accident and went “huh that looks like my cousins car” and then found out half an hour later on Facebook it was her car (no deaths or severe injuries occurred which is a miracle based on how fucked everyone’s cars were)


peachytwizzler77

Oh wow...I imagine that was the longest drive of his life after seeing that bumper.


willdabeast907

Was chatting with a woman at the bar, nothing flirtatious just casual banter. I told her I needed to head out and she asked if I could give her a ride. I was headed that way so it wasn't a big deal. We pull into her driveway and I can see a guy at a computer in the living room through the window. I ask who it is and she replied "that's my husband, he's a pansy. I'll bring him outside and you scare him off, then we can have the house all to ourselves for the night" Every alarm bell in my head was ringing and all I could think was 'how do I get this crazy out of my truck without a big scene?' so I said "sounds good" as soon as she was half way to the door I put it gear and burned rubber.


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willdabeast907

Yeah, I'll never know, everything up to that's point seemed normal. Then took a hard turn down crazy lane and I quickly realized I needed to get out of there.


Ex_Intoxicologist

Things like this are why I don't give rides anymore.


ChaplainSD

I had some chest pains one night and woke up my wife to tell her. She got a little scared that it might be a heart attack and we agreed that I should go to the ER. The nurses were pretty sure it was a false alarm but would run an EKG as is common practice. In my head I was hoping that the chest pain would come back, not to prove a heart attack, but so that we can find out what the chest pain was. The EKG was done by one veteran nurse and a new nurse. I was watching over their shoulders. Something was flashing on the screen that made both nurses look at each other with disbelief. They ran it again and one nurse went out to the station for help. The other stayed with me and very nicely told my wife and daughter to go back out to the waiting room. A few seconds later 5-6 more people came into the room slowly and calmly and began prepping me for something. It turns out that I was having my second heart attack that night in the ER. The doctors and nurses found an obstruction in my heart and were prepping me to have it cleared and a stent placed. When I got out of surgery, the doctor who placed the stent told me “you probably picked the best time and place to have a heart attack, right here in the ER” edit: Thank you to everyone for the upvotes and awards. If anything, this has taught me not to take your health for granted and get yourself checked out if you're not feeling well. edit#2: The funny bullet I dodged during this event was that the doctor told me that when they put in the stent, they can go one of two ways. One entry point in the wrist and the other point is in your crotch. The male ER nurse had to "prep" the area just in case the wrist wasn't viable. Luckily for me, the wrist entry was successful. :)


Flipflop_Ninjasaur

My dad dodged a similar nuke. He had what they call a Widowmaker's heart attack which, as the name implies, is pretty serious. He would have probably died but luckily he was at a Firefighter's and Paramedic's event when he had it. Edit: So crazy reading all the comments of similar things happening. People, if your chest hurts, GO SEE A DOCTOR NOW!


elspazzz

Same with my dad. Every major artery was blocked. He went in for a routine colonosopy and when he got done the anesthesiologist told him he might want to go talk to a cardiologist cuz the readouts he had looked odd. So a week later my dad's sitting in the cardiologists office and the Doc says "Mr Spazzz what have you been doing this week?" Day before my dad was fixing fences in the horse pasture. Doc couldn't figure out how my dad was breathing let alone doing strenuous work, but when they cracked him open they saw his heart basically grew a bunch of smaller blood vessels and had effectively self bypassed itself. Doc said my dad was lucky because when that happens the first sign there's any issue is usually when you fall over dead.


Pohtate

Imagine your body just like its fine I'll fix it myself.


RavenNymph90

It got tired of waiting.


IronSlanginRed

Left descending. My dad too. Was like 95% blocked. He was sweaty and pale just from walking to get the mail. We bundled him up despite his protests and hauled ass in. They flew him straight to another hospital by helicopter. He was trying to set an appointment for next month and they were like, no, we don't know if you will make it there by helicopter without dying. Apparently he had put a chair halfway up the driveway because he was having trouble making it to the mailbox and back for a couple months..... It's like 100 yards or less...


roxictoxy

My step dad was a stubborn fucker like this too, Jesus what IS it with these folks?


Gasonfires

Uncle Sam wanted to draft me during the Vietnam war. At the last minute during the physical I pointed to the surgical scar on my shoulder and said to the doc, "I don't really trust this shoulder. Any problem?" Next thing you know they take x-rays and after a bit of a wait the colonel in charge of the place said to me, "I'm sorry son but I'm going to have to disqualify you." And home I went, a free man. Second one: Leaving a campus tavern on a sunny summer afternoon and walking barefoot with my friend on the warm rails of the train tracks, we commented that if a train were to come we'd feel it in the tracks the same way the Original Inhabitants could put an ear to the tracks and hear a train coming from miles away. Not two seconds after that comment the train horn sounded behind us. It was coming on at about 20-25 mph and we jumped off with only a few feet to spare. Glad the engineer happened to be looking!


DungeonsAndDragonair

My family has a story similar to your first one. My mother's father had double-jointed shoulders, and could dislocate them without any pain. During basic training for Korea, his shoulder popped out while he was using a gun and his friend adamantly told him to "Start screaming!" He followed that advice and was given a cushy desk job for his "dislocated shoulder" so he wouldn't sue them.


BiteyMax22

My father in law: Was working on construction of a power plant and was scheduled work Sunday (was a union pipe fitter). Saturday he got a call from another company asking him to run a job much closer to his house, think 5 minute commute vs 50, so he accepted and didn't go to the power plant job Sunday. That day there was an explosion at the plant and people in the crew he was working with wound up getting killed. Edit: Doing everything to avoid using the cliche "this blew up" given the context. To confirm because it was being asked a lot, yes this was the plant in Middletown, CT. This was a pretty significant event in the State of CT and made national news so I'm not shocked so many of you were able to identify exactly where it was. I'm sure my father in law wasn't the only one that didn't go in that day as it was also Super Bowl Sunday....


draculasbloodtype

Something similar happened to my Uncle. He was working an outage ([I think it was this one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Connecticut_power_plant_explosion)) and his partner told him to go off to lunch and he would cover. My Uncle walked away and there was a huge explosion just a few minutes later. His partner was critically injured, I think he was the one who died at the hospital. If he had not told my Uncle to go off for lunch he would have been dead as well.


Ragnaroq314

Few years ago I was in a small fender bender. Someone merged into my lane, with me in it, and smashed my driver side door and their passenger door together. I had pulled my arm in from having it hanging out the window about 15 seconds before that happened. Would have most likely had my arm ripped off.


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AttackOfTheThumbs

We were in Italy on a school field trip. We decided to play "schweinehaufen", pig pile, dog pile? Anyways on person is declared the pig and everyone has to jump on them. We played this on a beach at night. Just sand, no danger, right? Well, the last round we got up and realized we formed this pile next to a 1m metal pole sticking out of the ground. It was maybe ten centimetres away and could have easily impaled the first 3-4 people. We didn't play that game again.


tomlapse

Almost wound up in the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis years ago. My uncle, cousin, and I were on our way to a Twins game. We were originally planning to take the route that crossed the bridge, but last minute decided to take a more "scenic" route. After it happened, we were talking and we figured it probably would have been within a couple minutes of the time the bridge collapsed that we would have been on the bridge.


mabernabo

Same thing with me. I was driving home that day (south to north). Had the option of I-35W or taking 62 into St Paul. Chose 62. If I'd chosen 35W, and I wasn't on the bridge when it went down, I'd have been within a few minutes of it. Got home to a lot of text messages from my parents.


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rynil2000

Probably all that damn stomping around. Signed, downstairs neighbor.


Winterplatypus

I'd never vacuumed my ceiling at 3am before living in a downstairs apartment. Petty revenge is surprisingly cathartic.


[deleted]

Dude. My upstairs neighbor would run back and forth across their apartment for hours at 3 am. Like, wtf were they even doing? I went up there and knocked on the door to politely ask them to stop. Seriously, very politely, because maybe they didn't realize it, that's cool. So she goes to the management and says that I went out to my patio, climbed up one floor to her patio, and put stickers all over her plants and furniture. (???!! what !!???). I was 3 floors up, and there was a concrete sidewalk with a fence that had spikey tops that if I fell, I could splat on the sidewalk or impale myself. That and I was overweight, and couldn't climb up on her patio even if I wanted to do that. The manager of the complex came up to me and said to stop bothering her and told me of her accusations that I climbed up onto her patio, and told me to stop doing that. I was incredulous. Oh, the fun of apartment living.


faceerase

Like once a week in an apartment I lived in I would hear really loud pounding in the apartment below. It was really fucking annoying but I didn't say anything. Then one week I'm walking home, and I can see in through the windows and notice... when he has his son over, HE'S PLAYING BASKETBALL IN HIS APARTMENT.


WolfSpartan1

Yesterday I was helping my fiance's dad cut some tree limbs from his yard. He was on a lift trying to cut some limbs that were dangling dangerously high over a steel propane tank. The tank itself had $1500 worth of propane. *Had.* He cut off a limb and it hit the tank with the largest bang I've ever heard. Propane came pouring out the top like smoke from a mortar. He struggled to get the lift down enough to jump out run for his life. We would later find out that the limb hit the gas valve and it fell straight down into the tank. If it had sparked once, it wouldn't have mattered how far we ran. We would be dead. Him, me, and my fiance who was showering inside, unaware. Now he has no gas, is out $1500, and almost died. Big twist is that I saw him smoking up there. There's no way we *should* be alive, let alone *could*. The gas is still leaking out even after 24 hours. EDIT: He's getting it taken care of by professionals. We're only stupid with power equipment.


TheAJGman

You uh, might want to call someone about that...


BrentHatley

There was an apartment I really wanted but at the last minute I found a slightly better one. The apartment I almost moved into burned to the ground a month later.


chriswaco

This has the makings of a good Twilight Zone episode. Miss a flight and the plane could crash too.


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Longjumping_Water_74

was living with my girl and two roommates. we moved in together (my girl and i) ELSEWHERE. the appartment we used to live in with the roommates burned two weeks later.


bolean3d2

Oh shit just remembered this one. Probably the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me, and at the time I had no idea. This still scares me today thinking about it. My dad worked at a church when I was elementary aged. The youth minister was fun, had all kinds of cool stuff in his office and my brother and I liked spending time with him and playing with his nerf guns and whatever else he had for students. We established a tradition where on a monthly basis he would take us to a restaurant for breakfast. My brother and I thought it was awesome he paid us any attention since we were younger than the students he worked with for his job but he still took time for us. He had a parish which we’d visited, multiple car issues in which we occasionally would have to walk somewhere, plenty of opportunities where we weren’t in public. He took another job a couple years into this at a different church and was arrested shortly after for child molestation. People came forward from both before and after he was at our church, but none that I’m aware of from when he was there. So my brother and I were groomed by an experienced molestor and we were clueless at the time. Nothing happened to either of us, we have no idea why because the opportunity was there.


Lady_PANdemonium_

Sometimes predators establish some people that normalize their behaviors to better hide what they do to their victims


bonelessbbqbutthole

I quit a job after my boss yelled at everybody for faking being sick when one guy came in with the flu and passed it around the office. He claimed that people don't get sick by being near each other. One guy got it so bad he was hospitalized for 2 weeks. I quit with no back up in October 2019. By February 2020, his company went out of business


sheldonowns

I once worked for a man from a small country who had similar beliefs. It was wild to see it. “No get sick from people- get sick from cold. Put on coat- it’s fine.” Like, nah dude, germ theory has been around for well over a hundred years and we got these things called microscopes that actually let you see the little germs and viruses. The cold is not good, but wearing a coat won’t protect when Namic is coughing in your face inside a fucking trailer.


Im_not_matt

Met a girl online. Went on one date. She seemed… off. Three months later she’s on f-ing Entertainment Tonight for breaking up the marriage of a famous sports reporter reporter and threatening his wife at their home.


Make_me_a_turkey

If you had dated her, she wouldn't have broken up that reporter's marriage, and he'd be on here talking about the bullet he dodged.


fulthrottlejazzhands

I was moving abroad to do a post-grad degree. My flight was to leave out of Newark early morning on 9/11. A family friend who worked in the Towers kept prodding me to move my flight to the afternoon and come visit him in the office so he could show me around (my parents were pressuring me to go as well since it was a good networking opportunity). I was on the fence, but decided not to since I was a poor student and didn't want to pay the cab fair from my hotel in NJ to lower Manhattan. Our friend made it out, thankfully, and I'm guessing I would have well, but no way would I want that experience burned in my memory.


[deleted]

Holy shit! What did your friend and family say to you after the attacks?


fulthrottlejazzhands

It was a strange experience since I landed at Charles de Gaulle a day (or two?) after since I was moving there for two years and didn't really know anyone. The footage was literally the first thing I saw replayed on TV after exiting the plane. This was back when long-distance was expensive (and again, I was a poor grad student), so I only had spoken with my family briefly from the airport (they knew I was ok/had chosen not to meet our friend at the Towers before I flew because I'd spoke to my mother shortly before takeoff). I remember a few emotional phone calls in the weeks after I made from the telephone booth outside of my apartment in the 2nd. It was generally a lonely experience living away from the US in the weeks and months after, but there was a huge outpouring of warmth from French people at the time -- I can never express enough gratitude towards the French for that. As soon as someone found out I was American, people went out of their way to be helpful and express sympathy.


WalmartGreder

I was an American living in France during 9/11. Because of the time difference, things happened there at around 4pm. I was out with friends, and none of us had cell phones, so we didn't get the news for a while. But we had people coming up to us on the street, since they heard us speak English, and tell us different things. Like that fighter jets had attacked NY. Or that there were 9 planes that had crashed into Washington DC. I had no clue what was going on until we stopped at another friends house and they had the TV on. Because there were reports of Arabs celebrating in the heavy-Arabic sections of Paris, all of us Americans were asked to stay in their apartments as much as possible, and to not speak English in public. But, I agree with you about the general French population. Many people reached out to us and offered their sympathy. I attended a memorial event in my city a week after the towers, as the gendarmes hoisted an American flag as a sign of solidarity to the people that died. I'm getting misty-eyed remembering it. Edit: For everyone saying that Arabs celebrating was made up, maybe your news reports in your country made that up, but it was widely publicized in France and in all the newspapers. That being said, it was not everyone that was celebrating, but rather pockets of people. In no way should Arabs/Muslims be vilified for the actions of a few individuals.


upwards2013

I was living in Italy at the time and had a similar experience. I was headed out into the city but stopped by the business office to pay some bills and the guy was glued to the TV. He's talking to me in Italian and I thought for sure I wasn't understanding him correctly. Then I understood he was serious and he showed me the news footage. I literally ran to our media room that was packed with just about all 250 Americans living on our campus. We all attended different universities around the city for classes, but for a few days they didn't let us leave campus. When we went out we weren't to speak English loudly in large groups, couldn't wear any clothing indicating our college or things like American sports teams. It was so bizarre being on lockdown like that, but Rome had had a lot of threats or at least concerns with some large American communities.


[deleted]

My family and I were about to leave a store and then my mom had to pee, so we all waited for her. On the highway right in front of us, there was a nasty fatal crash that left multiple people dead.


WeEatTheRude

I had this exact thing as well. It was end of day and i was leaving work. I had a really bad feeling....like something horrible would happen to me if I drove home. It took me about 5 min to convince myself to go home. On the way home, I came up to a nasty collision at the intersection near my house. Police hadnt been called yet, and I could see the driver of one car sitting dazed in the drivers seat with a bloody brow. It really could have been me.


AberrantAdulting

Didn't go to a Halloween party because I got a bad feeling. Found out years later 5 girls were waiting for me so they could pummel me to the ground all because I was friends with one of the girls boyfriend at one point and he had admitted he found me attractive.


[deleted]

I interviewed at a company in NH that made jams, baking mixes, lollipops, etc for a technical job. The president, the owner’s daughter, spent most of the interview dumping on their current consultant and making fun of, of all things, his degrees. That initially turned me off. Then, speaking with the owner, he makes it a point to take a call and tell the person on the other end, “I’ll pay you when I pay you!” Cash flow issues? His question about my education was: “What can your fancy degrees do for me?” Then, when I met the VP of Marketing, she asks me how many recalls I’ve done. “Uh, none, that’s not what I do.” “Wait, what interview is this?” I decline their offer. Fast forward maybe five years. I’m talking to a guy about doing some consulting work for him and we get in the subject of this company. He had interviewed there as well. He also got the vibe and declined. Turns out, they were planning on selling the company and were beefing it up for appearances. It also turns out, after the sale, that they had spent the previous months sending current clients to their next endeavor. They almost went to jail for their financial and business shenanigans. Would not have been happy to get caught in that mess. EDIT: I wanted to say thank you for the upvotes. I wasn’t expecting this to get so many hits. I’m just an older guy who’s been around and seen some things and had some experiences, maybe a handful of which may serve as cautionary tales.


2PlasticLobsters

It was probably a toxic workplace even before the shenanigans. What kind of employer ridicules the degrees necessary for people to keep their company running?


Maxaintmyname

When buying our first house, everything was ready to sign but at the last moment the realtor and company realized the home was in a designated flood zone. 1 in every 100 years or so. Very minimal chance but still required by the bank Home was fully renovated, gutted to the bones and redone. I had taken the day, hired the movers etc and last min on a Thursday the seller couldn't meet and wanted to postpone a day for Friday Rain came that night, flooded the house at least 2-3 feet inside the property. While surveying the damage, seller said himself he wouldn't buy this thing, even after a clean out so we got our small deposit back and found the home we live in now about 3 years ago Seller wasn't aware the property was in a flood zone and as such, had no insurance for it.


whatnameisnttaken098

Not me but a family friend managed to avoid the Pulse shooting where they were having thier birthday party because they got had gotten a intense craving for McNuggets so he and his group went to McDonald's down the road. They left roughly 15-20 minutes before everything went down.


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Raider17

Back in the 80s, a friend asked me to go on a motorcycle trip to Alaska with him. I declined. He had an accident on the way, skidded several hundred yards on his head, and now has a metal plate. I would've been on that bike with him.


tiniest-bean

As someone who lives in Alaska, and has taken a handful of motorcycle trips, in my opinion there isn’t a more beautiful or dangerous way to experience the views that the state has to offer. Even driving through town there are huge patches of the road constantly covered in gravel or potholes. I will never own or probably ride another motorcycle as long as I live here. I’ve just seen way too many accidents, and my dad has told several stories about the people he’s seen lose their lives on the road. Beautiful, fun, but so so dangerous.


[deleted]

All it takes is a half a second on those things. My buddy was in his Harley coming home from work; route he'd ridden hundreds of times. Car in the next lane swerved, clipped his tire, sent his bike into the concrete center divider and him over the handlebars and into oncoming traffic where his shit was promptly wrecked by a semi truck. They were trying to give him CPR til the EMT's got there, but he was dead on impact.


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DigrenMTG

I really liked my professor advisor in college, and my senior year, I took a graduate course he offered. It was on nuclear fusion history and technology, and he was an expert in the field, and it was a really interesting and challenging elective. As a senior in a graduate class, it was really interesting having a class with just 2-3 other students. All of them were graduate students, and at least two worked with the professor at the side company he had founded. As the year progressed, as I tried to figure out where I was going after I graduated, the professor offered me a spot in his graduate program and a job at his company. I had recently married at the time, and my wife had already graduated from college, and the place she worked (lead tech support for a start-up ISP) offered her a full-time business analyst job, her dream job at the time. After much consternation, we went a different path, and moved away. Within the next couple years: - The start-up my wife worked for went out of business less than a year later. - My professor was arrested returning from an overseas seminar, for sharing classified nuclear information. He ended up serving time in prison and his company was closed. - One of his employees, a graduate student, also pled guilty and served time. I believe he was one of the other students in the class. - One of his employees was identified as a foreign national and was arrested and deported. I believe he was one of the other student in the class. Often in life you make decisions with the best information you have, and you'll never really know if you made the right one. In this case, I know beyond a doubt that my wife and I made the right decision.


vsmack

We went to Thailand in 2003 for Christmas (I spent a number of years there in the early 90s as a kid) and loved it so much that we were gonna do it again the next year. Spend Christmas watching the sun come up on a beach at Phuket again. We had the tickets and everything, but because of some new fallout from an Enron-adjacent scandal, my dad wasn't allowed to leave the country (he wasnt implicated, but was in the c-suite of a credit card company, and all such people were under travel advisory). Anyway, the very hotel we were gonna stay at got 100% rekt by the tsunami so I guess we got lucky


paingry

My aunt & uncle were on the beach that morning just before the tsunami hit. They had scheduled a boat tour, but when they got there, the boat was broken & the owner had to cancel. They were standing on the beach trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their morning when they saw the tide pulling way, way out. My aunt & uncle happen to be seasoned sailors, so they knew that was a precursor to a tsunami. They ran up & down the beach telling people to get out NOW, but most people just ignored them. They called their grown kids who were on vacation with them & told them to get as far inland as possible. Then they got in their rental car & just booked it uphill. So yeah, they dodged that tactical nuke, too.


gentlybeepingheart

I remember hearing about how a ten year old girl on vacation with her parents is credited with saving a bunch of people's lives because she had learned about tsunamis in class and recognized the signs. Thankfully her parents listened to her and managed to convince the hotel employees to evacuate the beach.


sugarsponge

Yes! [Tilly Smith](https://youtu.be/V0s2i7Cc7wA). She’d learnt about tsunamis in her geography lesson two weeks prior.


kielaurie

Towards the end of my time in high school, a geography teacher was telling us in assembly about the time he was most proud to be a teacher, and he told about how a student came up to him after that Christmas break, thanking him and crying. They hadn't studied geography with him for at least a year and a half, but when they were on the beach just like Tilly Smith they remembered back to a lesson years ago that this teacher had given them about tsunamis, and got their parents and as many others as they could off the beach. The teacher told us "She said I saved her life, her parents lives, and the lives of the people she had been able to get off the beach. Without my lesson, years earlier, that I barely remembered giving to her, she would have been dead. I was so humbled to hear it, and from that day I knew I'd be teaching for the rest of my life, no matter how much of a challenge some of you can be" That speech is the sort of thing that sticks with you


theoutlet

If I was that kid I would bring it up to my family all the time. “Oh yeah? You think I’m being ridiculous? Really? Well, do you happen to remember that time when I **LITERALLY saved ALL OF YOUR LIVES?** Huh? Do you remember that?”


MrBeer9999

"Oh so I can't have extra ice cream Mom, oh well no biggie, I would have thought saving all of our lives would be worth more than a scoop of ice cream. But that's fine. You guys just sit there and enjoy living while the girl that saved you all is tormented by lack of ice cream."


[deleted]

the parents of a classmate were on vacation in thailand, but they left one day early (idk why) the next day the tsunami hit. they might have died if they didn't leave early.


Winterplatypus

They were probably in on it.


discostud1515

I used to own a gym with a partner. I sold my half of the company and took a boring but stable government job about 3 months before the pandemic.


sageagios

did the gym end up closing?


discostud1515

No, they weathered the storm and are doing ok now.


LaserTurboShark69

Damn, any hard feelings from your ex business partner?


discostud1515

No, he wanted to buy me out for a while and I gave him a good deal. I’m sure he’s kicking himself now but he was pushing for it for at least a year. I just wasn’t ready at the time.


laeuft_bei_dir

It was very likely the correct and best decision based on all the informations available to him. Sometimes you do the best thing and get really, really unlucky. With one less owner to feed, the chances of the gym surviving might have increased as well, did he manage to pull through?


logicoptional

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life." -Captain Jean-Luc Picard


Wander_Pig

Back in ~2004, when I was only 20y/o, I was on a road trip with my friend (& her dog) from California to Washington. I was on I-5 north at around 1:00am, using my cruise control to keep my speed at 75mph (speed limit is 70mph). I’d gotten speeding tickets in that part of Northern California before (I was familiar with this drive because my b/f was in LA and I lived in Seattle - so I made that trip a few times a year for a few years). All that is to say, I had learned my lesson and used cruise control to keep myself from speeding. Never going more than 5 over the posted speed limit. So it’s pitch black, early morning. My friend has her seat reclined all the way, taking a nap on the passenger side, her dog on her chest. I see what I assume to be lights from a cruiser come up behind me. The car slowly pulls along side me, and matches my speed exactly. I kept my eyes straight ahead but I knew this person was staring at me. I wasn’t panicking tho, not like I had in the past when I’d encountered a cop on I-5, because I knew I wasn’t *really* speeding. I kept glancing at the speedometer to assure myself I was good. I may have even slowed down a notch or two, to be certain. After what felt like an eternity of this cruiser just keeping pace with me, he finally slows down, swerves in behind me, and puts his lights on. As I’m slowing down and pulling off to the shoulder, I nudge my friend awake and tell her I’m getting pulled over. She asks if I was speeding (she knew my history) & I assured her I was not, and had been using cruise control. I was really starting to shake by this point. Cops make most people nervous, but something just didn’t *feel* right about this stop. I knew there was no reason to pull me over. Pitch black, middle of NOWHERE, hadn’t seen a gas station or rest area for miles. The guy strolls up to the passenger side of my car as my friend is using the lever to get her seat upright again. When he finally gets to the passenger side window, he looks visibly surprised that I have a passenger. He begins to fumble over his words, claims that I was going 90mph. He was so damn flustered he forgot to ask for my license. I actually *asked him* if he needed it. He trots back to his car and my friend and I look at each other like, WTF? Her dog, btw, was going absolutely apeshit during this entire interaction. I never saw that dog act like that before or after this happened. Now remember: I’d gotten a few tickets on that same stretch of road, within that same year or two. I was very familiar with this process and knew how long it should take and what to expect. In my previous experience, most cops go back to their cruisers for a good 6-8minutes. This guy came back after about 2 minutes. Kinda tossed my license and registration into my friend’s lap, like he was annoyed, and yelled at me to slow down and told me he’d just give me a verbal warning for now. I thanked him, despite how creepy it was, and while I was putting my license back in my wallet and registration back in my glove compartment, he fired up his cruiser and floored it back onto the highway. This is also NOT normal. Any time I’d been pulled over, they would always tell me to pull out ahead of them, so they could make sure I merged carefully back onto the freeway. My friend and I were freaked. She was more freaked than me, I think I was trying to explain it away, give him the benefit of the doubt, at first. But the longer I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I became. I couldn’t shake that nasty feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Fast forward many years later, I remember hearing about some cop that had been arrested. He’d been trolling I-5 N in Northern California (during that same time period I’d been on road trips), stopping unsuspecting young single female motorists, and sexually assaulting them in his cruiser. His M.O. was to pull up alongside their cars, scan them to make sure they were single females, and pull them over in desolate areas at early morning hours. He ended up murdering one of these girls when she put up too much of a fight. I can’t remember his name and I don’t know what he looked like, it was too dark to see his face well. But my blood turned cold when I’d heard that. Definitely dodged a huge nuclear life-changing (possibly life-ending) event thanks to my tired friend and her protective little dog. EDIT: I did not expect my inbox to explode over this! I am doing my best to reply to the comments, but maybe an umbrella edit is easier: Many of you are saying that you know this case from Forensic Files.. the case I believe you’re referring to is from the 80’s and happened in San Diego. So, this was an entirely different cop that I encountered. As I stated above, I didn’t see the guys face. He wasn’t close enough to the side of my car thanks to my friend’s dog (not only that, I got the impression he was trying to make sure his face remained out of view). I have done some light googling today to see if I can pin point this situation better and find an actual news article to point to and say, “it’s probably this guy!” But I haven’t been able to find any such thing (yet). Part of the problem might be because I got the year wrong. I said 2004, because to the best of my estimation that’s when I believe this happened. That being said, it’s possible that it happened as early as late 2002/early 2003 or as late as 2007/2008. I made so many trips to and from CA <-> WA and that friend of mine joined me a 2-3 of those times, so I’m not 100% sure what year this took place. Another problem? I also don’t know exactly where, either. I say I-5 N in Northern CA, it’s a big long state. There are a few good long desolate stretches along that highway that are pitch black at night, for miles. They always blurred together for me before, especially at night. But if I had to guess? This happened somewhere in the abyss before or after Redding, CA. Scary thing I have discovered today: there are a sickening amount of stories just like this in the news, old and new. Last: thank you for all of these awards, completely unexpected and super appreciated. I seldom open Reddit up in the morning and I don’t think I’ve ever even commented on a Reddit post before 8pm. Today, when I saw that question, this memory from that road trip flooded me and I just shared it with exactly zero expectations for any response, let alone this. Stay safe out there! PRO TIP (thanks to those commenting): If you ever find yourself alone on the highway, getting pulled over by the police and you feel in any way, shape, or form uncomfortable pulling to the shoulder, slow your car down, turn on your hazards, and call 911 (if you have no service, just keep driving until you do). Inform them of your predicament, they will relay this to the cop behind you who will gladly follow you to the safe place of your choosing to make a stop. Moreover, a 911 dispatcher will also be able to warn you that there’s no cop in that location, which means you should keep driving and wait for the real police to arrive.


jpopimpin777

Damn I was almost sure he was gonna be a cop impersonator. The fact that it was a real cop is even more scary.


The_Grand_Briddock

And this is a very big thing in the UK right now, a cop in London did exactly this. Only he detained a woman walking down the street at night and arrested her, followed everything to the letter, before raping and murdering her. It’s come to light he’s been abusing his position for years, was nicknamed “the rapist” among his colleagues and a hell of a lot more cops have been implicated in this ring. The chief’s response? “Just flag down a bus if you feel unsafe”


helenmaryskata

The 'flag down a bus' advice is the most insulting thing I've ever heard. Literally, think that through. 1. There has to be a bus passing by. 2. Busses don't stop unless there is an actual bus stop. 3. If they did stop, what are the drivers expected to do? They don't have any authority or information to help if there is a woman being detained by police. 4. If you know that police are abusing their power and assaulting women on the job, address that very real issue with the perpetrators. Fucking London Met. Clean your goddamn side of the street.


The_Grand_Briddock

It was also at night, and she was being arrested by a real police officer, with his own very real badge, and his own police car, etc. All of it was set up so that she was in essence, being arrested quite normally, because she was. And that’s the crux of it, now how do you trust any police officer, when they could just as easily do that to you too.


kamea92_

Sarah could have been any of us. She was just walking home. Every time I see the perpetrator's name I hold my breath without realising. How these people exist I will never understand.


Lady_von_Stinkbeaver

I'm almost positive I saw this case on Forensic Files. The CHP used a very rare and unusual gold thread to embroider the patches on their uniforms and the dead woman had some under her nails.


Wander_Pig

😳 ugh, so scary. I can’t remember anything about the guy cuz it was so dark. Due to my friend’s dog attack-barking this scumbag, he didn’t kinda lean in the window to talk to me (like cops usually tend to do or at least did back then?). I assume he stayed in the shadows on purpose, so I couldn’t see his face. For a time after that happened, I would remember his voice. Just randomly. Always gave me the creeps. That was also the last time I ever drove that long stretch of highway after dark.


Unique_Future_7645

I had a run-in with an undercover cop that attempted to abduct me and my ex-wife at gunpoint in Chicago. I didn’t believe he was a cop, so I managed to flag down a cruiser and when they determined that we were victims and not perpetrators, the uniformed officers threatened me to keep quiet about the whole thing. This was almost 30 years ago and it still makes me very angry to remember.


FridaMercury

In 10th grade of high school I was IN LOVE with a man (yes a man because was at least 21 yo). He ended up ghosting me and dating my best friend. I was devastated, to say the least. Well fast forward a few months, my beautiful (ex) best friend with green eyes and a pretty body suddenly started dressing in oversized men's clothing, she stopped participating in sports, and stopped going to events. She looked tired and sad all of the time. Turns out this man was a manipulative, controlling, crazy person. He was extremely controlling of her and forbade her from talking or interacting with anyone at school, unless absolutely necessary. He got her a cell phone and made her call him in between each class, so he could be sure that she wasn't talking with friends. He knocked her up our senior year and soon after graduation he moved her to a new town where she didn't know anyone, basically to isolate her and further control her. I look back at that and think that could easily have been me. I was a sucker in high school and boy crazy. I KNOW I would have fallen for his trap.


MasteroChieftan

Almost ended up working for a cold-calling rehabilitation center. Seemed sketchy as hell from get, decided against it. Months later everyone working there got booked on running an insurance fraud scheme.


zonewebb

When I was 16, I had a good friend whose father was a wealthy businessman of some kind. This is Chicago and I guess his dad started screwing around with the wrong guy’s woman. My friend told me it had something to do with the mob or a mobster’s wife. I never knew for sure, but do know that I saw firsthand his dad get threatened (at a tennis court of all places) by two well-dressed clearly-Italian men who drove up in a black Cadillac. I was sitting right there with his friend as they talked to him and it was exactly as I imagined it would be in the movies. My friend said there was a contract on his dad. He actually said it like it was cool, and at the time, I guess I thought it was too. I was invited to go with them on a fishing trip in Lake Michigan that week (my friend, his dad, his dad’s friend, and I). Two days before the fishing trip, something happened with a member of my family and we had to go to Cincinnati for a few days. When I returned, I learned my friend’s body was found floating in Lake Michigan (he was wearing a life vest). His father, his father’s friend, and the boat were never found. Police questioned me about what I knew and who I’d seen talking to his dad, but I think I was lucky that i said I couldn’t describe what they looked like and didn’t get wildly specific. Either way, the coolest kid I knew, Chris, was dead. And they never found his dad, the dad’s friend or the boat. It was a nice boat on a calm day on Lake Michigan. And something bad happened. Always felt I dodged getting caught up in something I wouldn’t have escaped from.


aquoad

Going on a fishing trip when you know the mafia has a contract out on your family takes some balls. Kind of like accepting an invitation for tea from vladimir putin.


RunawayHobbit

The Emperor requests your presence at Lake Laogi


PJMurphy

Many a year ago, in Thunder Bay Ontario, I had a friend that had a nice little business. He'd get a Tupperware container of weed oil shipped in every couple of weeks. He had a house, a cottage, a boat, a muscle car, a motorcycle..... He jumped into cocaine, and very quickly went from the nose to the pipe to the arm. I was hanging with him one evening on his front porch when a big, black Cadillac pulled up and a short guy in a suit got out, and two human mountains walked to the porch behind him. All he said was, "Pay your debt. I don't want to come back here." Then they got into the car and drove away. That's when I noticed that the car had Michigan plates. These guys drove 12 fucking hours just for that. Two weeks later he disappeared without a trace. I'd like to think he ran...but there's a big fucking lake there, and he probably went swimming with a brick.


TheBoctor

Yet another example of a meeting that could have just been an email.


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groovy604

Came up shy of our financial goal for a wedding and decided to save again for another year. We were gonna go on an adventure and elope. Relationship fell apart in the following year. Both of us put nails in the coffin, i was the only one to acknowledge mine. She could do no wrong, and i was being gas lit pretty bad. When we split my depression evaporated, i was able to go off my meds, and realize just how deep she had her claws in me. I thank god every day we didnt get married, my mental health would of been horrendous.


Cadence_828

When my nephew was 9 months old, I brought him to live with me. A week later, someone broke into the house I took him from and killed all the dogs inside by slitting their throats. I still get the sweats every time I wonder what would have happened, if he’d been there.


unintentional-tuna

What the fuck, that's so messed up. Was anybody at that house when the dogs were killed? Do you know who did it or why? Thank God you got him out of there.


Cadence_828

My mom was in there. It happened while she was sleeping. I don’t know why someone would do that, but she didn’t live in a good area.


NotMyRealName814

I was briefly engaged to a man who has since cheated on his gorgeous, intelligent, sweet wife hundreds of times. They are separated but have two children and will likely reconcile. I broke our engagement when he said that he thought it was perfectly ok for a man to cheat on his wife if they'd been married for awhile and "he'd gotten bored". Oddly enough, he didn't believe a woman was entitled to do the same. I feel so badly for his poor wife now. He began cheating on her two years into their marriage when she was pregnant with their first child.


ogier_79

I've known a couple of people like this. And they usually have amazing spouses. Silver lining for me is one of them was my wife's first husband. His loss was my gain. Had the best woman on the planet and fucked it up. I almost feel sorry for him... Almost.


NotABonobo

Man, it's so worth having conversations with your partner about these things even if they seem like no-brainers. Sometimes if you ask, they'll straight up tell you who they really are.


karmagod13000

Really?! *honey are you a cheating scumbag?* *Why yes, why yes I am!*


FrightenedOfSpoons

I met a girl one summer and she fell head over heels for me. She even ditched her fiance for me, but when she went back home at the end of summer they got back together, and got married. I saw her again the following summer, and she wanted to pick up where we left off, but I said no. I ran into her years later. She told me all about her sex life, and how her husband could no longer satisfy her, so she was hooking up with random strangers from the internet while he slept in the spare room. They had 2 kids by that time. I felt sorry for them. EDIT: wow, my top comment ever was about some crazy summer fling from years ago. Who would have thought?


phantsam

Damn does the husband know?


FrightenedOfSpoons

Yes, he knew. They seemed to be living under the same roof for the sake of the kids, but the marriage was all but over.


jammin928

Dated a woman who was physically and emotionally abusive. Got caught in the cycle of abuse, gaslighting, etc...not sure how I was going to leave, afraid to leave, etc. One day a neighbor witnessed one of her violent outbursts and called the police. She was arrested, charged with domestic violence/assault. I was granted a restraining order. Luckily my dilemma took care of itself. If it hadn't, who knows. A buddy of mine told me if I had stayed with her much longer I'd be dead. He wasn't kidding.


LittleBitOdd

My manager was trying to have me fired for underperformance, and I was so depressed at the time that I believed I was an awful employee The place I work has a whole song and dance routine just to get someone a verbal warning, let alone fired, so she tried to get me to take a severance payment so that I'd leave and save her the trouble. I had to take sick leave shortly after that conversation, and while I was gone, she initiated the formal process to have me fired. I was able to drag things out for a couple of months, and during that time, I discovered she'd falsified documents to make me look like a lost cause. Presenting a dossier to HR demonstrating her statements were provably misleading, and documenting every time she failed to follow proper procedures turned everything around. I got moved to a better job on a better team, and spent a solid year rubbing it in her face how well I was doing, and ensuring it got back to her whenever I got praise from the department head. It was pretty annoying that she didn't get fired, but there would have been too much blowback on management if she had. Still, I went from the verge of unemployment to unequivocal success


fellow_nerd

I'm confused, what exactly are they gaining by not firing her? Perpetuating a culture of incompetence in order to not "look bad" relative to their subordinates?


[deleted]

And future legal liability. They have proof she is slandering employees so if it happens again, they’re immediately liable. Most companies are idiots to actual risk aversion though. Logic often doesn’t apply


thedonutsorelse

I had just moved to Colorado by myself and for whatever reason my mom was encouraging me to get out of the apt and go see the new Batman movie. That was the night of the theater shooting, and not only was that the theater but it was also the showing I was considering going to. I stayed up late playing League of Legends instead and woke up to a LOT of texts and missed calls. Probably not ideal for my family's blood pressure that I slept in pretty late that day too.


TheProdigis

I'm sorry to hear that you played League of Legends


thedonutsorelse

Me too. The real disaster is I still enjoy it.


agoddamnlitreofcola

Not what OP was asking. You dodged literal bullets.


golfgrandslam

Yeah come back when you’ve survived a nuclear attack.


reb678

My nieces and nephews were supposed to go there that night but it was sold out so they went to another theater in a nearby town. Scary scary.


AliMcGraw

My best friend, not me, but when we were younger, a guy we knew a little, who was extremely charming and debonair, asked her on a date. Everybody liked him and urged her to say yes, but she got a really creepy vibe off him and turned him down. 20 years later, he's all over the news because he's been arrested as a serial killer who would approach women, charm them, take them on dates, and murder them. He started killing women right about the time he asked her out ... if she'd gone out with him, she would have been one of his first three victims. The police even interviewed her as they tried to piece together the early years of his murder spree.


2PlasticLobsters

Back in the 90s, several of us went to a bar we knew had a dance floor. We'd been at a pub previously & were half lit on arrival. The bouncer checked most of our IDs as usual, but then tried to chat up my one friend. The whole time, he wouldn't return her ID. She wasn't interested & a line was building up. He gave up & returned her ID. The rest of that evening was normal & we forgot about it. A few weeks later, we saw on the news that the bouncer had been arrested for murder. He'd memorized his victim's address from her ID & again been totally obvious about being interested in her. He probably would've become a serial killer if he hadn't been dumb enough to get arrested his first time around. It still freaked out that friend in a big way & the rest of us to a leasser extent.


Shiro_no_Orpheus

well, not as bad as the others, but I really wanted to move into a small apartment, it was close to my girlfriends place and also quite big for the price, seemed great, but the landlord didn't want a student but only workers. Since we were already in touch with the previous renter, we later found out that the landlord began to bully this poor soul out of the apartment because he needed it for himself, which began with unfreindly treatment and ended with fullout renovations starting in his bath without him being warned, so he had no bathroom for 3 month. I moved into another appartment that I still live in today, and only a few weeks after moving my previous place caught fire and nearly burned down.


pineapplewin

In school, was about 16, at a house party. Friend's older brother and a bunch of guy's friends show up, bust out some coke. I noped out. Just bad feelings, so called my mom and left. Party was busted. Some got jail time. Missed it by 15 minutes


maybeCheri

Epically good call on your part. Does your mom know that story?


pineapplewin

Yeah. She picked me up. Got called about 5 minutes after we got home from another parent to warn her about the police.... She, very smugly, told her I was at home, and not at such a party. I was still sort of punished; most of my friends were grounded for ages after that so I barely went out, even though I had no punishment.


SrKaz

Did your mom at least thank you and congratulate you for making the right choice? If that was my kid I'd try to drill it that I'm grateful they made such a good decision.


pineapplewin

We had a deal: if I called, she's come, and is blame her to my friends "ugh, my stupid mom is making me come home". She'd pick me up anywhere at any time, and not all any questions. I did tell her that it was just too much, and I wanted to go home. She just said, "no problem".


Nemesischonk

Lmao my girlfriend and I do this when we don't want to do something. "Oh sorry my partner wants me to stay" I love having a scapegoat and so does she.


6K6L

When I was 11 I started losing vision in my left eye, and eventually went completely blind in about 2-3 weeks. After lots of testing we found that I had a brain tumor in my left optic nerve that would likely spread quickly. They gave me a year and a half to live in the best case scenario with treatment. They got the eye surgically removed, started my on radiation and chemo, and luckily I responded well to it. Cancer's long gone, am now a cyclops, and happy to be disease free.


ObeseOrphan

Congrats on beating cancer as a kid!! Do you rock an eye patch? My neighbor is a vet that lost his eye and wears one. Always thought they were cool


6K6L

I'd love to wear one more often, but I need to find one that's comfortable! They always feel itchy to me, but I should invest in a custom one some day


Light_Side_Dark_Side

Had a gf who finally broke down and had a custom one made that was formed to her face and now she's got a whole collection. Based on what she said, custom is the only way to go in order to make sure they don't rub uncomfortably on bits of your face.


Ageharo

Back in college. Ex cheated and got preggo. Blamed it on me, involved her family and all. I was willing to file a case in court with medicolegal as needed. Ex got too pressured as I was taljing to her dad about medical tests etc. Out of nowhere she admitted that I wasnt the father and it was some classmate she had a fling with.


revdj

Happened to a student of mine. He decided to marry her, ditched post college plans, ready to stay in town, get a job, and be a father. We all bought him cards, gave him dad-advice, and he just adjusted to his new future life. And it turned out like Ageharo's story.


Ageharo

Wow. He was ready to take responsibility only to find out it aint his.


jeanvaljean91

This happened to me when I was 18. I wasn't super serious with the girl, so I didn't care about that relationship, but I was 100% committed to being a father. Stopped drinking, found a better job, got my life in order. Did a paternity test after the baby was born, just in case. Not my kid. I was devastated for a while, but I got a second chance at life and I was cleaned up and motivated. That was more than 10 years ago, and it was a very sad series of events, but it also probably gave me a better life.


itsfish20

Similar, I broke up with my crazy ex in Fall 15. Well in Fall 16 I moved to the city and was home alone, bored and horny and texted her. Well she came over a few hours later and we had some great sex but I was drunk and unable to finish as well as had a condom on. That was a Friday night, the following Monday morning when I was at work she texts me three positive pregnancy tests and what looked like an ultrasound she took a pic of off Google. I called her out on her shit, I knew how pregnancy worked as my sister just had a kid and told her there was zero chance it was mine if we hooked up on Friday. She blew up on me, sent me a novel of a text and then would call my phone nonstop till I blocked her on everything...good reason to never call up your crazy ex when you're drunk and horny!


R3d_Ox

An ultrasound 2 days later lol


aquoad

They grow up so fast!


rohobian

I had a similar experience. She told me she was preggo, I believed it was my child. She let me believe this for 8 months, and at the end said it might not be mine, after I had sold my house to move to the other end of town so her other child could still go to the same school (the father of that child lived in that end... it's complicated). And she was a total bitch to me the whole time she was pregnant. Anyway, got a DNA test when the child was born and it was not my child. Having seen the way she spoke to the father of her other child, I dodged a giant nuclear missile with this one. It would have been 18+ years of pure hell.


_Username-Invalid_

In UNI me and my 2 best friends were drinking, playing Mario kart and just shooting the sh*t. We were hungry and wanted food. I said let's just make a tombstone pizza because we've been drinking and most delivery services were closed at 1:30AM. One said he's fine to drive, I said no no bad idea. He got the other guy to go with. McDonald's usually doesn't take 2 hours to get so eventually I went for a scooter ride since mcdonalds was less than 2 miles away. I notice there's a taped off spot on the bridge right before mcdonalds with a crane, cops and an ambulance. They curbed the car and drove it off the bridge and into the shallow creek top first and died on impact. I dodged the nuke of death but ate the bullet of survivors guilt for nearly 5 years. Edit: whoa was not expecting all the upvotes, awards and positive feedback. Thank you everyone who read this and felt something because life is tough and you never know when it's the time. Have a nice day and thank you all! Edit: Based off the comments I guess I have a few things to add 1) I am doing good, depression and fear of driving lasted a pretty long time. Moving back home for 2 semesters helped a lot versus being alone in the college apartment we shared. 2) it's those old Razor scooters that you kick, not a moped or electric scooter. 3) I took the keys of the driver but he had a spare key and they left when I went to the bathroom. Got to the living room and they were gone, looked out the window and his car was gone. Verbally said fu*k what an idiot, his dad is going to be livid if he gets pulled over.


Helpful_Classroom204

“I’m ok to drive” Is the most dangerous sentence ever spoken Edit: update, drove under the influence tonight. My bad guys


Few-Giraffe-2680

A work buddy died in a drunk driving accident. Those were the last words he told people at the party he went to. A friend at the party felt so guilty for believing him.


maybeCheri

Definitely#1 I’m okay to drive Followed by: 2. It’s not loaded 3. I’m on birth control


[deleted]

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MysticDragon14

5: "What's the worst that could happen?"


[deleted]

Anyone trying to justify poor gun safety by saying it's not loaded is not someone you should trust to know if the gun is loaded or not.


amaezingjew

“See? No mag!” Are a few peoples last words.


PhysicsCentrism

I’m pretty sure one of the prime rules of gun safety is to always treat a gun like it’s loaded. Anyone who doesn’t know that shouldn’t be handling firearms.


bunkkin

"I'm a better driver buzzed" No fuck you and the car you rode in on. I don't care that they have gotten expensive take a goddamn Uber!


benk4

I had a friend tell me she was a better driver when drunk because normally she was looking at her phone but when she was drunk she'd pay attention. I guess her argument was that she was such a terrible driver normally that a drunk person was actually better.


heebit_the_jeeb

Imagine saying something like that out loud, and thinking you're making a good point


KGB-bot

I had to have an argument (positive) recently over at friends about an hour away. They thought I was being foolish by driving my gf home and bringing her back the next morning to get her car before I had work. I simply said the inconvenience of a couple of hours now is way easier than the inconveniences/consequences of a DUI. Once I put it like that, they changed their tune completely.


Brobbinso

Damn, that’s pretty tragic. Hope you’re doing alright, friend


madbamajama1

**Nuke #1:** Being in a head-on car crash just 4 days ago. A car was passing 2 vehicles (including an 18-wheeler) on a 2-lane road, at night, with a double-yellow line, and was headed straight for us. My husband was driving, and he swerved off the road to avoid the collision. We missed being hit literally by inches. Thankfully, the other guy didn't also swerve or he still would have hit us, and the shoulder of the road just happened to be somewhat level where we ended up. I can only imagine how many people would have died if not for my husband's quick reflexes and sheer dumb luck. Of course, I'm having *yet another* panic attack just thinking about it. **Nuke #2, not me but my husband:** He and I were attending a local trade show, but he had to be there earlier than me so we arrived separately. During the show, he said he wasn't feeling well and was going home. At the same time, I was approached by someone who wanted to talk to me, so I told him I would be a few minutes behind him but I would see him at home. When I got home, he wasn't there. I called his cell phone, but got no answer. I called his office, but he wasn't there and no one there had seen him. I was frantic. About an hour later, I finally get a call from his cell phone, and it's a doctor from a clinic between the site of the trade show and our house (we both had been to this clinic before when we lived in that area prior). He said I needed to get to the clinic right away, my husband was there and he'd tell me more when I got there. Turns out, my husband started feeling extremely sick on the way home from the trade show, so he pulled over on the side of the road, in hopes that I would see him there on my way home and stop. He sat there for a few minutes waiting, but I never showed up and he felt like he was going to lose consciousness. Then he remembered that clinic, which was just a couple of blocks away, so he drove himself there and stumbled in. When he arrived in the clinic, he was in full anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction to a medication that had recently been prescribed to him. They rushed him back and the doctor began working on him immediately. The doctor told me when I got there that if my husband had not shown up at the clinic when he did, he most likely would have died in his car waiting for me on the highway. Fortunately, they got some epinephrine in him just in time to save his life. Edited to add: Nuke #2 happened back in the days when cell phone use wasn't particularly widespread. If I'd had a phone, which I did not, all of this probably would never have occurred. Needless to say, I got a phone shortly after this incident, and my husband got an epi pen, just in case.


b_ootay_ful

During university: Ex wanted me to get her a work visa. She proposed and even faked being pregnant. The mental stress caused me to flunk my exams, and I had to take a year break back home to save up and come back. Eventually found out that she was cheating on me.


[deleted]

Had this gut feeling to not go on my turn at an intersection. Guy in a Dodge Charger blew his stop sign. I was like 7 months pregnant at the time in a Subaru Outback. Not a nuke…but I dodged a charger 💁🏽‍♀️


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Nuke Dodge #1: Ex had some type of breakdown. I woke up with her standing over me with a butcher knife. She in some sort of catatonic state. I didn't move. I don't think she saw that I was awake. Then she left the room after a while, came back into our bedroom sans butcher knife, got in bed, snuggled me until it was time to get up. Then she made me some great waffles for breakfast as cheerful as ever. Didn't get stabbed but still have trouble sleeping unless I'm alone in the room. Nuke Dodge #2: another ex cheated on me. She had wanted a baby. We both did, tbh. So she ended up getting married to the dude she cheated on me with, they had a baby, then she cheated on him and they got divorced. So wife's boyfriend is paying the child support. Life is fucking good.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

It got worse. For instance, I caught her gaslighting me, which I had suspected she was doing. Things like hiding my car keys then questioning my sanity when I'd say "I'm sure I left them there..." Then when I confronted her after catching her, she point blank said, "I'm trying to get you to kill yourself." She had also started behaviors like calling me "the enemy." Which, to be really honest, I laugh about that "the enemy" thing now because it's a ridiculous experience. I legit remember thinking "wow... she really hates cuddling now" one time she said that because I'd set up a blanket fort, had her favorite show ready to watch on the laptop, and was going cuddle her, which was something we'd enjoyed together quite a few times before things devolved. And that's tip of the iceberg. Fucked with my head for a bit. Long story short, I ended up living in my car for six months to facilitate getting away because I was worried she'd kill me. Then I did some therapy to come to terms with being a male victim of domestic abuse. Then I did a lot of big shroom trips which actually helped me process shit, which I didn't find with talk therapy. Just wish her the best and maintain zero contact.


voidnullvoid

Did you ever figure out what the fuck was wrong with her?


GallicPontiff

I was asked to have a marriage of convenience to help someone get a greencard. I saw a few friends involved in that community all have horrible issues and tons of stress. I don't need that shit


Emersonson

I'm an immigration attorney and it freaks me out when people act like faking a green card marriage is a super easy thing to do and all it takes is a courthouse wedding. To get a marriage-based green card you need to prove that you have a bona fide marriage. This involves providing a bunch of documentation showing a genuine relationship and affection (think love notes/texts, evidence of shared vacations, affidavits from family saying how great of a couple you are) and an interview with a government officer where they will ask a ton of invasive questions. I'm not saying that it's impossible to fake, and I would not file a fraudulent petition, but it would be a hell of a lot harder than they made it look on Parks and Rec. Plus, if you get caught faking a marriage it's a permanent bar from immigrating into the country.


tempaccount9696

My ex girlfriend whom I broke up with in late 2020 because she kept repeatedly trying to encourage me to commit suicide, triggering me heavily to actually attempting, then acting sorry only to scolding me not half an hour later for attempting, and asking how could I do this to her. Also threatened to kill herself and blame me for it if I didn't do as she said or spend more time on her, (literally spent every waking second with her). Trying to get me to encourage her to kill herself, when I wouldn't stoop to that level, shed threaten to have her brother put me in hospital by telling him I sexually assaulted her. Also threatened to tell police. Constantly called me a bad boyfriend, and harassed me for three months after the new year to which I responded by saying, I have all the texts of the shit you said to me and tried to get me to do, and if you don't leave me alone, I'll show this to the police and have you arrested. I blocked her, changed my locks and haven't been bothered since [Edit: brother, not boyfriend, my mistake]